Fish

My reading of reference 1 continues with a lesson about French words for white fish of the cod family, mainly, it seems, derived from Dutch words. Presumably because the Dutch were the first off this particular block. Prompted by Maigret, while riding the platform of a bus, one spring morning, snuffling some merlan out on some fishmonger's display. One of the joys of spring.

The Larousse entry for merlan explained that a merlan was a member of the family called the gadidé and given that one of the members of this family listed was a morue, which I was fairly sure was a cod, the merlan was another member of the cod family, known to cognoscenti as the family gadidae.

Larousse also supplied a small picture of a merlan, and there did not seem to be a black stripe, so probably not a haddock.

Elsewhere it explained that that a smoked églefin was a haddock, from the English, which confirmed that a merlan was not one of those. Perhaps the French read lots of Agatha Christie and think that we always breakfast off the smoked version.

Still stumped for merlan, so reduced to using the French-English section of Collins-Robert, sourced from Tunbridge Wells, a sourcing noticed at reference 2, which explained that a merlan was a whiting. A fish which I had completely forgotten about, and had anyway not thought of as a sort of cod. Nor as something which one ate in the spring. And as I like white fish with firm flesh, like cods and haddocks, not a fish that I am very keen on. Perhaps like their fish a touch soggy, the better to soak up all those sauces. From where I associate to the fresh fish of Asterix, ox-carted up to Paris from Marseilles.

In the margins I learn that colin was a big tent which includes our hake, saithe, coalfish and coley, this last being a staple of my student days, but not something we eat very often now. In those days it was very cheap, like breast of lamb, these last then being a shilling (or 5p) each. Not so these days.

Reference 1: Le Voleur de Maigret - Simenon - 1966 - Volume XXIV of the collected works.

Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=tunbridge+rock+collins.

City boys: episode 1

The book noticed at reference 1 has now turned up and the current plan is to drip feed pearls of its wisdom. The first of which is a list of bad things which banks get up to, taken from reference 2, from which it is easy enough to get hold of, via Excel. For the Robert Jenkins in question, see reference 3.

In descending order of importance, I presume in terms of the amount of money involved. Finance Watch don't seem to tell us anything about how the list was constructed and I don't pretend to understand what most of it is about, but it looks a lot less healthy than brewing better beer or building better houses.

Robert Jenkins’ partial list of banking misdeeds to date

1: Mis-selling of payment protection insurance
2: Mis-selling interest rate swaps
3: Mis-selling credit card theft insurance
4: Mis-selling of mortgage-backed securities
5: Mis-selling of municipal bond investment strategies
6: Mis-selling of structured deposit investments
7: Mis-selling of foreign exchange products
8: Fraud related to the packaging and selling of mortgage-backed securities that institutions knew to be “toxic waste”
9: Misleading statements to investors involving capital-raising rights issue
10: Misleading investors in the sale of collateralised debt obligations
11: Abusive small business lending practices
12: Predatory mortgage practices
13: Abusive or in inappropriate foreclosure practices
14: Abusive imposition of unwarranted fees and charges
15: Conducting false appraisals and charging customers for them
16: Aiding and abetting tax evasion
17: Aiding and abetting money laundering for violent drug cartels
18: Violations of rogue-regime sanctions
19: Manipulation of Libor
20: Manipulation of Euribor
21: Manipulation of SF Libor
22: Manipulation of Yen Libor
23: Manipulation of FX markets
24: Manipulation of gold fixing (London)
25: Manipulation of commodity markets via metals warehousing practices
26: Manipulation of electricity markets (California)
27: Manipulation of the swaps market benchmark index (Isdafix)
28: Collusion relating to credit default swap market dealing in violation of US anti-trust laws (“settlement” reached with authorities to resolve allegations)
29: Filing false statements with the SEC (London Whale)
30: Keeping false books and records (London Whale)
31: Reporting failures relating to Madoff
32: Withholding of critical information from Italian regulators
33: Bribing civil service employees in Japan
34: Mis-reporting related to Barclays emergency capital raising
35: Stealing confidential regulatory information by a banker
36: Collusion with Greek authorities to mislead EU policy makers on meeting Euro criteria
37: Financial engineering with the aim of moving Italian debt off-balance sheet
38: Manipulation of risk models with the aim of minimizing reported Risk Weighted Assets / capital requirements
39: Electronic FX trading related market manipulation
40: Process and control failures with respect to dealings with the ultra-wealthy/ “politically exposed persons”
41: Failure to prevent bribery of African officials
42: Peddling complex tax avoidance strategies to corporate clients
43: Improperly providing information about a Japanese company to its clients
44: Abuses relating to dark pool trading platforms
45: Failure to disclose conflict of interests to wealth management clients
46: Misleading investors with wrong / incomplete information
47: Conspiracy to commit multi-million dollar securities fraud
48: Overcharging customers for FX transactions
49: Failure to meet the terms of the 2013 Mortgage foreclosure abuses settlement
50: Repeated violation of federal laws connected with sourcing securities for client shorting
51: Manipulation of Korean stock market
52: Unfairly jumping the creditor queue to secure (confiscate?) collateral relating to Lehman
53: Publishing research and trading in the shares of a company it was advising
54: Other mortgage related abuses including: failing to accurately track payments by borrowers; charging unauthorised fees; and providing false and misleading information in response to complaints by customers
55: Use of minority owned non-consolidated subsidiaries to arbitrage capital requirements
56: Investment bank analysts altering stock research recommendations to curry favour with companies they are researching
57: Use of illegal offshore schemes to avoid paying income tax on bonuses
58: Ex Federal Reserve employee working at Goldman conspired with former Central Bank colleague to leak confidential information
59: Overcharging custody clients through the use of undisclosed or secret mark-ups on foreign exchange transactions in contradiction of its promise to clients of "best execution rates"
60: Mis-selling of loans to small business customers under the UK's Enterprise Finance scheme
61: Offers to procure prostitutes to curry favour with SWF clients
62: Manufactured 7.2 billion euros of deposits by sham transactions to inflate reported deposit base during the crisis
63: Predatory practices connected with the issuance of banking debit cards
64: Supervisory failures connected with Chicago Mercantile related exchange and clearing fee
65: Falsifying accounts (manipulating mark-to- market pricing of derivatives positions) to reduce reported unrealised losses
66: Dismissal of whistle-blower who complained about the above
67: Creation of fake client accounts and making unauthorised transfers to achieve bonus driven sales targets - involving some 2 million clients and no less than 5000 employee offenders over some 5 years
68: Misleading investors via misclassification of private client asset accounts with a view to inflate reported Net New Assets for the bank
69: Executives awarding themselves generous pay packages at a time when their institution was requesting state aid
70: Knowingly avoiding a written record of defects in MBS pools by reducing applicable quality controls
71: Breach of duty to be fair and open with the regulator (hiding information relating to US investigations and penalties with respect to sanctions violations)
72: Conceiling from (lying to) thousands of customers the existence of dormant accounts (RBS / Sunday Times Almee Donnellan)
73: Divulging and Sharing confidential client information with friends and acquaintances on social media
74: Seeking government reimbursement from the Federally-backed US Small Business Administration on bad loans that it knew were based on fraudulent or potentially fraudulent information. In other words – seeking to defraud the government for reimbursement of defrauding clients
75: Collusion - sharing loan pricing info with a competitor in violation of Competition Act
76: “Re-ordering transactions” so as to maximize overdraft fees
77: Defrauding institutional investment clients by charging hidden mark-ups plus failure to disclose material information about the operation of the bank’s electronic platform for US Treasury trading
78: Supressing and eliminating competition by fixing prices for eastern European, Middle Eastern, and African currency currencies
79: Placing bogus futures orders to move mislead the markets and clients and move markets – criminal market abuse called “spoofing.”
80: Manipulation of precious metals markets (gold/silver/platinum/palladium - Switzerland)
81: Manipulation / collusion of the US Treasury Market auction/client sales
82: Manipulation of energy markets
83: Short changing clients a second time in not paying settlements in full
84: Violations connected with emergency fund raisings
85: Falsifying customer data and records
86: Misleading shareholders ahead of RBS rights issue
87: Misleading shareholder information with respect to Lloyds takeover of HBOs
88: Conspiracy to force small businesses into bankruptcy to the benefit of the lender
89: Insertion of illegal rate floors in Spanish mortgage lending
90: Faking customer files to justify predatory foreclosure practices
91: Misleading profit and capital statements based on questionable accounting practices
92: Bribing (“Improper payments”) officials in connection with license applications in Saudi Arabia
93: Hiring sons and daughters of senior officials in return for favours
94: Fabricating complaint letters after the fact to justify dismissal of a whistle-blower who raised alarms over possible mis-selling of mutual funds.
95: “Mis-informing” (lying) to 4500 people over existence of dormant accounts
96: Use of “mirror trades” ($10 billions worth) to circumvent Russian related sanctions
97: Overcharging customers who are past due on their credit cards
98: Market rigging of Gilt trading
99: Hiding failed Loans in the commercial real estate portfolio in 2009 and 2010 whilst issuing new stock to repay government bail-out money
100: Non transparent and excess charges for FX transfers by major UK banks to small businesses in the UK
101: Manipulating shareholdings around dividend payment dates to trigger dishonestly acquired tax reimbursements
102: Manipulation of the Australian “bank bill swap rates”
103: Manipulation of the government sponsored bond market (supranational, sub-sovereign and government agency debt or “SSA market”)
104: Use of secret / undisclosed payments of circa $500mio connected with emergency capital funding
105: Knowingly acquiring “dirty debt” (a loan used as part of a multi-million pound embezzlement scheme) and using it to demand compensation from an African government
106: Conspiracy with borrower to falsify work estimates totalling $400 million of fraudulent accounts receivable
107: Facilitating fraudulent activity by customers via use of import advance payments
108: “Spoofing” in trading of US government bonds
109: Laundering the proceeds of Petrobras related corruption
110: Mis-selling of “lobo” loans to UK Local Councils
111: Fraud and criminal mismanagement in connection with account management for the former prime minister of Georgia
112: Forcing customers to switch from variable (“tracker”) mortgages into fixed rate mortgages – in a falling / low rate environment
113: Mis-selling expensive life insurance products to little old ladies in France
114: Facilitating African money laundering on a grand scale
115: Misleading Libor submissions with the aim of boosting confidence in the bank’s perceived credit worthiness
116: Conspiring to facilitate VAT evasion through manipulative carbon trading transactions
117: Knowingly misleading a major investor in a high stakes deal
118: Misleading inexperienced officials in nascent Libyan SWF into complex and ultimately loss making derivative trades
119: Mishandling of the proceeds of securities offerings for a state investment fund
120: Offering for use, false and misleading valuation opinions on M&A transactions to curry favour with wealth management clients
121: Abusive practices in handling mortgage arrears
122: Errors and abuses connected with reverse mortagages and related foreclosures in NY State
123: Manipulation of Australian Bank Bill Swap Rate – BBSW.
124: Forging client signatures to create unwanted credit card account and then harassing the individual for non payment of charges relating to a card never applied for
125: Dismissing employees who failed to make their sales targets through fraudulent behaviour
126: Forcing distressed banking clients to hire a turn-around consultant who recommended expensive new lending facilities and from whom the banker received personal kickbacks
127: Collusion to falsify accounts of Italy’s third largest bank
128: Violations in connection with IPO underwriting and distribution (UBS/DB HK)
129: Lending money to investors who then invest in the bank’s stock in violation of the law (Iceland proven / UK under investigation)
130: Firing employee for statements made while cooperating with an official investigation/misuse of confidential info
131: Fabricating insurance policies
132: Improper charges to customers who contracted to lock in mortgage rates
133: Forging client signatures and falsifying file documents to bring client records “up to date” and/or cover up wrong-doing.
134: Facilitated Russian money laundering exceeding $700 mio involving flows via fake British companies
135: Faked meetings (lied) with customers to hit tough targets set by superiors
136: Stonewalling government officials investigating abusive practices with respect to retail bank accounts
137: Facilitating Netherlands related tax evasion and money laundering
138: Supplying personal loans, equal to 24% of the bank’s capital, to the presidential campaign manager by the head of the bank who coincidentally was an advisor to the campaign
139: Committing “Fraud on the Board”: knowingly steering its advisory client into a disadvantageous sale to profit later from business from the buyer
140: Front running client Foreign Exchange orders
141: Improperly extending customers’ mortgages – changing terms without client or court consent
142: Forcing unwanted auto insurance on bank car loan customers
143: Failure to pass on to thousands of home loan customers lower mortgage charges in violation of the rights of borrowers to “tracker rates” contractually tied to the falling ECB rate
144: Manipulation of government backed small business support programs – pushing borrowers into the scheme and then cutting back other credit facilities to the same borrower

Reference 1: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/11/city-boys.html.

Reference 2: https://www.finance-watch.org/robert-jenkins-partial-list-of-bank-misdeeds/.

Reference 3: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-announces-appointment-of-robert-jenkins-as-an-external-member-of-the-interim-financial-policy-committee. Published 5th July, 2011. 'The Chancellor today announced that, in consultation with the Governor of the Bank of England, he has appointed Robert Jenkins to the interim Financial Policy Committee (FPC) as an external member to fill the vacancy left by the departure of Sir Richard Lambert'. So one might suppose that the chap has reasonable provenance.

Chemists

The Christmas decorated shop window of Bell & Croyden, on our way back from a little something at the Cock & Lion, rather noisy with football or some such.

Not, I fear the shop it once was, hit by Amazon and their friends, just like the rest of the retail sector.

But why is Christmas so early this year?

Group search key: eqa.

Diesel?

Some kind of engineering apparatus moving through Epsom station on the Waterloo line. Was it electric or some kind of diesel? My money is on the former, despite it having a Network Rail badge, with not all of the rail of this last including a third rail.

Group search key: eqa.

Endellion at 40

Last week to hear the Endellion Quartet give the opening London concert of their 40th season, having had their first ever rehearsal in January 1979. I don't suppose we have heard them 40 times, making our average up to one a year, but it is probably up to 20 times, with half of those being in Dorking.

Mendelssohn Op.44, No.1. Britten Op.94. Beethoven Op.59, No.2.

Started off badly with a ticket machine that refused to take my card and I was reduced to using cash. Then the Victoria train which we had planned to catch, because it was a strike day on Southwestern Trains or some such, was cancelled due to there being a person on the line. So we wound up catching a Waterloo train, strike notwithstanding, running 6 minutes late. So we managed.

Picnic'd in Cavendish Square and on into a very full hall. Flowers the same as the Sunday previous but looking a little fuller. A little riper would no doubt be accurate, but the word has a rather negative tinge in this context, which would not be what was intended.

I worried about the entablature, assuming it is permitted to use the word of a door, on top of the big brown doors at the back of the stage, one of which can be seen in the snap following, behind the rehearsing singer.

Given the extent of wall above the door, one did perhaps need something, over and above the frame, but on this occasion, for the first time, I felt quite strongly that the detailer had overdone it a bit, without being sure whether it was the strongly delineated shape or the size that was the problem. But looking at the snap left, turned up by Google, I am no longer so sure, so clearly something to be looked for on a future occasion.

Once again we failed to make a proper connection to the Mendelssohn, but otherwise the quartet were on their usual good form, with the Britten going down well and the Beethoven very well. They gave us as an encore the finale of Haydn's Op.20 No.5 quartet - in token of their view that Haydn, Beethoven and Bartók were the masters of the form.

Their puff for their sponsor, Lark Music, an insurance company, was managed rather more gracefully than when we first heard it.

Tone rather lowered while we were waiting for the tube at Oxford Circus by two rather gross advertisements for fast food and by the rather gross headline on the wrapper of the day's Evening Standard. Public standards in these matters seem to be slipping - while to my mind gross is best consumed in private, perhaps in the public bar of old.

A long wait for an Epsom change, so we took refreshment at the Half Way House. Where I was confused by a number of people walking around with blind sticks and red cloaks. BH was quite confident that it was fancy dress - which may well have been the case, but I do not approve of such abuse of the blind stick signage.

Scored a three and several twos during the subsequent short wait at Earlsfield.

Onto the train, where a gaggle of young people rearranged themselves so that we could sit down together. They were English - and amused when I told them that such displays of good manners were much more common coming from foreigners.

Day closed by my finding out all about cross quarter days, a relic of Celtic times living on in the shadow of our modern quarter days. So, rather late in the day, I now know who Beltane was. See reference 5.

PS: my recollection had been that some years ago we had heard all the Mendelssohn quartets at Dorking and not got on terribly well with them, hence the 'once again' above. A recollection which is not borne out by reference 4, such as it is. Anyway, all rather a long time ago.

Reference 1: https://www.astonlark.com/. There are a number of lark flavoured musical offerings out there, but I think that this is the right one. A big insurance broker, with a number of specialist areas. They also seem to be into the business of fancy musical instruments as an investment - while I have noticed that quite a few string players play on instruments owned by some rich business man. A win-win arrangement, with the musician getting the instrument which he could not otherwise afford and with the business man being able to feel good about his investment, even if he does not get to stroke it every evening, in the way of a miser with his gold.

Reference 2: https://www.astonlark.com/larkmusic/. Bing turned up this one, but I have yet to find the way to it from reference 1.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2016/05/saint-endellion.html. The last outing of the lark.

Reference 4: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/search?q=mendelssohn. Most of what little I can find about Mendelssohn.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter_days.

Group search key: eqa.

Park and ride

Every year, for as long as I can remember, one of the Scout troops in Epsom has run a firework show on Hook Road Arena, a space better known here for its giant car boot sales, which make good use of the huge amount of car parking available. There was a time that we used to go to the fireworks and I have a dim memory that sometimes it was very cold, unlikely to be the case this year. No memory at all of the parking arrangements, but it would be a fair walk from where we live, with children, at night.

But the point of the post is this strange sign, to be found at the top of Longmead Road, on one of the main routes to the arena, straight ahead in this snap.

Why on earth are they banning car parking at the arena? A good part of the point of the place is that it is so big that there is always plenty of car parking, whatever it is that one is up to.

But careful inspection of reference 2 reveals all you need to know about park and ride - and confirmation that there is no on-site parking for the general public - just staff and disabled. You also click here to get a nice map of the site, which gives the impression that car parking has gone down under the combined attack of the funfair and health & safety.

In which connection, I might add that, about thirty years ago we organised a much more modest affair, in the aftermath of a storm which meant that there was a lot of fire wood lying about for anyone with access to a bush saw, DIY chain sawing not at that time having been invented. From this distance, my lack of proper arrangements for the on-site storage of fireworks looks careless indeed, not to say reckless. Luckily, there was no accident. But it was a most impressive fire, if not on the scale of that planned here.

Also a time when the sprogs learned how easy it is to split logs of quite substantial dimensions, provided only that they are fresh. All you need is a cold chisel and a club hammer. I believe teeth are the same: easy to split when they are still in the mouth, useful when getting awkward wisdom teeth out, hard to split once they are out and dry.

Reference 1: https://www.7thepsom.org.uk/activities/fireworks/. Closely related to the people who put on the giant annual book sale, something else which we have done in the past.

Reference 2: http://www.epsomfireworks.com/.

City boys

From time to time I inveigh against the overblown financial services industry of this country, grown fat in some large part by sucking wealth out of the rest of us. And, inter alia, hoovering up an unhealthily large proportion of our brightest and best to spend their time moving money around rather than doing stuff which is more obviously useful. Like brewing better beer or building better houses. Or running the Department for Work and Pensions (a rebadged version of what used to be called the Department of Social Security). So today, prompted by an article in the Guardian on 5th October which I have finally gotten around to reading, I have ordered up a copy of a new book by Nicholas Shaxson (reference 1).

A cosmopolitan journalist, born in Malawi and presently resident in Berlin, on something of a crusade against the iniquities of financial services industries across the world. Something of an expert on the role of tax havens in all this; a role which does not extend, it seems, to making sure that all the inhabitants of tax havens get a fair share of their ill-gotten gains. Plenty of poor people, for example, in Jersey.

Proof positive of the allegation that we all tend to read stuff which looks to reinforce our pre-existing prejudices.

Reference 1: The Finance Curse: How global finance is making us all poorer – Nicholas Shaxson - 2018.

Reference 2: Poisoned Wells: The Dirty Politics of African Oil - Nicholas Shaxson - 2007. An earlier tale about how being resource rich may not be such a good thing after all. Here Angola, but presumably the same sort of tale as might be told about Venezuela, another resource rich country which is in a bit of a mess.