Banks etc

I was on BBC Breakfast News this morning talking about what the banks might do next - i.e. are we going to see the end of (relatively) free banking so that they can make more than the paltry £40 billion they made last year that they can barely surive on, poor lambs?

Frankly I think it could go either way. On the one hand pretty much every other country in the world has chargeable banking so there will be a big temptation simply to follow suit. On the other hand - £40 billion?! - they're doing pretty well with this business model so why change? Giving stuff away for free so that you can charge for add-ons is working well with the internet too so lets stick with it. Maybe banks in other countries will look at the British model and decide to follow what we're doing. London is not the financial centre of the world (sorry New York) for nothing.

If our banks did start charging they would have to do it multilaterally. If just the big high street banks started to charge then some of the smaller banks like Nationwide, Abbey National or Co-op might decide not to follow suit in order to tempt in new customers. That could work, so long as we don't continue to be as apathetic as we have been and just stick with the old bank because it's easy.

If just a few start charging though, they could suffer in the short-term at least. First Direct saw last year what a PR nightmare it can be to start charging for current accounts, even with get-out clauses. It would be interesting to know just how many people closed their accounts with them after their announcement.

The thing is, banks are there to make money for themselves - in particular for their shareholders - they are not Government-run establishments that have our best interests at heart. If they are stopped from making money out of us in one way, they will definitely come up with cleverer ways to replace that money. Also, the Government (including Government-funded agencies like the FSA) is not ever going to rush in and stop them making money out of us in sneaky ways because they are far too important to our economy.

So basically, we're on our own. It's up to us to wise up to what each bank is doing, and play the system to our own advantage. We should complain more often and more effectively, move if we don't like what our bank does (even if that means moving once a year) and pretend we're not British and really campaign vociferously for improvements to the financial services sector.

The most expensive street in the country is in my borough - Kensington and Chelsea - I have not been surprised to learn today from a BBC item on the website. Kensington Square (a very nice, though busy, square just behind Kensington High Street) has the highest-priced property in the country, closely followed by a bunch of other froo-froo streets around the borough (see the list below).

I should be pleased but I'm not. It's all insanity. One of my neighbours who has a lot of investment property told me yesterday that she is putting on the market the flat she owns in my building. It's a rather dingy-looking one-bedroomed flat with a tiny lobby, a shower room, a small double bedroom (one double bed and about a foot of space around it) and a living room with a kitchenette in it. How much has it been valued at (according to her)? £400,000. This is just stupid. It would need at least another £20,000 spending on it to make it good, I consider, and I really hope that it stays on the market for some time until she is forced to bring the price down.

We are in line for a 'correction' in house prices. The question is when. In the meantime, if you're interested in big numbers, the ridiculous rises - almost daily round here at the moment - at least make entertaining reading.

TOP 20 MOST EXPENSIVE STREETS
	Street Name	Area	Average value
1	Kensington Square	Kensington and Chelsea	£5,534,480
2	Chelsea Square	Kensington and Chelsea	£5,098,047
3	Carlyle Square	Kensington and Chelsea	£4,727,542
4	Thornwood Gardens	Kensington and Chelsea	£4,696,139
5	Cottesmore Gardens	Kensington and Chelsea	£4,662,633
6	Gilston Road	Kensington and Chelsea	£4,582,113
7	The Vale	Kensington and Chelsea	£4,488,764
8	Carlton Gardens	City of Westminster	£4,354,313
9	Ingram Avenue	Barnet	£4,323,591
10	Eldon Road	Kensington and Chelsea	£4,254,850
11	Albert Place	Kensington and Chelsea	£4,216,660
12	Victoria Road	Kensington and Chelsea	£4,216,500
13	Mulberry Walk	Kensington and Chelsea	£3,975,900
14	Winnington Road	Barnet	£3,805,664
15	Campden Hill Square	Kensington and Chelsea	£3,796,243
16	Douro Place	Kensington and Chelsea	£3,792,433
17	Neville Street	Kensington and Chelsea	£3,758,067
18	Egerton Crescent	Kensington and Chelsea	£3,614,762
19	St Albans Grove	Kensington and Chelsea	£3,576,717
20	Chester Terrace	Camden	£3,481,783
Source: mouseprice.com

Who wants to be a millionaire?

If you want a millionaire lifestyle - such as could be had in 1907 with £1million - you would now have to have £85.6million apparently. This is according to some calculations from the people at Clerical Medical to show the effect of inflation over the last century. It looks fantastic but thinking about it, it does make sense, particularly when you look at the difference between house prices now and a hundred years ago.

Certainly, round here in Notting Hill where I live if you say you're a millionaire people just go 'hmph - loser'. It will barely buy you a hut in the middle of the road.

Still, the old 'million' mark is something to aspire too for anyone, even the deeply stupid as this item from an US website shows:

NEW YORK - Idaho resident Kathy Evans brought humiliation to her friends and family Tuesday when she set a new standard for stupidity with her appearance on the popular TV show, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire." It seems that Evans, a 32-year-old wife and mother of two, got stuck on the first question, and proceeded to make what fans of the show are dubbing "the absolute worst use of lifelines ever."

After being introduced to the show's host Meredith Vieira, Evans assured her that she was ready to play, whereupon she was posed with an extremely easy $100 question. The question was: "Which of the following is the largest?" A) A PeanutB) An ElephantC) The MoonD) Hey, who you calling large? Immediately Mrs. Evans was struck with an all consuming panic as she realized that this was a question to which she did not readily know the answer. "Hmm, oh boy, that's a toughie," said Evans, as Vieira did her level best to hide her disbelief and disgust.

"I mean, I'm sure I've heard of some of these things before, but I have no idea how large they would be." Evans made the decision to use the first of her three lifelines, the 50/50. Answers A and D were removed, leaving her to decide which was bigger, an elephant or the moon. However, faced with an incredibly easy question, Evans still remained unsure. "Oh! It removed the two I was leaning towards!" exclaimed Evans. "Darn. I think I better phone a friend." Using the second of her two lifelines on the first question, Mrs. Evans asked to be connected with her friend Betsy, who is an office assistant. "Hi Betsy! How are you? This is Kathy! I'm on TV!" said Evans, wasting the first seven seconds of her call. "Ok, I got an important question. Which of the following is the largest? B, an elephant, or C, the moon. 15 seconds hun." Betsy quickly replied that the answer was C, the moon.

Evans proceeded to argue with her friend for the remaining ten seconds. "Come on Betsy, are you sure?" said Evans. "How sure are you? Puh, that can't be it." To everyone's astonishment, the moronic Evans declined to take her friend's advice and pick 'The Moon.' "I just don't know if I can trust Betsy. She's not all that bright. So I think I'd like to ask the audience," said Evans. Asked to vote on the correct answer, the audience returned 98% in favor of answer C, 'The Moon.'

Having used up all her lifelines, Evans then made the dumbest choice of her life. "Wow, seems like everybody is against what I'm thinking," said the too-stupid-to-live Evans. "But you know, sometimes you just got to go with your gut. So, let's see. For which is larger, an elephant or the moon, I'm going to have to go with B, an elephant. Final answer."

Evans sat before the dumbfounded audience, the only one waiting with bated breath, and was told that she was wrong, and that the answer was in fact, C, 'The Moon.'

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