LOCAL POLITICS WINNIPEG:

WINNIPEGERS OPPOSE SECRET CORPORATE GIVE-AWAY:

The following news item from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is about a recent poll that says that 80% of Winnipegers think that the secret deal with Veolia for "consulting services" in relation to upgrades to Winnipeg's sewer system should be made public.

There are a huge amount of questions that flow from this issue. The first that comes to my mind is "why" present city employees are not capable of laying out plans for such upgrades. They may or may not be capable, but it has never been made plain why such plans could not be done on the present city payroll. Either our present city employees are capable or they are not, especially the more highly paid managers amongst them. Who knows, and if they are not we will never know why.

The second question comes from an observation. The secrecy of the contract with Veolia is merely one more outrageous example of a persistent culture of secrecy surrounding City Hall and its relations to consultants. Our present Mayor Sam Katz may be a particularly arrogant defender of this culture, but he is hardly unique. He can also hardly be suspected of benefiting personally from this deal. Katz is the dinky little Mayor of a dinky little city in the middle of nowhere, and his personal wheelings and dealings are several levels of magnitude below those of an international company such as Veolia. It would take some serious creative accounting for Sam to be bribed on this matter. The Mayor's unyielding defense of this rather unique form of civic contracting is more related to his desire to preserve secrecy in other matters than from anything related to this particular deal.

It should also be noted that the public opposition to this secrecy on the part of the other mayoral candidate for Mayor Judy Wasylycia-Leiss lacks substance. Like most political promises it lacks enforceability ie a written commitment to either carry through with exposing the deal or cancelling it altogether. This means a "no-escape" provision to her promise such that it cannot be reneged on "in light of new information" if she wins. Put it in writing before a notary public Judy !

Even more importantly it lacks generality. While the present contract may be particularly large, and may have options for yet another billion dollars attached to it such things are hardly unique to the Katz administration. Neither are they a particularly "right wing" invention, even though it may be argued that public defenders of traditional "morality" are generally more corrupt than their opponents. The leech-like behavior of "consultants" was as much a feature of the Mayoralty of that darling of the left Glenn Murray as it was of any right wing administration. The only difference is in the sums involved.

Let the reader note that Judy has not made any promise to have all city contracts open to public scrutiny ie available of the City of Winnipeg website. The only contract that she has more or less promised to open to public scrutiny is the Veolia one. Cough up with the rest Judy, including others that might be undertaken in an administration of your own. No generality in democracy from Judy.

The other salient fact about Judy's promise is that it lacks "enforceability". If her promise were connected with another promising to set up a process for both recall and generalized public referenda about major capital projects she would be much more believable. That, however, is something quite remote from the ideological commitments of our so-called "left" these days. In general our "left" has evolved into an elitist position of distrust of ordinary people whose only difference from the elitism of the "right" is that it has an academic brown shirt squad in the post modernists. But realistic social democratic politician hardly call on such things in "real time". Mostly they act by evasion, a more traditional and less rhetorical way of coming to power.

So...if Judy were to couple her promise to put this item into public view with a)a written guarantee, b)a similar guarantee to put any give-aways to her own friends into public view and c)a similar written guarantee that the public could block such actions and also remove the politicians who go back on such promises then I'd be inclined to vote for her.

Well pigs don't fly and Judy will do such thing. Therefore Molly will do what she has always done ie not vote. This is for the purpose of making it plain that there is another way of doing politics that is considerably different from the habit of many of merely "kicking the bastards out" whether they be right wing bastards or left wing ones. This is, of course, a long range point of view, but it is better than taking a short term view of the "lesser of two evils" and accomplishing nothing. That's what voting in this election will do.

Here's the item from CUPE. While it has to be admitted that the poll in question was a politically motivated poll this fact is both obvious and trivial. I would be utterly surprised that the number who think this contract should remain secret is less than 80%. In actual fact the 20% who said they preferred secrecy are probably people who recognized the poll for what it was and answered this way just to be difficult. Here's the story.

WWWWWWWWWW

Winnipeg residents reject secret sewage contract—poll
Survey shows eight in ten want Veolia contract details made public

A Probe Research survey shows that 78 per cent of Winnipeg residents believe that all the details of the 30-year contract the City of Winnipeg entered into with the private contractor Veolia Canada should be made public before the October 27 municipal election.

Meanwhile, the poll—commissioned by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)—shows overall opposition to the Veolia deal is also strong as 61 per cent of Winnipeggers oppose it, with 39 per cent in support.

“Clearly Winnipeggers have serious concerns with the mayor and council’s decision to enter into a 30-year deal with a private company to maintain and operate Winnipeg’s wastewater treatment plants,” says CUPE National President Paul Moist.

“For the past two years, concerned citizens have called for the city to be open and transparent about contracting out our wastewater plants,” says Moist. “And for two years the city has ignored these calls.”

“Winnipeg voters deserve to know the scope of this deal,” he says. “They deserve to know how much this deal will cost them and their children 30 years from now. They deserve answers to these questions before they go to the polls on October 27.”

Moist says keeping water and wastewater services in public hands is a key priority for CUPE and its members. CUPE has mounted campaigns opposed to water privatization across Canada and the world. CUPE has also worked with other community organizations in opposition to Winnipeg’s decision to seek out a private partner to operate and maintain its wastewater services since 2008.

Probe Research conducted the citywide telephone survey of 601 Winnipeg residents between September 16 and September 30. The margin of error is ±4.0, 19 times out of 20. Full results of the survey can be downloaded from the electronic version of this release at cupe.ca.

CUPE is Canada’s largest union representing more than 600,000 workers, including 26,000 in Manitoba.


For more information, contact:

Liam Martin
CUPE Communications Representative
Tel: (201) 612-0901
Heather Fraser
Senior Communications Officer, CUPE
Tel: (613) 237-1590



Read the poll by Probe Research
(271 kB)

Read the Veolia fact sheet
(34 kB)

LOCAL NEWS WINNIPEG:

COMING BACK TO HAUNT YOU:

Ah, the wonderful world of Facebook. Here in Winnipeg, as in many other cities where good taste takes a back seat to revenue generation, the administration of Mayor Sam Katz has determined that "naming rights" for various city properties should be sold to private interests. The possibilities, of course, are endless. The Steven Harper Memorial Urinal ? The Stockwell Day City Garbage Bin ? You could, of course, name sewer drains after personal enemies. A group of Winnipegers has an appropriate idea to memorialize the directing hand behind this campaign. Here's the intro to the "Committee to rename a city service to 'Sam Katz Hates Poor People'" Facebook page.

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

Committee to rename a city service to 'Sam Katz Hates Poor People':
Description:
We plan to pay the City of Winnipeg to rename an as-yet-undecided public city service using the recently announced program to sell naming rights to city services for cash.

The new name is also undecided, but will more than likely be unflattering to Mayor Katz, and could include any of the following:

* 'shill for rich property developers'

* 'tax-dodging hypocrite'

* 'all-around sleazy jerk'

Any other suggestions are welcome!

See this CBC News article for background on what looney-tunes idea Katz has now: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2010/01/01/manitoba-winnipeg-naming-rights.html (read more)
Privacy Type:
Open: All content is public.

WINNIPEG LOCAL NEWS:

PARKING, PRISONS AND PASHTUNS:

Ok, here's our quiz section. What do the above 3Ps have in common ? Full marks and a Molly No-Prize to those who guessed that they are indeed a P3, public private partnership, in the guise of the City of Winnipeg's latest decision to award its parking bylaw enforcement to the Anglo-Dutch G4S company. Who exactly are these people ? They claim to employ over 500,000 people worldwide in over 100 countries- just a tad shy of Winnipeg's total population. As the article below makes clear they have made a mess of managing prisons and other services in the UK. They have also been involved in many scandals involving labour rights. For an overview see the Wikipedia article on them as well as an article in the business section of the London Times. They are also, of course, involved in providing services to the occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan(can we say mercenaries?). So watch out for the helicopter gunships if you don't pay your ticket on time, and never, never, never plan a wedding party unless you are fully paid up (the bride wore napalm ???). According to the Wikipedia article the anarcho-punk band Crass once wrote a song about these people- though Molly was unable to verify this from the Wiki.

Anyways, here's an article on this takeover here in Winnipeg from Policy Alternatives via the Public Values website. Gotta hand it to Slick Sammy, our beloved comrade leader mayor, his belief in the free market is almost as religiously pure as that of Sneaky Stevie, our beloved comrade leader Prime Minister.

.............................

From British prisons to Winnipeg parking police:
What the 'Peg could learn from Keystone Capers of other governments who rushed out to privatize.
by Pete Hudson, CCPA Manitoba
November 20, 2008 — Last week it was reported that the Winnipeg Parking Authority has contracted with a company called G4S to hand out parking tickets to meter violators. This tiny portion of the total city budget is worth bothering with because it is illustrative of some serious flaws in the contracting ideology.

Two issues to be considered in relation to contracting out of services traditionally performed by city staff are why and with whom. In relation to the first question, many governments which rushed to contract out public services as part of a more general program of privatization are having second thoughts.

For example, the UK government has recently rescinded the compulsory contracting legislation of its predecessor. It has halted, and pledged to reverse, contracting out of cleaning, laundry and food services in hospitals because of the alarming rise in infections. Closer to home, Toronto has just taken back its garbage collection from private contractors, Port Moody its recycling and solid waste disposal, and Hamilton its water system maintenance because these jurisdictions found it more cost-effective to deliver these in-house, as well as easier to control quality.

A recent study of 100 so-called P3's (a way to contract out financing of public capital projects) found huge cost overruns, failures to meet deadlines, lengthy legal battles, contractors walking away from half finished projects, and outright fraud. Several Canadian jurisdictions, earlier embracing P3's, are now backing away from them; most recently Saskatchewan. Generally speaking the evidence is piling up that the claims of greater efficiencies and better quality are not justified.

So why would the City of Winnipeg persist in its present course of contracting out? Why deny the evidence? The reason seems to be that Mayor Katz and his inner circle, have heard the mantras of "privatization is good", "government is the problem and the market is the solution" so repeatedly deafeningly, that it simply has become a self-evident truth.

This mantra continues to be chanted by the Chamber of Commerce and surfaces in such C of C inspired documents as the Report of the Economic Opportunities Commission, which recommended yet more contracting out for the City, claiming cost savings based on nothing more than faith. In the case of parking meter surveillance, for many years the contract had been awarded to the non-profit Canadian Corps of Commissionaires. This was terminated sometime this year, apparently because of some compliance issues.

This would have been a golden opportunity to ask if it would be more cost-effective to contract in the service to City hired staff. How many workers would be needed to perform the service in-house? What would a union wage and benefits for these workers cost? How might that compare with the contract awarded to G4S costing $2.03m? I don't know the answer to these questions. The point is they were never asked. It is simply taken for granted that contracting out is the way to go.

In regard to the second issue, G4S is a UK-based multinational claiming nearly 500,000 employees worldwide. In 1994, the Home Office contracted out construction, maintenance, and daily running of several prisons to G4S. Among other difficulties, there were almost daily episodes of inmates hopping over the walls. Later there were several incidents of cash-carrying vans operated by G4S going missing. A locked facility to detain asylum seekers experienced a disastrous fire in 2002.

G4S claims that it has learned some lessons since, but the saga has continued. A series of thefts of computers in Nashville and the more astonishing theft of transit buses in Miami Dade County in 2008 has been attributed to lax security provided by G4S. There have been instances of fraud, mostly involving billing for shifts which never occurred, but also other corner cutting practices, as evidenced by complaints about poor food and diet, health care and sanitation, in addition to alleged punitive and undignified treatment of the residents in locked facilities.

Contracting out has usually resulted in much reduced remuneration for workers even when there has been no cost saving to taxpayers — and G4S appears to be yet another case in point. In 2005 representatives of G4S workers from four continents staged a massive protest at the G4S annual general meeting, accusing it of driving down wages and conditions and denying workers basic rights in the countries in which it operates.

G4S had vigorously opposed attempts at unionization of many of its workplaces, and was currently at that time embroiled in dozens of claims of violations of US labour laws. Enforced month-to-month contracts which denied workers access to benefits was said to be commonplace. Regardless of geography and regardless of the presence or absence of a union (organizing efforts have been successful in some G4S workplaces), G4S has experienced, and continues to experience, an unusually high incidence of labour-management strife.

Right from the start of the contracting out craze, critics were questioning the logic behind it. Now that the theory has been empirically tested and found wanting in so many cases, it is difficult to see how the contract between the WPA and G4S will deliver a less costly and better quality service than if delivered by WPA staff. It is, of course, possible. The point is, we will never know, because the questions that need to be asked are so rarely asked at the current Winnipeg City Hall. When they are asked, the questioners are faced with attacks upon their intelligence and their credentials.

We all still hope that if G4S is found wanting, or when the contract expires, whichever comes first, any evaluation would include the possibility of the alternative of contracting in — as should be the case with all such contracts. In the meantime, when I see the new parking police in their "customer friendly" uniforms, handing out tickets one minute and being "ambassadors" for the City the next, I will find it difficult not to think of a good portion of the UK prison population enjoying the delights of the English countryside from the other side of the wall. If you get a ticket, check it twice.

Pete Hudson is Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba and a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Manitoba research associate.

Links and sources: From Prisons to Parking: The Story of G4S by Pete Hudson. First published in Policy Alternatives, November 20 2008

LOCAL EVENTS:

"Winnipeg is not for sale"

A group of citizens operating under the banner "Winnipeg is not for sale" has come together to oppose the City's long-term plan to sell off, contract out and privatize our public facilities and programs. In order to demonstrate our opposition to Katz's privatization agenda we've organized a protest at City Hall on Wednesday March 26th at 8:30am -- the day that City Council will approve the 2008 Operating Budget. A poster for the event is attached. More information about the trend towards the privatization of City services is provided below.

To contact Winnipeg is Not for Sale, phone 947-9334, or email antiprizatizewinnipeg@gmail.com

Please forward this email far and wide, and come out on March 26th to send the message that "Winnipeg is not for sale"!

Background:

One of the clearest indications of the shift towards privatization at City Hall is the final report of the Economic Opportunity Commission(EOC). Last year Katz struck a committee tasked with finding ways to replace the revenue lost by the proposed elimination of the Municipal Business Tax. The Economic Opportunity Commission (EOC) was comprised mainly of representatives of business and the manufacturing sector and did not include any public input. In June of last year the EOC released its final report entitled "Improving Our City's Competitiveness". Among the many recommendations in the report are suggestions to replace community club and library staff with volunteers, sell public swimming pools and rec centres, increase the use of Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) for capital projects, contract out unionized City jobs and attract corporate sponsorship for public facilities.

The EOC report expects that these recommendations will be implemented over the course of the next 6 years. While the 2008 Operating Budget does not propose to cut the business tax as expected, it does make significant cuts to public sector City jobs, cuts funding to the arts by more than half, and it continues the use of Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) to finance capital projects. As the publicly stated intent to cut the business tax, Katz's "open for business" rhetoric, and the EOC report all demonstrate, this budget can be seen as the continuation of a process of public disinvestment that began when Katz was first elected in '04, and may very well continue for the remainder of his term (if it is left unchallenged).

To view the complete EOC report, visit: http://www.winnipeg.ca/interhom/eoc/eocFinalReport.pdf

For a critical guide to the EOC report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, visit: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/documents/Manitoba_Pubs/2008/2Visions_2Cities.pdf (especially Part 4) and http://www.policyalternatives.ca/documents/Manitoba_Pubs/2008/2Visions_2Cities_Public_Services_For_Public_Good.pdf

LATEST CITY MOVE ON THE KELVIN COMMUNITY CLUB:
The other day the City of Winnipeg made a surprise move that may indicate that they intend to break yet another promise and close the Kelvin Community club even before the threatened end of the season. The City gave notice that the Lacrosse club who store their equipment at Kelvin have until tomorrow, Thursday the 15th, to retrieve it. While this may be a random move on the part of the City bureaucracy it would still fit with a consistent pattern of broken promises on the part of the clique presently in power at City Hall. Mayor Sam Katz's "promises" have been detailed previously on this blog (see Jan 20th), and his trumpeting of "promises made:promises kept" on his website sound rather hollow in terms of his previous "commitment" to "no forced closures" of community clubs.





Meanwhile long standing civic activist Nick Ternette has echoed the proposal to have the community club turned over to the community in a letter to today's Winnipeg Sun. He also points out that there are nine other community centres in this city which may face closure in the future. One can bet that none of these will be affluent areas of Winnipeg. One of those in the ward of Katz's best hatchetmen, councillor Steeves, is receiving further support, a matter that has angered Elmwood residents.





Molly has previously advocated on this blog that the idea of turning the community centres into cooperatives (what Ternette calls non-profits) is the best and most sensible thing to do. The simple fact is that the community clubs as they are presently constitute are not "community" at all. They are the property of the City of Winnipeg and whatever clique controls the City essentially owns the clubs. The local residents of an area will support an institution such as a community club to the exact extent that they have real property rights in that institution. The larger the political organization controlling the institution the more diluted such rights become by the real control exercised by the controllers of the organization.





The situation of the Kelvin Community Club and other such clubs in Winnipeg is a microcosm of this dilemma. People will commit to an organization, group or institution very much and sometimes only to the extent that exercise real control over that organization, group or institution. Sometimes this commitment can be inflated by hidden elites, but over the long term "real property rights" count- at least in terms of voluntary commitment. The way that state socialism collapsed in Eastern Europe is a case in point. No matter what the rhetoric, supported by a vast propaganda machine and a secret police apparatus, the reality that this "socialism" really meant that the "socialized property" was the actual property of a bureaucratic ruling class meant that very few people actually believed the lies in their heart of hearts.





Similarly in Winnipeg. Mayor Katz and his development friendly cronies are actually very skilled game players. They either run in wards distant from Winnipeg's poor neighbourhoods that may indeed benefit financially from diversion of City funds to the better off, or, like Katz, they wish to solidify their voting support by bribery of middle neighbourhoods (while giving the lion's share to the affluent) by taking from people who hardly vote for him anyhow. Good gamesmanship !





One wonders if a move to close Kelvin down even earlier than announced would be a move to "kick the bastard while he is down so he can't get up again" ie to close the whole matter before further support can be organized for Kelvin and-especially- before a different vision of how community centres should be run in this town can gain traction. It's a distinct possibility.
Molly

MORE ON THE KELVIN COMMUNITY CENTRE:
In reference to my previous blog on this matter the councillor who "flipped out" on our dear and sacred Major Sam Katz was our local councillor for this area (Elmwood-East Kildonan). She was not actually the originator of the new name for loan-ducker Mayor Sam Katz. The term "sell out-Sammy" was yelled out by the crowd at the meeting concerned. Her rather alliterative term was " "mindless mincing minions" for the members of Katz's "cabinet" the EPC (Executive Policy Committee) who towed the proper line at the meeting. I'm sure they will get their proper reward, either in this present life as city councillors or in the future life when they do business with the City.
Thomas was, of course, called "unprofessional" by the winners of this little fracas. "Professional" is one of the great misused words in the English language. She actually "showed emotion"- the proper English term- because her constituents had been betrayed while her opponents were busy with the gloating of "got you now you son-of-a-bitch" which is, of course, VERY "professional". When the people you represent have been lied to and deprived of their rights then "emotion" is "not professional" while talking behind peoples' backs and gloating at a victory is quite "professional". "Professional" has come to mean very much the power to smile at some poor bugger while you screw them over. No emotion there, of course, because smug satisfaction doesn't count as an emotion in that ideology.
Of the members of the EPC only Mike O'Shaughnessey (Old Kildonan) voted against the proposal to close the Kelvin Community Centre. Many kudos to him, though I'm sure he will have to make it up to Sammy to stay on the EPC. For out of town readers the EPC is appointed by our local right wing Mayor, and it has powers accorded to it separate from the full City Council.
Molly has in her possession a copy of 'The Herald' written shortly before this atrocity took place. this, our local community newspaper, expressed some optimism that the decision to close this centre would be rescinded, but events have proven this wrong. The PLAN to build mega centres goes on even if we up the road DON'T want an expansion and even if the problems at Kelvin have been corrected.
The COST, by the way, awarded to some consulting firm that planned the consolidation of Winnipeg's Community Centres was $500,000. One wonders whether City employees couldn't have done this for the cost of their salaries. But maybe somebody wouldn't have received a favour then? One also wonders about the consistency of this present administration who are the first to point out the cost of "consultants" hired by former lefty Mayor Glen Murray (not that Molly defends lefty corruption either, but the old saying about "sauce for the goose" holds here). One should also note that the PLAN (like many of Stalin's five year plans) has an "estimated" cost of $43 MILLION. No "consultant" will ever be hired to compare this cost with that of keeping our present Community centres running.
Spokesmen for the 'Concerned Elmwood Neighbours' noted that the meetings of the EPC were held during working hours when many residents of Elmwood and East Kildonan could not attend, and that many of the residents of Elmwood don't own cars (a rather poor neighbourhood) necessary to take their children to the Bronx Centre. The spokesman also noted that this is part of a general plan on the part of the City to close centres in poorer neighbourhoods of the city.
The final vote on the closure will take place at a a general meeting of City Council on January 24th. Load voices are required and encouraged.
Molly Notes:
This is one of the sad situations that result when there is NO libertarian socialist alternative ready to present alternative ways of organizing society. the simple fact is that, as long as a government gives the money, you are dependent on said government. When the complexion of the government changes , as it has here in Winnipeg, you are simply shit out of luck. The usual "lefty" solution, advocated by those who have never seen a tax or a government expenditure that they couldn't love is no solution, as this situation amongst many millions demonstrates. The ONLY solution is independence for community initiatives, and no matter how much Molly may advocate the conservative option of preserving this or that community asset, she recognizes that this is not some sort of eternal and infallible guard-whatever leftists may say.
The real !!! guard would be a reform of tax law, federal, provincial and municipal, such that people could choose the expenditures that their tax dollars went to. Organizations such as the United Way already offer this option. It is not impossible. One could also say that contributions to this and that would be "deductible from income tax" as so many things are today. If your buying sports equipment for your child is a tax deduction under federal law(as it is now) then a contribution to a community centre should be as well.
Community Centres will never be free of external powers that impose their agendas for ideological reasons until they are financially independent. THAT should be a long term goal.

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME:
That famous international business consultant, Mollymew LLB of the investment firm of Mollymew, Finagle, Finagle, Funt and Kittens once advanced the following proposition in regards to one of the principals of the following story in a previous entry on this blog. It was that,
"Nobody EVER becomes wealthy by investing their money wisely. You ONLY become wealthy by investing 'other peoples'' money wisely.
There should be an addendum to the following advise, to wit,
"You become wealthy faster if you avoid paying back the other people unless absolutely pressed by the law- and even then delay it as long as possible. It's best to never pay them back at all."
At the level of a few hundreds or thousands of dollars this sort of behavior results in prison time for fraud. At the level of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars it results in election to Mayor or, if the Gods smile, eventual leadership of a provincial Conservative Party. Hundreds of millions of such behavior give you the right to run for the federal Conservative Party leadership. Ah...who was Peter Pocklington ?
But speaking of the hundreds of thousands it comes to mind in a recent lawsuit launched by the receivers for the now-defunct Crocus Fund of Manitoba. The receivers for this fund, one of the most poorly managed labour sponsored funds in the country, have recently launched a lawsuit against the Winnipeg Goldeyes for recovery of the interest on a loan they made to the ball team in 1999.
The facts of the matter are that the Goldeyes took out a loan from the Crocus Fund for $375,000 on July 19th, 1999. They contracted to make semi-annual interest payments at 8%. Unlike a normal consumer loan they was no stipulation to pay back any of the principal. Despite making no payments on the first loan the Goldeyes were granted a second loan one year later for $59,149 at prime plus 2%.The present interest on the original loan that the receivers are suing the Goldeyes for is $305,000.
The principle owner of the Goldeyes is, of course, the Winnipeg Mayor, Sam Katz. The Goldeyes have already been granted privileges from the City of Winnipeg vis-a-vis land development for their parking lot. It would be interesting to watch future developments in terms of such Winnipeg businesses as Salisbury House, Maple Leaf Distillers and the Burton Cummings Theatre, as well as other enterprises that Katz has had a hand in.
Ah well, 2/3rds of a million dollars is chickenfeed in terms of what business is granted by government fiat in Canada each year. The sad thing is that the Labour Sponsored funds such as the Crocus have a theoretical mandate to develop local and small business and especially to help out producers' coops. Very few of them devote even a pittance of their funds to such goals, even if few are so grossly "private banks" as the Crocus was.
Private Banks ! It would be nice if you or I could take out loans with a payment schedule of every six months. It would be even nicer if we never made a payment and were granted a further loan a year later. It would be the nicest of all if it took the bank SEVEN years to move even if we made no payments at all. You could easily become wealthy by investing said money.
But once more kiddies...don't try this trick at home... it only works for the stalwart defenders of morality and ethics known as conservative politicians.