Tweet
The Cash Plus phenomenon
published: Sunday | December 2, 2007
Ian Boyne
Not since the 1970s when Michael Manley centre-staged the issue of class tensions has the resentment, bitterness and anger at 'the Big Man' been as raw as it is today, as momentum builds against the big banks over the Cash Plus controversy.
The talk in many parts of urban Jamaica over the last few weeks, rising to a crescendo last week, has been the "persecution" that "the big banks dem" has been unleashing on Cash Plus, all in an effort to keep down poor, black people; to keep the whole pie to themselves and "keep poor people in dem place". The fever pitch anger at the big banks reached such a tremor-level that some bank employees were afraid to wear their uniforms to work. Cash Plus depositors and their myriad supporters have been fuming over alleged attempts by the banks to sabotage the institution.
The big banks have big money, but on the streets of the urban areas last week, particularly in the Corporate Area, they were bereft of defenders, suffering grinding poverty in public support.
What would normally be greeted as another indication of the well-run, efficient and exemplary Bank of Nova Scotia could not have come at a worst time. On Wednesday, it was reported that BNS had made record profits of $7.6 billion, amassing an astounding $17 billion in deposits. All of this feeds the impression that the "greedy, rapacious" banks just want to milk every ounce of blood from poor people while they fatten themselves and their executives, and plot to destroy those schemes which are finally giving ordinary people a chance at life.
If I were advising the National Commercial Bank, I would hold for now any release of figures of how well the company is doing. Meanwhile, the Financial Services Commission was still carrying out its futile, wailing-in-space operation of warning potential depositors to "research and think before they invest". They are having absolutely no impact, no traction and not a soul is listening to them.
tensions
The Cash Plus controversy is a barometer of Jamaican socio-economic and cultural dynamics. First, it shows the deep tensions, divisions and distrust which exist in the society despite the out-of-many-one-people veneer. The only reason why the race issue is not as prominent in the discussions it is very much in the forefront, is because the head of BNS is the visibly black Bill Clarke. But despite the official narrative of "one people under God" and the view that it is only socialist people who like to "try to stir up hatred among the Jamaican people", the fact is that working class and lower middle-class people have a deep cynicism about the upper classes and the ethnic minorities. Nobody can now say it is any socialist who is stirring up the people against "the big people dem".
In fact, I don't believe that when People's National Party leader Portia Simpson Miler just recently talked about a class warfare in Jamaica that many people took her on. This anger at "the big people dem" is a groundswell from below, a revolt of ordinary people - not the desperately poor, yes - but people alienated from the top of class-colour pyramid.
Notice that unlike in the past when all it would take for ordinary people to rush an institution to dash for their money would be a rumour. This time, they were saying "mi prepared fi go dung wid Cash Plus. Wi nah tek it out and give the banks". The rumours of Cash Plus' imminent demise are not gaining any traction and are not frightening depositors. (Of course, one is talking about other such schemes, 24 of them, including the well-known foreign exchange trader Olint, which last week announced a whopping US$1 million foundation.)
So people are sticking with the institution deemed to be in their favour and giving them up to 20 per cent monthly when the banks are giving ten per cent and less annually. The Jamaica Bankers Association is saying the banks are not colluding but nobody on the streets believes them and many on the upper class verandas don't believe them either. The Cash Plus controversy again highlights the issue of our low social capital. There are low levels of trust between the classes and among us as a people.
So even though Wayne Chen might call into Nationwide News Network - which incidentally was about to be gobbled up by Cash Plus - and give some impressive pieces of information as "a concerned citizen", people believe that he is just special pleading and frightened at the ever-increasing numbers of people pulling out money from National Commercial Bank.
The Cash Plus phenomenon tells us a lot of things about ourselves. The Jamaican people are a largely amoral people. Not the only ones in the world, but for those who believe that issues of morality are important factors in influencing decisions, they can try something else. One Cash Plus defender was incensed that I would ever say such a thing
She was upset that I could show such "contempt for the Jamaican people". She calmed down when I applied a certain test.
The banks have been saying that they must follow certain regulations imposed by the Government vis-à-vis money laundering considerations. They have a right to demand certain information from Cash Plus and the other unregulated sources. Now we have no evidence that these operators are involved in money laundering. But my test is this.
Do you believe the average Jamaican would pull out his funds from Cash Plus, Olint and the others if they continue to refuse to supply the banks with the reasonable information asked for? Do you believe many Jamaicans would withdraw their funds if they suspected money laundering was involved - as long as they believe their investments were protected? You answer that and tell me whether our people are motivated by moral or money issues.
The banks and the authorities can stop wasting their breath trying to raise suspicion of money laundering, "where the money is really going" etc. Jamaicans don't care one damn about what their money is being used for once they get their big returns monthly. Morality does not inform people's decisions (apart from when they are discussing homosexuality!)
My question to the defenders of these unregulated schemes is simple: Let us say the banks have an axe to grind and that they are merely defending their turf like any don. Let's say they are greedy, wicked, whatever. But the fact is that the Government regulations do oblige them to get certain information. They can ask for information about the type of investments customers are involved in and for their audited statements.
If Cash Plus and the others know they are above board and it's only these "wicked big bankers" who want to maliciously crush them, why not end the argument and call their bluff by giving all the information required? What's so hard about that? Destroy the ruse of the obstructionists and expose their motives! Show you have all your documents and let poor people continue to benefit. What do they really have to hide?
But right now Cash Plus depositors reading me are becoming very angry. They don't care one hell about the niceties of financial disclosure conventions. In fact, as Brian Wynter lamented - poor man - at an FSC- sponsored event Monday which Nationwide carried live people are investing huge sums without having one bit of information about the companies they are putting their money in. Jamaicans are natural gamblers. Any get-rich quick scheme will be appealing to us, no matter what anybody says. Appeals to reason and good sense are a grand waste of time. Once people see the dollar sign, reason, morality public good go through the door. This is a market primed for the Cash Pluses and Olints of the world.
Just as we have been suckers for political and religious Messiahs, so we are for economic messiahs and Carlos Hill has been playing the role well. If you saw his broadcast to the nation last Sunday,you would get the impression this is the 21st Century Marcus Garvey and the reincarnated Jesus Christ, here to save black people from the Kingdom of Poverty.
But if our banks had been more creative and reasonable to depositors there would not be such anger as we are seeing now. The truth is that they have taken customers for granted over the years. They have been arrogant, largely self-serving at the expense of their customers and they have been getting away with too much. It is time they are punished by the market. Look at their spreads between interest rates and loans.
Something had to happen to shake them up. The banks must realise that these are not the old days. Carlos Hill and David Smith might one day be hailed as heroes - pioneers, men who saw what these bankers are not seeing.
New players bring dynamism in a market. This is happening in capitalism in America and Europe. The big companies are losing their control of the market and are being upstaged by upstarts. It's the supremacy of the customer and the investor as Robert Reich puts it in his just-released book Supercapitalism.
The Government must be watching nervously on the sidelines for it is caught between a rock and a hard place. The Government is no stranger to the big players in the banking industry. But it can't afford to take any action that could spark street protests. Don't believe people don't feel strongly about this issue. This is a time-bomb waiting to explode if not handled properly. This requires the greatest political skill by the Golding administration. Unfortunately, victory will not go to those with the best arguments. It will go to those offering the most cash.
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reached at [email protected]
yeah man...di more people mi tawk to , di more dem a lick out gainst di one weh come bak from Canada an a gwanie gwanie like him a king a yaad...
published: Sunday | December 2, 2007
Ian Boyne
Not since the 1970s when Michael Manley centre-staged the issue of class tensions has the resentment, bitterness and anger at 'the Big Man' been as raw as it is today, as momentum builds against the big banks over the Cash Plus controversy.
The talk in many parts of urban Jamaica over the last few weeks, rising to a crescendo last week, has been the "persecution" that "the big banks dem" has been unleashing on Cash Plus, all in an effort to keep down poor, black people; to keep the whole pie to themselves and "keep poor people in dem place". The fever pitch anger at the big banks reached such a tremor-level that some bank employees were afraid to wear their uniforms to work. Cash Plus depositors and their myriad supporters have been fuming over alleged attempts by the banks to sabotage the institution.
The big banks have big money, but on the streets of the urban areas last week, particularly in the Corporate Area, they were bereft of defenders, suffering grinding poverty in public support.
What would normally be greeted as another indication of the well-run, efficient and exemplary Bank of Nova Scotia could not have come at a worst time. On Wednesday, it was reported that BNS had made record profits of $7.6 billion, amassing an astounding $17 billion in deposits. All of this feeds the impression that the "greedy, rapacious" banks just want to milk every ounce of blood from poor people while they fatten themselves and their executives, and plot to destroy those schemes which are finally giving ordinary people a chance at life.
If I were advising the National Commercial Bank, I would hold for now any release of figures of how well the company is doing. Meanwhile, the Financial Services Commission was still carrying out its futile, wailing-in-space operation of warning potential depositors to "research and think before they invest". They are having absolutely no impact, no traction and not a soul is listening to them.
tensions
The Cash Plus controversy is a barometer of Jamaican socio-economic and cultural dynamics. First, it shows the deep tensions, divisions and distrust which exist in the society despite the out-of-many-one-people veneer. The only reason why the race issue is not as prominent in the discussions it is very much in the forefront, is because the head of BNS is the visibly black Bill Clarke. But despite the official narrative of "one people under God" and the view that it is only socialist people who like to "try to stir up hatred among the Jamaican people", the fact is that working class and lower middle-class people have a deep cynicism about the upper classes and the ethnic minorities. Nobody can now say it is any socialist who is stirring up the people against "the big people dem".
In fact, I don't believe that when People's National Party leader Portia Simpson Miler just recently talked about a class warfare in Jamaica that many people took her on. This anger at "the big people dem" is a groundswell from below, a revolt of ordinary people - not the desperately poor, yes - but people alienated from the top of class-colour pyramid.
Notice that unlike in the past when all it would take for ordinary people to rush an institution to dash for their money would be a rumour. This time, they were saying "mi prepared fi go dung wid Cash Plus. Wi nah tek it out and give the banks". The rumours of Cash Plus' imminent demise are not gaining any traction and are not frightening depositors. (Of course, one is talking about other such schemes, 24 of them, including the well-known foreign exchange trader Olint, which last week announced a whopping US$1 million foundation.)
So people are sticking with the institution deemed to be in their favour and giving them up to 20 per cent monthly when the banks are giving ten per cent and less annually. The Jamaica Bankers Association is saying the banks are not colluding but nobody on the streets believes them and many on the upper class verandas don't believe them either. The Cash Plus controversy again highlights the issue of our low social capital. There are low levels of trust between the classes and among us as a people.
So even though Wayne Chen might call into Nationwide News Network - which incidentally was about to be gobbled up by Cash Plus - and give some impressive pieces of information as "a concerned citizen", people believe that he is just special pleading and frightened at the ever-increasing numbers of people pulling out money from National Commercial Bank.
The Cash Plus phenomenon tells us a lot of things about ourselves. The Jamaican people are a largely amoral people. Not the only ones in the world, but for those who believe that issues of morality are important factors in influencing decisions, they can try something else. One Cash Plus defender was incensed that I would ever say such a thing
She was upset that I could show such "contempt for the Jamaican people". She calmed down when I applied a certain test.
The banks have been saying that they must follow certain regulations imposed by the Government vis-à-vis money laundering considerations. They have a right to demand certain information from Cash Plus and the other unregulated sources. Now we have no evidence that these operators are involved in money laundering. But my test is this.
Do you believe the average Jamaican would pull out his funds from Cash Plus, Olint and the others if they continue to refuse to supply the banks with the reasonable information asked for? Do you believe many Jamaicans would withdraw their funds if they suspected money laundering was involved - as long as they believe their investments were protected? You answer that and tell me whether our people are motivated by moral or money issues.
The banks and the authorities can stop wasting their breath trying to raise suspicion of money laundering, "where the money is really going" etc. Jamaicans don't care one damn about what their money is being used for once they get their big returns monthly. Morality does not inform people's decisions (apart from when they are discussing homosexuality!)
My question to the defenders of these unregulated schemes is simple: Let us say the banks have an axe to grind and that they are merely defending their turf like any don. Let's say they are greedy, wicked, whatever. But the fact is that the Government regulations do oblige them to get certain information. They can ask for information about the type of investments customers are involved in and for their audited statements.
If Cash Plus and the others know they are above board and it's only these "wicked big bankers" who want to maliciously crush them, why not end the argument and call their bluff by giving all the information required? What's so hard about that? Destroy the ruse of the obstructionists and expose their motives! Show you have all your documents and let poor people continue to benefit. What do they really have to hide?
But right now Cash Plus depositors reading me are becoming very angry. They don't care one hell about the niceties of financial disclosure conventions. In fact, as Brian Wynter lamented - poor man - at an FSC- sponsored event Monday which Nationwide carried live people are investing huge sums without having one bit of information about the companies they are putting their money in. Jamaicans are natural gamblers. Any get-rich quick scheme will be appealing to us, no matter what anybody says. Appeals to reason and good sense are a grand waste of time. Once people see the dollar sign, reason, morality public good go through the door. This is a market primed for the Cash Pluses and Olints of the world.
Just as we have been suckers for political and religious Messiahs, so we are for economic messiahs and Carlos Hill has been playing the role well. If you saw his broadcast to the nation last Sunday,you would get the impression this is the 21st Century Marcus Garvey and the reincarnated Jesus Christ, here to save black people from the Kingdom of Poverty.
But if our banks had been more creative and reasonable to depositors there would not be such anger as we are seeing now. The truth is that they have taken customers for granted over the years. They have been arrogant, largely self-serving at the expense of their customers and they have been getting away with too much. It is time they are punished by the market. Look at their spreads between interest rates and loans.
Something had to happen to shake them up. The banks must realise that these are not the old days. Carlos Hill and David Smith might one day be hailed as heroes - pioneers, men who saw what these bankers are not seeing.
New players bring dynamism in a market. This is happening in capitalism in America and Europe. The big companies are losing their control of the market and are being upstaged by upstarts. It's the supremacy of the customer and the investor as Robert Reich puts it in his just-released book Supercapitalism.
The Government must be watching nervously on the sidelines for it is caught between a rock and a hard place. The Government is no stranger to the big players in the banking industry. But it can't afford to take any action that could spark street protests. Don't believe people don't feel strongly about this issue. This is a time-bomb waiting to explode if not handled properly. This requires the greatest political skill by the Golding administration. Unfortunately, victory will not go to those with the best arguments. It will go to those offering the most cash.
Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reached at [email protected]
yeah man...di more people mi tawk to , di more dem a lick out gainst di one weh come bak from Canada an a gwanie gwanie like him a king a yaad...
Comment