Quote cod'ead="cod'ead"Osborne is now considering giving all taxpayers a £400 bung for the [url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/george-osbornes-rbs-exit-plan-400-share-gift-for-every-taxpayer-to-woo-voters-8497525.htmldisposal of RBS[/url in the lead up to the 2015 election.
Is he so shallow as to think the majority of people would accept £400 as a sweetener? Most will have paid way over that amount in increased VAT alone.
Instead of flogging off RBS at a knock-down price to his mates in the City and seeing as we've already socialised 81% of RBS: why not take the remaining 19% into public control and run RBS as a Citizens' Bank? It could then offer basic accounts to those who struggle to open an accout with the major banks, with ineterest rates reflecting a lack of massive bonuses to spiv bankers. They could take a look back at how other banks operated, like the Quaker principles of the original Barclays or that there Trustee Savings Bank f'ristance'"
My hunch is that people WILL take a free 400 quid on offer. You just have to look at the likes of the old building socities or mutual institutions where people thought "wow, I'm gonna get what for simply being a member? Course I'll vote yes" when in the long run their interest rates are higher on their mortgages than they were in the building societies.
HOWEVER.
If people were smart and don't listen to the inevitable ads telling people how they can make even more money by selling them off quickly, and are not after a quick quid. They should take the 100+ shares not cash on offer and KEEP them. Things are very bullish on the old markets over the last few months. This way people will actually make money out of it for themselves. I just looked up the price and a couple of charts and saw that the current pirce is around £3.39 per share. This bank is recovering, which is probably why the govt want to flog it. The world markets are recovering. This bank will make money. It's share price will, eventually, go up, a lot. To give you an idea, the RBS share price in Jun 2008 was over £35 per share before it all collapsed. Over 10 times what it is now. So your 400 quid will be 4000 quid. If they pay dividends (which they haven't since 200icon_cool.gif, reinvest them as more shares and take the franking credits to reduce your tax bill. In oz, the big banks are back and above what they were before the crash.
Will this happen? Nah, people will take the shares and sell them on the first day earning believing the ads, like they did with the privatisations in the 80s and get as much as 4% and thinking they've had a blinder. Whilst all the rich tory mates and corporations are buying them off these people knowing they'll be minted later.
All this said and done, I can't see buying the last 18% or whatever, where the government should not touch it and make money for the country by keeping the shares for a very long time.
