Duke of Marmalade
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Once upon a time there lived a DoM with his family. Their estates were not very fertile and they lived a modest lifestyle, permanently in debt, in fact he owed his whole annual income.
Then his youngest son the Earl of Marmalade started to do very well. The Earl was contributing handsomely to the family finances. The Duke and his family started to live very nicely thank you and what's more he only owed 25% of his income, having paid back substantial debt. He knew that the young Earl incurred a lot of debts in his ventures and he also knew in his heart of hearts that the Earl rather used the proud Marmalade reputation to get his loans.
Then one day the Earl came home and said "Dad, my lenders are getting a bit fussy, there's no problem with the business but they want you to go guarantor for any loans". "No problem son", the Duke replied, but he was getting a bit worried and asked to look at the Earl's books. To his horror he discovered that the Earl's whole business was a complete sham. He thought for a second about walking away from it, after all the Earl's debts were not his.
The problem was that the Duke was now living way beyond his means, he needed himself to borrow to live in the manner he had become accustomed to. He had no choice, he had to honour the Earl's debts, after all it just left him back where he started with debts amounting to nearly his annual income. But he had a more serious problem, how on earth was he going to cut back on his lifestyle and those pesky lenders were insisting that he do so.
The moral of the parable is that the illusion that was Anglo was enjoyed by us all at the time. I estimate that the illusion generated about 50bn tax revenues. It is now pay back time.
Then his youngest son the Earl of Marmalade started to do very well. The Earl was contributing handsomely to the family finances. The Duke and his family started to live very nicely thank you and what's more he only owed 25% of his income, having paid back substantial debt. He knew that the young Earl incurred a lot of debts in his ventures and he also knew in his heart of hearts that the Earl rather used the proud Marmalade reputation to get his loans.
Then one day the Earl came home and said "Dad, my lenders are getting a bit fussy, there's no problem with the business but they want you to go guarantor for any loans". "No problem son", the Duke replied, but he was getting a bit worried and asked to look at the Earl's books. To his horror he discovered that the Earl's whole business was a complete sham. He thought for a second about walking away from it, after all the Earl's debts were not his.
The problem was that the Duke was now living way beyond his means, he needed himself to borrow to live in the manner he had become accustomed to. He had no choice, he had to honour the Earl's debts, after all it just left him back where he started with debts amounting to nearly his annual income. But he had a more serious problem, how on earth was he going to cut back on his lifestyle and those pesky lenders were insisting that he do so.
The moral of the parable is that the illusion that was Anglo was enjoyed by us all at the time. I estimate that the illusion generated about 50bn tax revenues. It is now pay back time.