museum-of-debt

Category: Exhibit

  • The Infamous Balti Bailout Receipt – Uncovered

    The Infamous Balti Bailout Receipt – Uncovered

    ***NOTE: UKGI COMPLETED THE SELL OFF OF THE TAXPAYER’S REMAING SHARES IN NATWEST IN MAY 2025 (SEE PRESS RELEASE HERE). THE RECIEPT AND THE CONTENT BELOW WILL BE UPDATED IN DUE COURSE***

    On the evening of the 8th October 2008 Alistair Darling, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, telephoned his favourite Indian restaurant, Gandhi’s in Kennington, just over the river from the Treasury premises. The curry was to keep top bank bosses well-fed and at the negotiating table to agree a massive bail out of some £50 Billion. The banks wanted handouts, not loans. This was on top of billions of pounds of support the previous year. To commemorate this inauspicious date the ‘Balti Bailout Receipt’ itemises the cost to the tax payer: the loan itself, the cost of the food, and not forgetting the additional taxes we had to pay to allow the Government to borrow the money to give it to the banks.

    Alistair Darling stated in the House of Commons the following day:

    …The taxpayer, therefore, will be fully rewarded for that investment.

    And

    …the risk remains with the banks and not the taxpayer; in other words, we get our money back.

    And

    …ensuring that the taxpayer is appropriately rewarded

    And

    …taxpayers will be rewarded for the risk that they take on

    Source Hansard

    After stating that the taxpayer would be repaid during 2018-2019, successive budget announcements have put this back to 2025-2026 (i.e. the banks have been given almost twice as long to pay the money back). Latest data from the Office for Budget Responsibility indicates that the UK taxpayer is due to ‘Take a Haircut’ – financial jargon which means not only are we not going to get much of a reward or return on our investment, we are actually not going to be fully paid back.

    The reason is simple: the body responsible for selling the shares (UK Government Investments) has been quietly selling them back to the banks (mainly NatWest Group, formerly Royal Bank of Scotland) for less than it paid for them. Effectively the taxpayer paid 502p per share in 2008, the latest sale of shares back to NatWest was for 318p. The Museum of Debt estimate that given the remaining shares the public sector owns it will need to charge 5,127p (yes £51 per share) in order to give the UK taxpayer a decent return on its investment (7%). That’s what it will take for the taxpayer to be ‘fully rewarded’ and to ‘get our money back’ and for it to be true that the risk was ‘with the banks, not the taxpayer’.

    While we are being stiffed by the banks, they continue to make profits. Their Return on Investment sits comfortably at 7% and has done since we bailed them out.

  • Circulating Treasure of the New Beginning. Universal Yardstick of the Apocalypse.

    Circulating Treasure of the New Beginning. Universal Yardstick of the Apocalypse.

    Acquisition of a Kaiyan Tongbao Tang Dynasty coin from 621-907 AD known as Circulating Treasure of the New Beginning as the Museum’s first artifact.

  • Smart Debt – Smart Contracting Loan App

    Smart Debt – Smart Contracting Loan App

    An interactive loan app which allows users to tailor loan repayment conditions to suit their personal circumstances by providing a range of financial, material, physical and social penalties.

    smartdebtcontracting

  • Countdown to the Balti Bailout Repayment Date

    Countdown to the Balti Bailout Repayment Date

    ***NOTE: UKGI COMPLETED THE SELL OFF OF THE TAXPAYER’S REMAING SHARES IN NATWEST IN MAY 2025 (SEE PRESS RELEASE HERE). ***

    THE ORIGINAL PROMISE THE GOVERNMENT MADE WAS TO SELL OFF THE SHARES WITHIN 10 YEARS.  IN THE EVENT IT TOOK :

    16 years, 8 months, 22 days

    The UK Government aims to sell all the shares it aquired in the failed banking sector by 2025-2026. This timer is set to expire at the end of 2026. Museum of Debt will be watching to see what the UK taxpayer got for its investment.

    For more information see Haircuts for Capitalists.

    538Days 07Hours 01Minutes 27Seconds
  • Open Letter to UK Government Investments

    Open Letter to UK Government Investments

    Dear Friends at UKGI

    I am a taxpayer who happens to be very interested in the return on investment we expect to receive from the investment in the banking sector following the 2007, 2008 banking crisis.

    I note the Treasury’s line as delivered by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 9th October 2008. i.e. as a result of the bailout package:

    …The taxpayer… will be fully rewarded for that investment.

    And

    …the risk remains with the banks and not the taxpayer; in other words, we get our money back.

    And

    …ensuring that the taxpayer is appropriately rewarded

    And

    …taxpayers will be rewarded for the risk that they take on

    Given the current circumstances, I calculate that the remaining shares that the government owns need to be sold at £51 per share  in order to achieve these stated aims (i.e. a RoI equivalent to that the banks earn. 7%).

    Obviously this would be quite a BONANZA.

    I ask if you can provide further details as regards future divestiture plans. As a shareholder of Natwest myself, I am very concerned about the government’s handling of this.

    Many thanks

    Kevin Andrews

    Museum of Debt

     

    REPLY RECEIVED

  • Merchant of Venice Campaign

    Merchant of Venice Campaign

    A flyer produced and distributed at during the Globe Theatre’s production of Shakespear’s remarkable play about debt…

  • Specimen of Hubris – The £50 RBS Bank

    Specimen of Hubris – The £50 RBS Bank

    A replica of a £50 RBS Bank note commemorating the building of the Gogarburn HQ as an act of unbridled hubris in the UK finance sector.

  • Debt on the Cards

    Debt on the Cards

    A set of game playing cards containing thought provoking questions about debt also available in video format.

     

  • Debtopoly

    Debtopoly

    DEPTOPOLY is the classic game brought into the 21st Century. It’s money, not land, that’s being traded and monopolised to make the few rich and the majority excluded.

    It’s rigged. The Economy. The rich get richer and the poor stay poor. On and on it goes until it inevitably crashes.  The rich survive and the poor die. Bob Prophette

    Following years of playing their own lethal version of Debtopoly, working tirelessly to get as much money earning as high an interest rate as possible, the Banks finally became so bloated and inefficient the banking system collapsed. In 2008 the Government summoned the top Bankers to Whitehall to tell them they would have to be accept a humiliating bailout – effectively nationalising most of them. The Banks were reluctant, wanting handouts instead. As negotiations progressed into the night the Treasury Officials ordered a curry to feed the bankers and keep them talking.  This work commemorates the now infamous Balti Bail Out which occurred on 7th October 2008. 14 years later the Banks still have not paid back the taxpayer for their investment and its likely that even if they do, they’ll be paying much lower interest than they change us. Deptopoly, created by Bob Prophette is a fully functioning version of the classic game where players compete to get families, their friends and relatives into debt. The more in debt they can get them, the higher the interest they can change, as only the banks have money to lend.

    THE RULES OF DEBTOPOLY

    Debt repayment interest is the new rent extracted from the economy. The aim of the game is to get as much of it earning as high an interest rate as possible.

    How to Win

    Move around the board selling as many financial products as you can. The more products you sell, the more indebted the world becomes and the more interest you earn. If you accumulate enough, you will become too big to fail and win.

    The Board Spaces

    Unindebted families, their relatives and friends. 

    At the start of the game there are eight families. The Browns, the Blueburns, the Pinkertons, the Orangesons, the Redwoods, the Yellowhills, the Greensmiths and the Navytons. Each family has its own set of relatives and/or friends making up the Family Set. When you land on an unindebted space, you pay the amount shown on the board to obtain the right to be able to sell financial products to them. Then, when another player lands on a space that you own, you take a repayment out of the economy and keep it for yourself.

    Business and Charities

    In addition to the families, the Family Sets, there are also Business and Charity Organisations. When you land on an unindebted business or charity space you must pay the amount shown on the board to be able to lend to them. Then when another player lands on that space you receive the repayment.  This is higher the more businesses and charities you own.

    Regulator and Market

    When you land on a space marked Regulation or Market you must draw a card from the relevant decks and undertake the action that is required. Unless stipulated return the card to the bottom of the pile.

    Go Bonus Go Time

    This is the starting position for all players.  It’s the start of the financial period. Each time you pass Go, you receive a £200 Bonus.

    Audit and Get Audited

    When you land on Audit normally nothing happens.  This is just a friendly visit. A boozy lunch maybe.  However, when you land on the ‘Get Audited’ square or you are instructed to go to Audit by one of the regulation Cards, you must go directly to the Audit space. If you pass go you must not collect a Bonus.

    To get out of the Audit you can make a £50 donation to the auditor, or you you can use a Get out of Audit card.  If you don’t have one you can offer to buy one from one of the other players. Alternatively, roll a double and you are free to move that number of spaces.

    Offshore (Free Parking)

    Here you are safe.  You can stay here, earning money when other players land on squares that you own.

    Trading

    When you land on an unindebted space you must pay the sum specified in order to offer financial products.  If you do not wish to pay, that square must immediately be auctioned to the highest bidder.

    You can trade at any time in order to have all of the members of a Family Set (the family, its friends and relatives) indebted to you. You can simply agree to swap Families Sets or buy and sell them. By owning a Family Set, you can sell even more financial products (they no longer have any alternatives as everyone they know is also indebted to you!).  Each product costs the amount shown on the repayment card which also specifies the repayments you receive when another player lands on your space. The products are: Overdraft, Credit Card, Loan, Mortgage.  Once you have a mortgage you can trade in all other products for a 2nd mortgage and receive the highest repayments possible.

    The Economy

    In DEPTOPOLY there isn’t a Bank.  The players take on this role.  Instead, money is held in the Economy. When you lend to a Family, the money is magically created allowing them to repay you from their work. What’s not magically created is the interest. The extraction of this interest from the economy is effectively what leads to economic polarisation over time.

    A Museum of Debt Project.

  • Go Fund Me Campaign Remains in Debt

    Status of the Museum of Debt’s Go Fund Me campaign.