Monday, March 30th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
We have seen huge investment in sport over the last few decades. Bigger and bigger deals were made whereby big companies paid millions of pounds and dollars to sports events, groups and individuals to promote their brand on racing cars, football shirts, golf events and many other sports.
The argument in favour of sports sponsorship was always that it promoted the brand which in turn would bring profits to the company paying to have it’s brand all over the TV screens of the world. Yet, in recent months we have heard of lots of backtracking on this. RBS has announced it is halving it’s sponsorship and is pulling out of Formula 1 by withdrawing sponsorship of the Williams team altogether at the end of it’s current contract in 2010.
We have seen how the banks, in particular, have for years been making huge payments to their top executive staff while destroying their companies and shareholder value and we cannot help but wonder at the financial decisions taken to spend millions on the basis of promoting their brands and enjoying corporate junkets, at the shareholders expense, at sports events around the world.
In an economic climate where competition is fierce to get customers through the door you may think that advertising is more important than ever and if the argument for sports sponsorship is correct now would be the time to invest more than previously yet sponsorship is being withdrawn and reduced everywhere.
This leads to an inevitable conclusion that the sports sponsorship was more about the corporate benefits available to top executives at the sponsoring company than it was about getting more business and making additional profits for the company.
It is claimed that sport has been improved by all these millions but it remains to be seen if the actual sport will be any the worse for the fact that money is not so freely available. Many argue that all this money has changed the whole nature of sport and made it into something less desirable. It looks as though over the next few years we will see sport revert to something that is more about the essence of the sport and less about the money to be made.
Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 12:25 pm
With interest rates at the lowest they have been for centuries, savers are feeling very hard done by. They have good reason to feel that way as they have been doing the right thing. All through the credit fueled consumer boom there were voices calling for us all to save more towards our pensions and many people did continue to save for the future.
Those savers now feel they are being punished for the carelessness of others and they have a good point. Unfortunately the solution to the problems created by the madness of the credit powered consumer boom seems to mean that savers get punished more than the borrowers as they see returns from their savings drop to almost nothing.
So, is it a waste of time to save spare cash? No way. This is an exceptional period of time we are living through and things will turn around at some point. Interest rates will riseand get back to more normal levelsand what is more, I believe, the saver will become a more important and valued customer in the future.
Banking and finance have to change and governments around the world are looking to improve the behaviour of the banking industry. Politicians, with a few notable exceptions, tok credit for the consumer boom but ignored the costs and consequences which we now see all around us.
Having recognised that you can’t allow a fox to run the henhouse, or bankers to be trusted to behave sensibly where money is concerned the regulations will be tightened up and banks will become more boring places as they were once before.
The savers will once again be considered important because they will be the people providing the funds for the banks to lend out. Whereas we have had a few decades where the borrower was seen as the most important customer we may now, at last, see the saver valued, by banks and governement, as the important person they are.
Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
We all know that property has dropped in value both at home and abroad thanks to the credit crunch and the economic gloom so I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised to discover that even the price of land on the moon has dropped significantly.
When you are short of money buying land on the moon might not seem a terribly important priority. There is no mention of getting mortgages or bank loans to make the purchase so I expect they use credit cards with their astronomically high interest rates instead. You can view a video report here http://media.watoday.com.au
I find it hard to imagine that these land claims will ever be validated if ever development does take place on the moon but the certificate would be an amusing talking point when framed and mounted on the wall.
