Some other things you might try…
Q & A: Reporting Identity Theft
Prosecuting Identity Fraud
Identity Fraud and Identity Theft from CIFAS – the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service
Tech and Law Blog
legalday.com
or try a search.

Barclays bank are a dishonest and corrupt bank. They committed several counts of identity fraud in my name and the british courts let them get scott clean away with fraud because they are are a bank. If anyone knows anything about their bank manager TONY ASHPLANT please get in touch.

I’m sure you’ve seen adverts (and matching CVs) for highly-motivated, self-starters, good team players etc, etc. I can see that such attributes would be valuable in certain roles. But it will take months or years (if ever) to find out whether or not they are bluffing. I suspect (and have done for years) that most of our leaders and high-flyers (whether in business or politics) are bluffing.

I was just pointing out that the forces have the luxury of being able to shorten this discovery process to a matter of days or weeks. Though I don’t have any good suggestions for how it could be done fr other organisations.

I don’t see how you can conflate a selection process (that you can walk away from at any time) with brainwashing but that’s a subject for another topic )

The army have centuries of experience. As I understand it they choose the vulnerable, take them apart, put them together again as they want them. They then parent them for the first time in their lives. Unfortunately we do not have the luxury of being able/allowed to brainwash employees. This makes motivation much more difficult particularly when they know they can walk out and live on the state.

Are we getting off topic or is this question of motivation of vital importance in putting together whatever rises from the ashes?

Like yourself I was also once a manager of people. The guy who owned the company once asked me, “John, you were in the Army, how do they manage to motivate people so well?” To which I replied. “It’s quite simple they cheat. People sign up and the Army finds out is they are self-motivated. It finds out if they will put their own interests ahead of the team in times of difficulty. Otherwise it sends them back to be civilians.”

“But how can the Army tell if they are bluffing?”, he asked. Easy peasy: don’t let them sleep for at least 48 hours, get them wet and cold, don’t feed them and f**! them about solidly doing stupid things. Very few people can keep a bluff going under these circumstances. And after another 24 hours of it your soul is laid bare for all to see. You are who you are and cannot fool anyone. And of course these periods of “stress-testing” are only part of on ongoing process.

In my experience the average sales rep was a total dickhead. These morons simply bulshitted their way through an interview, got a job, took the piss, realised they could never make any bonus because they were useless and then moved on to some other poor company. I thought of them as turds – ie: just passing through. In the end I gave up on them and went to talk to customers myself.

I think we are getting nearer to agreement on bonuses. Your acknowledgement that money is pretty low down the motivator list is not all of the story. Usually bonuses do not just represent money. They are presented as a large part of status which is much higher up the list.

I believe that this coupling is expensive to the company. If bonuses were kept confidential between the company and the recipient on pain of repayment on disclosure then they would be much less of a motivator.

I first encountered targets when a young manager looking at the effects of the now discredited Management by Objectives scheme. The creativity used to fiddle the figures was wonderful to behold. I would really look up to a manager who could set watertight targets. Unfortunately in this real world we are stuck with managers who are not exceptionally clever. Maybe this is part of the argument against bonuses.

Yes, it would also be a good idea for other assets as well as bonds but a singluar agency cannot be expected to cover all forms so I was considering the current significant situation. We also know house prices (particularly new builds) have also been manipulated via the entries in the Land Registry.

Regarding risk, we come back to a comment I made on another subject – asset value. With asset values based on supply/demand while the banks supply long term loans financed by short term borrowing – particularly in the mortgage market where house prices have risen ridiculously. Such a financing model 'backed' by a bubbling valuation of the assets did not go unnoticed but was dismissed because it didn't fit the model – hence they had created a linear model from a non-linear system.
This is not the first time such a situation has happened and, though it may not be possible to quantify the risk exactly reference to previous situations would have provided a very good approximation.

Yes, I have read a little Maslow – incidentally with regard to the motivation of salesmen. If I remember that correctly, the biggest motivator was respect from their superior and an ability to make their own decisions (to a certain level) without having to make reference to anyone. Money was some way down the list.

I’m not saying bonuses are the single most important tool – they do have their place. However, if used, they have to be well thought out, which comes down to the management that sets the targets. Ineffective management is a whole different topic!

Incompetence at any level should be dealt by with training, and demotion/dismissal if the training doesn’t work.

I am convinced that the last people who should be paid bonuses are salesmen. Their push for sales at all costs can do untold damage to a company. They make promises to customers that can be cripplingly expensive to fulfil. They do not have the companies interest at heart only their own bonus.

Have you read Hertzberg and Maslow? Google will provide some quick summaries. I would be glad to hear your reasons to disagree with these theories on motivation.

How can you set a realistic target for car sales? Sales will depend on the quality of the offering and the mood of customers. Incompetent selling should be dealt with by training or dismissal.

As it happens I have just bought a replacement car and have encountered quite a few incompetent salesmen/women. I have been taught to sell so I am able to make a fairly realistic assessment. Their bonuses would have been better spent on proper training.

I agree that FRB cannot be eliminated at a stroke but as a long term objective it may give a better world. Many good ideas fail because of the difficulty of the transition. Maybe they can only arise from complete failure and don’t think we have reached that yet.

Regulators can work, they just need to be given the tools to do the job (the laws that you mention), and be independent enough to avoid cosy relationships. The police alone couldn’t do that – is your average officer clued up enough on to spot a transgression of the law and prosecute accordingly? I’d be surprised – you need someone who understands the subject to be regulated, be that banking or any other industry to spot these things before they become over complicated.

FRB cannot be eliminated – certainly in the short term. What we see today is a shortage of liquidity caused by the disappearance of ‘money’. Eliminating FRB is only going to exacerbate that, unless it is done over a long period of time, and co-ordinated with other methods of increasing the money supply.

The FRB system served us well for many years, until the ratios got so badly skewed. Wind them back a bit, and it becomes less of a problem.

asymetric – That is idea of significant importance, it just needs to be applied to all credit markets, not just the bond markets. I’m with Spin Doctor, in addition they need to be truly independent, if a regulator can be such.

Spin Doctor – You’re right, a lot of of the myths surrounding FRB are a lot of conspiracy theories. I used to think that maybe things like the New World Order and the like were possible. Since all this has been going on Governments around the world have shown incompetence on so many levels, I now believe it’s simply not possible – they’d never be able to organise it!