Bank job

Prompted by the article at reference 3, I bought the book at reference 1. A tale of a modern art project which had a point – as well as being fun for both participants and spectators. Arty types who really do care for the community – unlike the Hirst-Emin lot who are mainly into taking the punters for an expensive ride.

One of the inspirations of the project is to be found at reference 7, an extended protest against the evils of medical debt, student debt and common or garden poverty debt in the US. The backdrop is the pumping of huge amounts of money into the banking system when it got into trouble – while dumping many into the harsh world of austerity.

Another was the way that large parcels of debt are bought and sold for a fraction of their nominal value, purchases which empower the purchaser to harass the debtors concerned for that nominal value.

In brief, the project acquired the use of a building in Walthamstow’s Hoe Street which had at one time been a branch of HSBC and at another a branch of the Cooperative Bank. 

They then set up a micro-printshop to print things which looked rather like bank notes, but which featured local good causes and local, otherwise unsung, worthies. I dare say much fun was had learning how to make the necessary paper and how to do the necessary printing. The building became something in the way of a community centre.

The notes were sold off to the public, on the basis that half went to said good causes and half would be put into a pot to buy up £1.2m worth of local debt, for the knock down price of £20,000. This was duly done.

The debt papers were then loaded into a van and blown up on a bit of vacant land, not far from the towers of Canary Wharf. Some of the bits of van were assembled into a work of art for display. Some of the bits of metal were gathered up and converted into coins of a sort; a micro-mint. I forget whether they were used as rewards for their backers or whether they were sold off too.

Both notes and coins found their way into collections great and small all over the place. And the whole business was filmed, with some kind of a film due to be released shortly. 

In telling this story, the authors also tell us something of the history of this bit of Walthamstow. We learn about their conversion of the building – with the added fun of recovering all kinds of décor and other stuff, left over from previous occupations. We learn about some of their battles with landlords and bureaucrats. They rant a bit about the iniquities of world of finance – while being a bit soft on the self destruction of the Fleet Street print unions.

An admirable project.

Some titbits

I associate to the system whereby the big banks like HSBC and Barclays make a lot of money out of punishing the poor for their errors in financial management while giving everyone else more or less free banking. Another unpleasant side to our much vaunted financial services industry.

We are reminded that a large proportion of the workers deemed to be essential during the present pandemic is drawn from the ranks of the poorly paid. Fair or what?

I learn that HSBC bought Midland Bank – with whom I have banked for more than fifty years – at a time when Midland Bank was close to collapse and going cheap, having overreached itself in the US. So nothing new about RBS doing much the same thing.

There is lots of alternative news out there, for example reference 8. I imagine the standard varies a great deal, with some of it responsible for some of the rubbish which leaks out onto the likes of Facebook.

Buying and selling of debt is neither new nor wholly bad. Some businessmen, for example, find it convenient to sell their invoices to factors, rather than bother with them themselves.

PS: eventually, with the project more or less completed, they were chucked out of their bank, the Hoe Street Central Bank. The building now, according to Google’s Street View, stands empty.

References

Reference 1: Bank Job – Hilary Powell, Daniel Edelstyn – 2020. 

Reference 2: https://www.chelseagreen.com/. The publisher.

Reference 3: Time to blow up problem debt: will we come to see the indebted as victims of the Covid crisis too? – Claer Barret/FT – 2021. January 29th, 2021.

Reference 4: https://bankjob.pictures/. The project website.

Reference 5: https://bankjob.co/. Not the same thing at all.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/02/trespass.html. Early notice.

Reference 7: https://strikedebt.org/. One of the inspirations for the project.

Reference 8: https://www.ecnmy.org/. One of the many sites offering an alternative view of the world to that from mainstream, respectable media.

Reference 9: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_debt. Medical debt looks to be a big problem in the US.