This is Money Blog

The top 10 movies about money

Hollywood is gearing up for revenge on uber swindler Bernard Madoff, surely it is. After all, many Tinsel Town alumni - Steven Spielberg, John Malkovich and Kevin Bacon, are reportedly among those who were taken for a ride by the man behind the planet’s biggest ever pyramid selling scheme.

But retribution aside, there is a story to be told, and indeed money to be made. Given the length (20 years plus) and breadth ($64bn and counting) of the scandal, celluloid treatment must be a given.

At the end of the day, Hollywood has lavishly covered furores that don’t hold a candle to the former Nasdaq chairman’s crimes.

But while we wait with baited breath for the inevitable flick, I conducted a brief and largely unscientific survey across This is Money towers on the best movies about money, business and finance.

We ejected gangster flicks, bank robberies et al, the main stipulation was that money itself, had to be essential to the film’s plot. And that means money was almost, if not completely, a character in itself, or at least played a pivotal role in the plot and/or the environment of the story.

So, in no particular order, here’s This is Money's top 10 films about wonga:   

1. Wall Street (1987)

The quintessential cash flick. Wanting all the toys and fun that the 1980s yuppie-life had on offer, a tenacious young stockbroker Bud Fox, (Charlie Sheen) is taken under the wing of scruples-free financier Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) and as a result gets involved in such goings on as shadowy business deals, insider trading and generally the type of naughtiness that’s frowned upon by the authorities. Oliver Stone’s classic is also noteworthy for the depiction of brick-sized mobile phones. And a sequel is on its way.

Key quote

Gordon Gekko: ‘The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works.’

*Buy it here

2. Trading Places (1983)

Set-upon but over-privileged broker Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) and street hustler Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) take on spiteful millionaire commodity traders Mortimer and Randolph Duke in a bid to make a fortune and send the pair into poverty, all by dabbling in the glamorous world of orange futures. Yes really.

Key quote

Louis Winthorpe III: ‘You make no friends in the pits and you take no prisoners. One minute you're up half a million in soybeans and the next, boom, your kids don't go to college and they've repossessed your Bentley. Are you with me?’

*Buy it here

3. Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

No doubt put millions off a life in the seemingly lucrative business of real estate. This anti-American dream allegory depicts the hell of working for the titular US firm, where backstabbing, ritual humiliation and failure are all in a days work, as a ruthless boss, Blake (Alec Baldwin), piles on the pressure and then some.

Key quote

Blake: ‘A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing, always be closing!’

*Buy it here

4. Boiler room (2000)

Seduced by the promise of enormous wealth by young millionaire Jim Young, (Ben Affleck) college dropout Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi) naively joins a firm of crooked stockbrokers, J.T. Marlin, whereby he leaves his morals at the door and is fast-tracked to super-salesman status, until the FBI come knocking, that is.

Key quote

Jim Young: ‘Anybody who tells you money is the root of all evil doesn't f**king have any.’

*Buy it here

5. Rogue Trader (1999)

Former ‘trainspotter’ Ewan McGregor, swapped smack for cash in this biopic of the notorious Barings Bank trader Nick Leeson. While his employers believe he is one of their hotshots in Jakarta, Leeson is in fact losing money hand over fist and covering it all up. Leeson’s creative accounting eventually brought the bank to its knees and put the ‘wide-boy’ trader behind bars.

Key quote:

Nick Leeson: ‘I, Nicholas Leeson, have just lost 50 million quid, in one day’

*Buy it here

6. Risky Business (1983)

Squeaky-clean US teenager Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise) is left the keys of the kingdom while his parents go on holiday. But during his few days of blessed freedom, following a dalliance with call-girl Lana, he manages to drown his father’s beloved Porsche in Lake Michigan. In a bid to drum up the cash to repair the car, he goes ‘pimp’ and turns his parental home into a den of iniquity for the weekend.

Key quote

Joel Goodsen (regarding Lana): ‘It was great the way her mind worked. No guilt, no doubts, no fear. None of my specialities, just the shameless pursuit of immediate gratification. What a capitalist.’

*Buy it here

7. Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

Back in the mid-nineties, the Coen ‘No Country for Old Men’ Brothers dipped their zany toes into the murky world of business. Following the suicide of the Hudsucker Corporation boss, gormless post-room worker Norville Barnes, (Tim Robbins), is rocketed to the status of company President by scheming director Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman), who believes the feeble Barnes will drive the cost of the stock down so he and his greedy cohorts can scoop it up at a bargain basement price and take over the company. Unfortunately Barnes invents the hula-hoop and the group’s shares rise quicker and louder than a 10-year-old on Christmas morning.

Key quote

Sidney J. Mussburger: ‘One month; to make the blue chip investment of the century look like a round trip ticket on the Titanic…What we need now is a new president who will inspire panic in the stockholder.’

8. American Psycho (2000)

The film adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis’ classic piece of 1980s fiction, is anchored by anti-hero, investment banker, Patrick (‘I’m in murders and executions’) Bateman (Christian Bale), who has a lively penchant for slicing, dicing and even chain-sawing all who cross his path. The film easily sits as the ‘darker’ cousin of Wall Street, (same period – same place) and effortlessly depicts the shallow, soulless vacuum of 1980s high-flyers in New York’s financial district, where image and the bulge of your bank balance are everything.

Key quote

Patrick Bateman: ‘I have all the characteristics of a human being: blood, flesh, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust.’

*Buy it here

9. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

The multi-award winning Mumbai based fairytale finds 18 year-old orphan and ‘slumdog’ Jamal as a contestant on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, with his lessons and experiences of life guiding him through the answers. But is he interested in the millions of rupees potentially heading his way? Apparently no. It’s merely a ploy to reach out and rescue, Latika, the girl whom he loves but has lost. However, despite being questioned, interrogated and then tortured, for suspicion of cheating, it all comes good in the end as Jamal goes the distance, after which, his lost love comes a running. No doubt the same would have happened had he run out of lifelines and washed out after question four. 

Key quote

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire presenter, Prem Kumar: ‘A few hours ago, you were giving chai for the phone walahs. And now you're richer than they will ever be. What a player!’

*Buy it here

10. Brewster's Millions (1985)

Montgomery Brewster (Richard Pryor) is a small-time baseball player, set a task which in this day and age, the Paris Hilton’s of the world could do in a single morning – he has to squander $30m in just 30 days, because if he does, he’ll inherit $300m from his eccentric relative.

Key quote

Montgomery Brewster: ‘Gentlemen, do you think I'm a lowlife?’ Tailor: 'Oh no, Mr. Brewster. Not with these clothes.'

*Buy it here

- Philip Scott, (resident film buff),This is Money

Trading glossary - or how many words are there for price war?

This just dropped in from the guys at Blue Oar Securities.

''How many words,' they ask, ...'are there for ‘price war’?

''Dynamic pricing’, for example, presumably implies reducing (very seldom increasing) prices to see whether one’s customers or competitors react and ‘testing market elasticities’ usually implies the same.   ‘Re-positioning the offer’ means cutting prices and ‘investing in market’ share usually means the same. 

'With this in mind, when referring to trading, we would suggest the following translations could be useful:
 
'‘Strongly ahead’ = more than 0.5% above
‘Ahead’ = between 0% and 0.5% above
‘In line’ = less than 2% below
‘Flat’ and ‘broadly in line’ = around 2% down
‘Somewhat below’ = more than 2% down
‘Mixed’, ‘challenging’, ‘sub-optimal’ and ‘fast-moving’ = bad
‘Developing’ and ‘strategic’ = loss-making
‘Long-term strategic’ = chronically loss-making
‘Investment’ (in the P&L) = a loss
‘Long term investment’ = hopeless loss
‘Confident’, ‘believe’ and ‘consider’ = hope
‘Tough’, ‘difficult’, ‘uncertain’ & ‘challenging’ = awful.'

Any more? Drop your suggestions in the comments box.

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Ask a simple question...and Bank of Ireland

It started so easy - all I wanted to know was how much, if anything, would I be charged, for withdrawing cash abroad – specifically in the former residence of the Celtic Tiger, Ireland.

Sure, when one uses a cash machine in another country, one does usually get hit with a charge for the convenience.

But I had hoped, that given my destination, and the bank involved, that I might get lucky. A long shot, granted.

But why? Well, after moving to the UK from Dublin, a decade ago, given that I already had a bank account with Bank of Ireland back home, I concluded that the easiest thing would be to stick to the devil I know and open a new account with the group here in the UK. Yes us personal finance journalists, can be victims too of the customer apathy we so often go on about.

So I am going back to Dublin for a few days and I was wondering what charges I would incur as a Bank of Ireland customer, using a Bank of Ireland ATM…in Ireland.

After all, bank charges, for even the most trivial of services, (in an ATM’s case, self-service) are big business.

And admittedly, until now, I have never checked out what the bank fees I usually endure when I am back in Dublin  actually are.

I rang Bank of Ireland’s one-stop customer service shop - Banking 365 - and put the question to them.

It mustn’t be a common query, as the service agent, although pretty sure I would be charged something, when prompted on exactly how much, was left, well, dumbfounded and didn’t seem too concerned to find out – she just recommended I use ATMs as little as possible and that when I do, take out large amounts. Hmm…

I explained that I would prefer a more specific answer and the by then flustered agent put me onto someone else, and they then passed the buck onto another colleague, eventually someone decided that the best course of action would be to put me through to the bank’s global markets division.

I seemed perplexed by this gesture, surprised even. Why would this division of the bank, which deals, in Forex trading, structured products and corporate deposits be the font of all knowledge, in cash machine charging?

Of course, it wasn’t. But they did get someone to call me back, with an answer. Methinks, in the end, it was in the region of five people I spoke to.

But anyway, what should a Bank of Ireland customer using a Bank of Ireland ATM in Ireland, expect to pay for the privilege? Well, a decent amount it would seem.

The basic charge is £1.50 for a withdrawal, on top of a 2.75% usage fee for the amount withdrawn. So if, I withdraw say 100 euros (£86.90) that will, all in all set me back, circa £3.91 or 4.49 euros, possibly a little less than it would have cost me on my mobile, if I had used it, to call Bank of Ireland to find out.

Just as well, sterling is so strong right now…oh hang on.

- Philip Scott, journalist, Thisismoney.co.uk

You shouldn't drive to Tottenham: the statistics prove it

More than 80% of Britons use credit cards to clean car windows, but three quarters have never cut up a pizza with their flexible friend.

Clearly the above is not true. But it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that there is some junior PR person out there working on a study to be sent out claiming the above.

The modern media gets bombarded with a lot of surveys and studies – some serious and some seriously spurious. And often the claims are either so blindingly obvious or completely irrelevant that you wonder why they bother.

That is until you read a story, quoting the bizarre statistic and company, and remember some suit reckons told the PR they may sell more credit cards by getting mentioned in an article stating people don’t cut up pizza with them.

But not all studies are like this. Some have a curious personal relevance and are actually quite good. So today I bring you the Premier League of car insurance claims, thanks to our friends at Churchill.

This gives a league table of how likely car insurance claims are in certain football stadium postcodes.

Not immediately useful you may think, but then there are a lot of people who park and drive near football grounds and it could be a handy guide for when to leave the car at home.

The fairly sensible advice I can distil from it seems to be it’s all right to drive to Bolton or Wigan, but avoid Tottenham or West Ham.

And I can support that. The number one Premier League hotspot for car insurance claims is Tottenham, and, as anyone who lives in North London knows, for some inexplicable reason people’s driving in Tottenham is uniquely awful.

On top of this, last year my car was written off by a drunk driver, while it was parked outside my house. He smashed into the back of it, abandoned his vehicle and ran off, leaving his car in the middle of the road (with the hazard lights on). Guess what the police accidentally told me? His address and yes, he came from Tottenham.

To add to this, I live within chant hearing distance of the fifth most likely ground for claims, so can now understand why this combination of statistics meant, despite its seeming randomness at the time, it was highly likely someone from Tottenham would write off my car while it was parked in my road.

I can also see why Man Utd come fourth, as most people driving there on a match day are in massive 4x4s, or Porsches, or worse still Porsche Cayennes, and don’t have the faintest idea where they’re going. (I’ve been there and seen them, it’s true). And football fans will guess Liverpool and Everton come so far down because of all those friendly kids who offer to mind your car, or damage it, depending on the payment of a small fee. (I've been there and seen them too, it's also true.)

My team Watford is not in the Premier League, so we don’t make it into the table. But I imagine our statistics would just be painfully mediocre and simply include those fans deliberately driving into walls after losing all hope when desperately trying to navigate their way out of a multi-storey car park.

So, should you be in any way interested, here you go: The Premier League car insurance table

- Simon Lambert, assistant editor, This is Money

	Football Club	Likelihood of claiming compared to average
1.	Tottenham Hotspur	59%
2.	West Ham United	46%
3.	Aston Villa	45%
4.	Manchester United	34%
5.	Arsenal	27%
6.	Manchester City	23%
7.	Middlesbrough	22%
8.	Fulham	20%
9.	Chelsea	20%
10.	Portsmouth	20%
11.	Hull City	14%
12.	Newcastle United	10%
13.	Liverpool	9%
14.	Everton	9%
15.	West Bromwich Albion	1%
16.	Blackburn Rovers	1%
17.	Stoke City	8%
18.	Sunderland	11
19.	Bolton Wanderers	11%
20.	Wigan Athletic	15

Amazon 1p bizarre sale: Is it a rip-off?

As the queues of respectable-looking people desperate to spend a penny form outside the local branch of Marks & Spencer again this morning, one of our tech guys downstairs has pointed out that sometimes when goods are sold for 1p  there can be a catch.

Colin, not his real name, bought four items for 1p each and another for £2.39 from the same supplier on Amazon.co.uk marketplace, the part of the Amazon website where third-party traders sell their wares.

The five items were promptly dispatched in the same A4 envelope for which Colin was charged a separate £4.84 'shipping charge' for each item. Total shipping for one envelope: £24.20.

While I find this rather bizarre - though not nearly as bizarre as queuing to go into a shop - it is perfectly above board and stated within the terms; Colin probably should have known better. But I can't help feeling the urge to remind anyone tempted by offers with the whiff of 'too good to be true good' about them, remember to digest the rules on caveat emptor first.

Click on the images to enlarge:

 

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Funny Asda complaint about a pizza

I'm not sure why Asda seems to attract the prank callers. It always strikes me as one of the better supermarkets with wonderful, helpful and friendly staff. In fact the customer services rep in this clip handles himself with dignity and professionalism - for the first minute at any rate.

If you liked that here's another one from the archives

Tesco/Asda prank call

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Peer and BBC presenter clash over £92k pay

'Labour peer Lord Foulkes has appeared on the News Channel to discuss the issue of MPs expense claims. During the heated discussion with the BBC's Carrie Gracie, he said MPs were not paid enough, and asked his interviewer: "How much are you paid?"'

And she told him...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8045371.stm

(A cool £92,000 a year, in case you were wondering how your licence fee is distributed.)

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Fraud now so prevalent it has its own country

The latest figures show that banking fraud continues to rise but did you know that Fraud is now a country in its own right?

It is if you head over to the Alpha Telecom site. Between France and French Guiana, apparently. Click pic to enlarge.

 

Richard Browning

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Sign up Wayne Rooney as a money-saving star

Every so often you read something in a bit of celebrity news that makes you smile and remember for all their millions of pounds, the famous are people too.

Today's comes from a story about how Wayne Rooney has lost a £1m Mercedes contract that will see him have to forgo his free car.

There are all kinds of snippets in here that remind you that Rooney, despite his fame and fortune, appears to remain resolutely down-to-earth.

There's the bit that makes you imagine him grinning like a schoolboy on getting his motor: 'He was thrilled to be endorsing Mercedes because he is a total car fanatic and is a huge fan of Mercedes. He bought one for Coleen for her birthday. He loves them, so of course he's disappointed.'

Then there's the bit where some snob seems to forget that perhaps he might be a good ambassador because he's an exceptionally talented footballer not a bling encrusted clothes horse: 'Ordinarily you'd expect Mercedes to choose someone aspirational and classy to advertise its cars, and it's fair to say that Wayne Rooney doesn't fit into that category'.

But my favourite is actually nothing to do with the car. It's from an interview by his wife Coleen that's tagged on. She says: 'If I go shopping with Wayne I'll say, 'Look at that handbag! Isn't it lovely?" And he'll say, 'You don't need any more handbags'

So that's Wayne Rooney multi-millionaire footballer, set up financially for life before he was out of his teens, reminding his wife she doesn't need to buy something, as she doesn't need anymore handbags.

As the Government appears to be spending our cash on increasingly inexplicable public information campaigns at the moment, can we have another?

Let's find out if Wayne is serious about this money-saving thing and sign him up to remind kids that however rich you are, sometimes you don't need another handbag and if you aren't rich you also might want to lay off the mobile phones, trainers and flat screen TVs.

And while we're at it, give him a Jaguar to make up for losing that Mercedes.

- Simon Lambert, assistant editor, This is Money

Well, here's one way to make money online

I received a package this week from a trader on Amazon Marketplace and was surprised to see that the postage had been run through the franking machine of the geography department at Bristol University.

No wonder university fees are so high.

Still, it's a great way to make money as an online trader. Of course, I'm sure in this case the money was refunded to the college.

Richard Browning

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