OFFHIRE
Roy has always been the sort of chap to look very carefully at the mouths of gift-horses, so he is rightfully wary of those too-good-to-be-true Covid business loans…
BLIND JOCKEYS I
read with interest the recent news of there being “A worrying surge in construction firms defaulting on
Covid loans” Well I never… I’m staggered… just don’t believe it!
Forgive my sarcasm, but to quote a saying I once heard from a friend from the deepest darkest Black Country: “A blind man on a galloping horse could see that one coming”
It was as obvious and predictable as night following day – an England batting collapse and a British Politician being found to be a duplicitous toe-rag…
As I tap away on my 1959 Optima Elite Typewriter, thankfully the default volume is only 2000 and the default rate in the construction sector is 2.5%. However, this is likely to rise as businesses have only just started to make their repayments.
I was encouraged to take out these loans all over the place. We were told we were as mad as a March Hare who’d been taking methamphetamine and Red Bull for deciding against it. “it’s money for nothing” I’d hear people cry, but the regular readers of my inane witterings will have come to realise that I’m something of a cynical old buzzard who’s seen it all before and holds a jaundiced view of both the construction and plant hire industry.
First of all, there is no such thing as being too good to be true, because it always is!
Secondly, there were too many people and organisations who took advantage of the seemingly charitable actions of the Government, and it’ll end in tears.
Thirdly, this system has allowed businesses that were underperforming and struggling to have a new lease of life, and to actually thrive.
Now whilst I have to begrudgingly accept that I am an old curmudgeon I don’t wish any business any malice, as there should be enough work to go around for all of us. But these loans have helped to falsely sustain businesses that may well have gone under. As I am a fan of the ‘survival of the fittest’ philosophy, it sticks in the craw somewhat.
The news of the defaults should act as a warning to us all that we have a bow-wave of the Covid era; that of business difficulties and inevitable failures. This will have a knock-on impact for us all with bad debts making funders and Banks think long and hard about offering finance to sectors with a growing default rate.
I’m minded to repeat another molten droplet of insightful observation from my Black Country friend, when he referred to a refurbished machine he’d just been to have a look at with a view to making a bid: “Well Roy, it’s what I call 90-80-70 – it looks 90% at 80 feet away whilst moving at 70miles an hour”. I adore that analogy and can’t help thinking that it applies to the current economy, which, if we all slowed down and took a closer look is nowhere near as good as we think it is.
Now, anyone seen my saddle and Stevie Wonder dark glasses?
Happy Hirings.
40 Executive Hire News - September 2022
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