Most everyone has heard the expression, “break the bank” – but its origin is not from “breaking” a “piggy bank” – nor were the first such banks fashioned after pigs. And then, there is whatever the Banking Re.solution did to the banks in Anguilla. The origin of that confusion is similarly unaccountable.
Breaking the Bank Began with Big Bets!
Anguillian denizens may not be surprised to learn that: the first person to “break the bank” was Charles Deville Wells, an English gambler and reputed fraudster, in 1891 at – wait for it – a Monte Carlo casino! Not a cute ceramic farm animal with a coin slot in its back.
With thanks to Wikipedia, we learn: “At the start of each day, every gaming table in the casino was funded with a cash reserve… known as ‘the bank’. If a gambler won very large amounts, and this reserve was insufficient … [play was suspended while] extra funds were brought from the casino’s vaults. …a black cloth was laid over the table in question, and the successful player was said to have broken the bank.”1
Given the $60 Million of incremental tax taken in 20222 – instead of the expected $11 Million of GST over the prior year, the government “broke the bank” in Anguilla – suspending play in too many households, with no hope of extra coins in any bank of any kind!
Pondering British Piggy Bank Beginnings
Another misconception has been that the slotted, pottery pigs that connote savings and frugality were rooted in an orange clay called “pygg” used in British pottery – and farm animals in the Middle Ages. As the language evolved, “pygg” and “picga” (Old English name of the animal) blended as homonyms, and coin jars were increasingly made to resemble the creatures that lolled in that clay.3 However, this theory may have been coincidental, with a consensus that Western piggy banks originated in 13th century Germany, where pigs were considered symbols of good fortune.4
“Boar Banks” Began in 12th Century Indonesia!
While the earliest slotted “money boxes” date to ancient Greece looking nothing like pigs, a trove of artifacts suggests the first porcine banks were popular in 12th century Java.4 It appears their appeal endured, as another source asserted, “the first true piggy banks – terracotta banks in the shape of a pig with a slot in the top for depositing coins – were made in Java in the 14th century [in the Majapahit Empire]! So many… have been found in so many sizes that it is clear they were immensely popular at the time.” Notably, they resembled “the Javanese boar or celeng, a small swayed back… cousin of the European wild boar” – and they had to be broken to spend the coins, as many were found in pieces from that era.5 Perhaps there’s a similar misconception about “breaking the bank” in Indonesia, but many uncertainties about our banks began with the Banking Resolution.
Selling Bank Shares in Anguilla…
Given recent questions about NCBA preparing for sale or merely selling shares6 as clarified thereafter, the Banking Resolution secrets could nonetheless remain sealed for centuries like the intact coin banks from Java. That said, one piece of our broken banks may not require an audit to assess it!
…after Tanking Loans with Taxes
Unfinished structures are strewn from East to West. Just look at the auction pages. Did the British help ministers break our banks by allowing spending and taxes to quadruple for the same population and services, and then bury toxic loans in the Banking Resolution during the Great Recession?
How? They must approve every budget act and tax bill passed in the House by the Ministers, sometimes with undemocratic help from the AG and DG, to be enacted as the laws of our land. So. Without British signatures – or votes, no budgets or tax laws.
We don’t need to unseal the Banking Resolution to see the impact of compounding taxes from $5 to over $17 Million per month back then – mostly Customs duties buried in food, goods and fuel prices. Given fines and penalties for unpaid taxes, many bought food and paid taxes instead of their loans – not just the few often demonised for devastating defaults. And new cracks have appeared, as GST is now pushing yet more people toward default, forced to choose between groceries or keeping a roof over kitchen tables, as global inflation has soared.
Brits Breaking Anguilla While Broken: Recession, Hurricane, Pandemic – and Inflation!
The British began banking on GST while the recession was looming. They approved budgets and taxes to help break our banks with toxic loans. Coerced commitments to GST after Irma. Imposed IGT the first year we caught ourselves, and then raised the hammer up while our border gates were down. With votes from this government, they shattered our recovery with GST the same month of the highest US inflation in 40 years. And… They imposed GST after exceeding its goals before it began, by merely opening the borders.
The British should be ashamed of this sham of Good Governance! They approve mismanaged ministry budgets year after year, force People to pay more taxes – push them into poverty, threaten tourism, yet never force a spending freeze, much less a cut – like those taken at every household table and business every day. They help those maneuvering to manipulate voters. They force people to pay hidden duties, fees, levies and licenses for a façade of services and grandiose projects as if “gifts” from government. They try to teach some to ask, “What’s the government doing for me?” while taxing them and spending their own hard-earned cash on them. And more recently, “giving” welfare coupons worth pennies on the dollars pilfered from recipients’ own pockets.
To Repair the Banks: Structure a Sustainable Government – and Repeal GST!
Such fiduciary failures have no doubt contributed to breaking our banks – and more recently, household banks, into shards from GST. That undemocratic, cultural atrocity has been committed against the public – including our public servants, who must also pay it. As it empties their wallets, it impoverishes and humiliates their friends and families with intrusions, penalties and lost civil rights, along with 13% less for every transaction, every day. One recently whispered the simple words, “GST is killing us!”
To pick up the pieces of our broken banks and revive our economy, reasoned leaders must mercifully renounce and move to repeal GST, balance the budget, and invest in a new way forward with the British and yes, household piggy banks!
Repeal GST. Now!
This article reflects cultural and economic issues raised on July 5, 2021, at the House Select Committee on GST Public Hearing. 1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Wells_(gambler); 22023 Government of Anguilla Budget, pp. 2-3; 3https://thefinancialbrand.com/news/financial-education/history-of-piggy-banks-24204/; 4https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piggy_bank; 5https://indonesiaexpat.id/travel/history-culture/the-origins-of-the-piggy-bank/; 6”NCBA Not for Sale” The Anguillian (Vol. 25; No. 10; 10 Feb 2023) pp.1,2.
