ANOTHER LOSS?
“Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell said Thursday it made a loss of 2.81 billion dollars (2.15 billion Euros) in the final quarter of 2008 as it took a hit on the value of its oil inventories.”
I still cant help thinking that this is all part of the Big Accounting Clean-up – The current Credit Amnesty that appears to have been declared is just an excuse to get rid of all the Accounting nastiness and have a bloody good financial clean-up!
The problem with this is situation is that it’s fundamentally dishonest. It indicates that the Sales and therefore the Economy are suffering when this is not actually true. It also vindicates any business looking to ‘Streamline’ its staffing overheads, as apposed to businesses in real financial jeopardy.
Some of the retails outlets that have gone went for a bloody good reason! Whittards – What exactly did that shop sell? W H Smiths should be next by all accounts. This business may have ‘extended play’ due to its Post Office incorporation. But longer terms, I don’t see it lasting far into 2010.
And the public get to hear of another business with dreadful results (Don’t expect any good news until April at the earliest) and fear the worst, spend less and propel the situation further…
Just how much and how many of these announced Big Losses are just an excuse to Clean House?