This does not happen every day/week/month/year/century.
I think we’re definitely living through the Last Days of The Giddying.
Things to remember:
- Tony Blair took the country to war on what later turned out to be complete and utter false information.
- Gordon Brown has only been Prime Minister since June 2007, however he has been Chancellor since 1997. He is pretty much out of excuses with regard to the current financial woe of the country. I note that he is RARELY on TV or radio (and I watch and listen to a lot of both). I feel sorry for him but at the same time: fuck him; he is the Prime Minister and with this comes a lot of responsibility. The buck (or, more accurately, The Pound) stops with him.
- I am extremely well paid but, without going to some dodgy mortgage house I would not be able to use the “normal” salary multipliers to pay for the place that I currently comfortably rent. This an indicator that something is horribly horribly wrong.
My prediction? More heads on the block shortly.
Filth, lies, truth and blame 
It is going to get a lot, lot worse in my opinion. The knock on effects of the loss of jobs in the City will affect all of us. Less tax contributions from the salaries paid, less business done with the shops in the area. It is like a house of cards almost.
“House of cards” – I like that. Remember the TV series? It is indeed a disaster which is unfolding in front of us. It’s OK though, I know how to make fire from rubbing two sticks together and everything. 🙂
It’s hard to feel sorry for anyone in charge. I pulled out of the ‘owning’ sector of the housing market 18 months ago because I saw a massive market correction coming – but I’ll be honest, I didn’t see it occurring this way. Yeah, Gordon’s guilty – and his days are numbered. But the Chief Exec of Lehman and all the other failing banks – equally guilty. Yet the man in charge of Lehman received 90-million dollars in bonuses last year alone!
Well exactly my point (and the subject of the poem I put on my blog recently).
They let their filthy greed splash out of the swill bucket until they slipped on it and now they’re all covered in it.
90 million dollars bonus in unconscionable – and as much as I hate bankers it was horrible to see people turned away from their jobs in tears; that should never happen to anyone.
p.s. I told sold up a couple of years ago and it’s looking like a very wise move right now. Even if the market bounces it’s looking like it will be many years before it bounces back enough to save people, least of all the P.M.
I do indeed remember the TV series.
Whilst I don’t doubt that on occasions such bonuses were due, the arrogance of such banks in thinking that they can ride out the rough times (caused by their own packaging of debt financing) makes me think that perhaps such bonuses should be given back.
Of course the large bonuses are usually made up of shares, so there maybe is some poetic justice after all.
Still, I feel for the people who have lost their jobs as they will certainly struggle to find other gainful employment at the moment.
It’s interesting how the current US Treasury Secretary has been quoted to say:
“But he added: “The American people can remain confident in the soundness and resilience of our financial system.” But there could be some “rough times ahead”, essentially.
Alan Greenspan said a few days ago that the economy could be heading toward the worst condition since the Great Depression, and won’t snap out of it until the housing market stabilizes.
Not a good time to own a house.
capitalism is on its arse – it wasn’t supposed to work out that way right??
*smugly grows things on the balcony in event of disaster*
It’s 1985 redux in the US. I’m not a fan of gov’t regulation, but that’s twice in my lifetime that the credit market has spun out of control.
– Making loans to people who can’t afford them.
– No-money-down loans, putting all the risk on the lender.
– People buying above their means.
What irks me is that now, socialism rushes to the rescue, and I have to help pay (taxes) for other’s mistakes/misdeeds.
I forgot to add . . . the failure of Lehman Brothers, and the refusal of Treasury to provide bail-out is capitalism at its best. Financial Darwinism. Fail to produce, and down the loo you go.
Well Bulldog you’re absolutely right – *we’re* the ones, the normal regular not-got-a-yacht or a Ferrari people, who end up funding all this nonsense at the close of the day.
Today my new boss realised one of our biggest banks was in trouble (we both bank with them too, which made it more interesting) so he waited for their share price to crash and bought a stack of shares…just at their lowest. By the end of the day they had regained 10% of their loss making him a tidy packet into the bargain. He then spent the next 30 minutes telling me he felt really guilty for cashing in (I did suggest he gave the money to me but apparently he didn’t feel THAT guilty).
Can you feel the bankers starting to squeak as they are crushed? Eeeeeek eeeeeeek.
Tan – the GM contamination will ensure your ad-hoc food supply greenery will grow big and strong and be disease-free and cause you to grow an extra ear in the middle of your forehead.
But don’t let that put you off.
We need a proper market for houses (trading market that is). If things start to overheat there is no real way to reign it back in and it just keeps going until it goes bang. If you could go short on house prices (rather than the only other option we have with is on mortgage backed securities) then the overheating of the market would be arrested before it got too bad and we wouldn’t end up in the ludicrous situation we are in now.
Remember, the value of your investment may crash as well as go down, you may not receive all of the money you put in, if in doubt close your eyes, cover your ears, go ‘lalalalalala’ and cling onto the firm belief that the US housing market could never stop going up.
Well it started looking very silly to me a few years ago – and I’m certainly no financial expert so what’s the excuse for the bankers…who supposedly are!