Monday, Aug 25, 2008
Who is responsible for the current crisis?
Channel 4: How The Banks Never Lose
Channel 4 Dispatch. Kind of ironic it is the same channel does Location Location Location.
Posted by peter_2008 @ 09:09 PM (816 views) Add Comment
12 Comments
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1. drewster said...
I was unimpressed with the show. They didn't get any interviews from the bankers. Lots of blurred-out shots of random employees being asked how big their bonuses were.
There was a lot of focus on the bankers' greed and bonus-hungry short-term planning, which is all very well but not exactly new. There was absolutely no mention of the greed of homebuyers - they were purely victims with no personal responsability whatsoever. There was the unfortunate family who simply had to take out a 125% 'Together' mortgage from Northern Rock because they simply had to buy a bigger house. Then there was the homeowner whose house was being repossessed and who had to move to a smaller house, diddums. I suppose blaming the viewers themselves doesn't really appeal to advertisers - far easier to blame faceless overpaid bankers.
2. drewster said...
Btw in the commercial breaks I saw an ad for NS&I, featuring Bob Geldof, Stephen Hawking, Germaine Greer, and Sir Alan Sugar. Wonder how much that motley crew cost the government?
3. little professor said...
Alan Sugar donates his fee to Great ormond Street Hospital
4. Fwiw said...
The only good thing about that programme was that they briefly mentioned Credit Unions as alternatives to Banks.
5. alan said...
Interesting figures on the amount of repossessions by NR. Also useful figures on the LIBOR gap.
Also a few relevant comments from Michael Meacher on Tony Blair signing on for a bank job after being PM. Says a lot, really!
6. str 2007 said...
Good point Alan
But to be honest that and the fact that Chief Execs of big banks don't give interviews could have been covered in about 35 seconds not a whole hour.
Yes, this could have covered a whole lot more.
How money is generated (fractional reserve banking), how the price of houses has simply gone up inline with the amount banks have been prepared to lend. And how they were able to clear the dodgy loans from their books and how they got caught out.
This should have all been covered in the hour long programme. And they should have also pointed out more clearly that if banks reduce their lending multiples by 30% then that is where house prices will go.
7. peter_2008 said...
I guess the programme is really targeted at laymen. It may be too “lay” for regular visitors on this site.
It is informative to the general public and explain the mechanism why banks never lose. I was hoping it could spend bit more time on explaining how come banks can borrow from government funds/gilts behind closed doors, which appears more secretive than the Iraq war; and how banks recover loss not by cutting bonuses/pay to themselves, but ask customers to pay more.
8. shipbuilder said...
I agree with peter_2008, this was clearly supposed to in be broad-brush terms aimed at the general public and certainly useful if it gets people questioning and thinking. The point that really needed to be driven home is that we are unlikely to ever see such easy credit again and therefore there will be no 'return to normal'. Interesting figures on lending multiples - over 1M mortgages at 6x salary and above and over 37K at 10x and above in the last 10 years - scary.
9. Hotairmail said...
It was rubbish.
The programme lacked credibility which is why no-one wanted to be interviewed by them.
10. str 2007 said...
Hotairmail
Inclined to agree with you there. If you want to get an interview with the Chief Exec of a bank - don't turn up without an appointment, in jeans, with a cardboard cut out under your arm.
The ex banker, ex apprentice star seems to have spent the programme destroying any chance of working that sector again without actually showing the media how good he is at investigative interviewing.
To be honest I only watched past the 1st 1/4 because I was interested in the subject and hoped the programme was going to improve.
General public won't have got any message from this as if they switched on in the first place they'll have changed channel within the 1st 10 minutes.
11. alan said...
The programme wasn't televised just for the experts. It was for mass viewing.
I still think the programme was useful because my family watched it and it helped their understanding of the banking and mortgage situation in the UK. I think a lot of folk who don't have a financial background were given a some insight, especially concerning the couple who were struggling to keep their heads above water on a NR mortgage..
My family and the Great British public will certainly hear more about the credit crisis before the year is out! It's as well to get a grounding, now.
It was also good to see Roger Bootle, more people may now be encouraged to listen to his sound advice.
12. nathan said...
Shipbuilderr @8
"over 1M mortgages at 6x salary and above and over 37K at 10x and above in the last 10 years - scary"
No -- it was over one million mortgages granted at 6x or more salary and over 37K at 10x salary IN 2006 ALONE.
Very scary, and presumably it is stated and sometimes unverified income.