Thursday, Oct 23, 2008
Do you think they are also considering supporting UK manufacturing - guess I'll be disappointed.
FT (Westminster Blog): Time to nationalise the housebuilders?
It has been described by one former cabinet minister as the ultimate Keynesian move - the nationalisation of the housebuilding industry.
Posted by whostolemyendowment @ 10:23 AM (849 views) Add Comment
24 Comments
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1. mark said...
time to remove this government, they are now wasting tax payers money and ripping us off, screwing us and treating us like banks, but of course we wont get the money back in fact we will pay more in higher taxes...
2. japanese uncle said...
Housing-financial complex as an apparatus to exploit millions by inducing them into gynormous gambe, lucrative only to the insiders, seems to be replacing in its significance, the military-industrial complex, hence this aid.
3. drewster said...
I don't understand the rationale in nationalising the house-builders. Is it necessary to protect the industry? (so why not nationalise coffee shops or furniture-makers which are also struggling?) Or does the government consider house-building special because it provides a fundamental human need? (which it is partly true - housing is a need, house-building isn't strictly necessary when there are hundreds of thousands of existing empty homes)
4. mark said...
Drewster: Probably because this govt are all owners of properties inc rentals etc, they are just corrupt, they also want to say, vote for me i made you wealthy (poor really) by keeping your houseprice high.
5. phdinbubbles said...
Anything to get elected at the next election - trying to put a giant sticking-plaster on the housing market to try and perpetuate people's belief they are rich because similar houses to theirs have a big price tag in a high-street window. Unfortunately for the govt (and the poor suckers who end up paying - us), the housing market is disease ridden.
6. malct said...
Drewster - money supply to keep the wheels turning has been almost totally dependent upon people, companies and governments taking out increasing debt. Mortgage being an essential part of this.
a £100,000 mortgage can generate over £1,000,000 of monopoly money
7. stillthinking said...
Well, I hope this doesn't come to pass. This is starting to look less and less like an economic crisis, and more and more like the introduction through stealth of socialism, extreme ideas which were supported by Brown and Darling in their early political days. Construction and finance are pretty big chunks of the private sector.
As far as the plan to buy the unsold stock for social housing, how can they when privately built properties don't meet the minimum standards (rooms too small). I wonder whats coming next.
8. japanese uncle said...
stillthinking
As mentioned earlier, this is no socialism at all, but the extreme form (some may argue the terminal form) of capitalism called state monopoly capitalism. The hard-boiled socialism/communism in which all the assets (productive means including capital) of the financiers and mega-wealthy will be confiscated, will be much much fairer, as such confiscated wealth will deliver free education/healthcare, and much more substantial welfare to the common men. Some may say 'entrepreneurship and motivation will be lost then'. That's perfectly fine. People no longer need to hassle, given the severe constraint of natural resources on this planet. No more need of economic growth. Instead we must think about how to shrink our economies gracefully, for non-suicidal long term sustainability.
9. mark wadsworth said...
This is just another reckless throw of the dice to prop up property prices.
I love the way that they pretend to be interested in 'affordable housing', when actually they want to prop up prices, if they wanted this, they could just sit back for a couple of years, and hey presto, housing will be affordable again.
The thought of the gummint wasting our hard earned cash on this is sickening.
10. drewster said...
MarkW, malct, if they wanted to keep prices high then why not let the housebuilders collapse entirely?
11. phdinbubbles said...
Good point drewster, but if the govt can employ people to keep building in the short-term then it gives a 'healthier' appearance - none of these empty building sites everywhere that people might question. It is appearance and image that this govt is driven by - to persuade people of the 'fundamentals' argument they need to keep convincing us there is a shortage of housing and that they are doing their bit to keep building and trying to get people to buy into their shared-equity nonsense (so considerate of them to help people with affordability in this way - not). They are trying to manipulate demand with smoke and mirrors - it's based on bullsh*t rather than economics. It doesn't make sense, but is that surprising? In reality, if all building stops now (which is does seem to have done in my area), prices will still come down as there's loads of empty housing stock imho.
12. Rm96696 said...
How can the government support manufacturing if there isn't any? The economy is based on banking, estate agents and house price inflation. It should not be a surprise that those are the things the government is trying to support.
13. malct said...
Hi Drewster, I think the basic story goes that if the £100,000 mortgage defaults, the £1,000,000 monopoly money simply doesn't have even a fairy tale type legitimate excuse for existing. Those who have spent their hard earned monopoly money on a huge bag of carrots and cucumbers get to keep them and those who are left with the paper are stu££ed. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.
14. rm96696 said...
How can the government support manufacturing if there isn't any? The economy is based on baking, estate agents and house price inflation. It should not be a surprise that these are the things the government are trying to support.
15. phdinbubbles said...
rm96696: Perhaps an economy basesd on baking is really the way forward. Lol.
16. phdinbubbles said...
Typos.. Cuh..
17. Mark Wadsworth said...
Drewster, if they allowed the builders to 'collapse' (which they already have done, in terms of output) then the banks and other creditors would take over the part-finished and empty buildings. They would either sell them for fire sale prices or rent them out 'until the market improves'.
Either way, this would increase supply slightly and further depress prices (why buy when you can rent a shiny new place?).
18. malct said...
rm96696 - first prize for the funniest typo I've for many years
and a valid point as well.
19. malct said...
oh no! - the funniest typo I've SEEN for many years
20. renting2 said...
Baking may be somewhat right, more like half-baked economy!
21. James said...
malct - you expected to be corrected, so here I am. You're wrong because you don't understand fractional reserve banking. I've explained it a lot of times before - for example in this thread, for which you just called me naive:
http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/newsblog/2008/07/blog-this-film-criticises-the-gold-standard-and-provides-other-solutions-pointing-out-that-gold-is-primarily-held-by-private-banks-15139.php
22. rm96696 said...
Iceland has fish. Why can't we have baking?
23. malct said...
Iceland may have to sell all their fish waters to cover their debts
oh dear loaves and fishes
where's jack c and that subnarine?
24. malct said...
I know! snubmarine