Tuesday, Jan 20, 2009
''Gordon Brown....is fighting to avoid going down in history disgraced completely''
Telegraph: Gordon Brown brings Britain to the edge of bankruptcy
'This catastrophe happened on GB's watch, no matter how much he now opportunistically beats up on bankers. He turned on the fountain of cheap money and encouraged the country to swim in it. House prices rose, debt went through the roof and the illusion won elections. Throughout, Brown boasted of the beauty of his regulatory structure, when those in charge of it were failing to ask the most basic questions of financial institutions. The same bankers Brown now claims to be angry with, he once wooed, travelling to the City to give speeches praising their "financial innovation".'
Posted by hpwatcher @ 09:19 PM (1267 views) Add Comment
18 Comments
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1. hpwatcher said...
''It is finally dawning on the Government that the liabilities of the British banks grew to be so vast in the boom years that they now eclipse the entire economy. Unfortunately, the Treasury is pledged to honour those
liabilities because it has guaranteed not to let a British bank go down. RBS has liabilities of £1.8 trillion, three times annual UK government spending, against assets of £1.9 trillion. But after the events of the past year, I wager most taxpayers will believe the true picture is worse.
Meanwhile, the assets are falling in value. This matters, because post-nationalisation these liabilities are now yours and
mine.''
We are in serious trouble aren't we?
2. Alan Lubin said...
http://twitter.com/AlistairDarling from the horses mouth ;)
3. mark said...
didnt the last labour gov bankrupt britain????????
4. flintster1994 said...
hpwatcher,
They can only take it so far before people say enough is enough! Can't they?
I'm getting a wee bit angry now! I have faith in my own skills,
but I do worry for the people in big towns and citys. Your aveage Joe is not resposible. He was only working within the system that was given to him.
5. a saver said...
RBS has liabilities of £1.8 trillion, three times annual UK government spending, against assets of £1.9 trillion.
That's interesting if their assets are really worth that much. Does anyone know if they are being made to sell some of them? Banks usually own lots of property, which isn't very liquid of course, especially in the current market.
6. who stole my pension? said...
If Gordon had never fiddled the inflation figures this might never have happened. However, Gordon knew that changing the inflation index from RPI to the lower CPI would enable the BoE to set interest rates lower thus fueling the borrowing boom. No more boom and bust - just bust from now!
I seem to recall a GB singing the bankers praise at the Mansion House in late 2007! How can he now blame them when just a short time ago he was patting them on the back!
7. If We Go Down, We Take England Down said...
Maybe Brown/Darling/Scotland and it's banks is the toxic cancer killing England.. Independence now...
8. braindeed said...
The country as a whole ( don't take it personally, prudent savers) has been pissing it up the wall, beggering thier neighbour for 15 years.
The waiter has brought the bill, and we're skint.
PPFI - lies!!!. Utilities sold of cheap - insider trading amoungst old chums - and the majority looked away because they were 'rich'
'Rich' and MEWing away the countries actual wealth.
We can't afford the pension liabilities of the more cossetted elements of our beaucracy - who's going to tell them, for tell them we must.
I remember more sober notaries expressing these facts when Lady T bribed her storm troopers in the early eighties.
We're all at each others throats already, heaven knows how far down we will all be dragged
9. mrmickey said...
Looks like we will all be working in the Russian salt mines for the rest of our lives to pay this lot off. What really cheeses me off is with one hand were borrowing money from the Chinese & Arabs then with the other RBS are lending it out to the Russians who have no intention of paying it back.
10. Hobdoll said...
The best article I have read for some time. Frightening 'yes' - but I'm afraid thats where we are.
Hob
11. Tomwatkins said...
I called for effective nationilisation of the "banking system"-NOT of the banks themselves. You cannot have the wealth (that is money creation) in the hands of private enterprises. It has always been absurd, and will always be absurd. That's the root of the problem-money creation. All else is hogwash.
12. braindeed said...
No-one ever considers that the 'pension pot' or other 'saving vehicle' has usually been inflated by the same fantasy notion of its 'worth', all through the bubble blowing process.
I'm all right, Jack - keep your hands off of my stash........old tune
Perhaps the owners of thise site should consider a usefull porpose for it now - the point is proven and it's like watching a slow motion crash-test.
13. quiet guy said...
@braindeed
"Perhaps the owners of thise site should consider a useful porpose for it now"
The purpose of this web site is to make money for the owner; that we find it useful is mutually convenient (for now). Nothing more.
"No-one ever considers that the 'pension pot' or other 'saving vehicle' has usually been inflated by the same fantasy notion of its 'worth'"
I assure you that this has crossed my mind many times in the last few years.
14. Rentslave said...
Good point tomwatkins - take the system into public hands, not the bankrupt companies that run it.
It wouldn't even require buying them out. Just remove their banking licence ("Part IV permission" to use the jargon from the Financial Services and Markets Act, from where these permissions derive). They are well and truly bust - it's time for a little brutal honesty.
15. Whathpc said...
Brown surely has very little chance of winning any future election...one would think -- however with every problem comes opportunity. There are some very culpable people who have got us all into this absolute shambles (we obviously know who they are)..... some of them have pleaded their little apologies. However they have held onto their booty. Brown, if he has any gumption, will see that asset recovery from these people will be welcomed by the voting classes ---- action in which monies flow back into the coffers will be highly regarded and he can then show his true leadership qualities. Does he want to avoid some of the labels that he has rightly picked up ? This would be his one and only chance...
16. inflation is eating my savings said...
Don't give me that goodie good b***s**t.
>I'm all right, Jack - keep your hands off of my stash
DSOM is infinity in a grain of sand!
17. paul said...
Agreed who stole my pension. I winced when I read the other post from the article about Mervyn King's speech:
"Mervyn King said that from the early 1990s until the start of the credit crunch in 2007, monetary policy was successful in controlling inflation and maintaining economic stability."
Excuse me? Come again? Monetary policy was successful what what?
18. hpwatcher said...
Gordon Brown MUST go, King MUST go and Darling must go.