Thursday, Mar 12, 2009
Why so few questions?
Telegraph: Gordon Brown broke Lloyds, and it should break him
The disaster of Lloyds-HBOS could cost us £130 bn. So how come it isn't a bigger deal, asks Iain Martin. The catastrophe at Lloyds-HBOS is the ultimate New Labour scandal. It has the lot: cronyism, back-scratching, destructive micromanaging by Gordon Brown and an unimaginably large loss of public money.
Posted by alan @ 05:08 PM (1001 views) Add Comment
9 Comments
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1. a saver said...
"At that point, in the City in September, at the most expensive cocktail party in history, disaster intervened in the shape of the PM. Brown was terribly anxious: several of the most exposed banks were about to collapse. He and Sir Victor had previously discussed the possibility of Lloyds buying HBOS, now he would waive the rules to allow it. What should Sir Victor have said at that point? "No thank you, but I will have another canapé." Instead, something made him say "Yes, let's go for it."
I can just imagine myself in Sir V's place saying NGGAAHAAHAAR, you do make some funny jokes Gordon, waste perfectly good money f*cking our bank and our share price into the middle of next week and getting ourselves a triple F rating? I should cocoa, I'll leave it to you to buy crap like that ...oh hang on you were serious?
2. crunchy said...
I saw Brown on the news a few weeks ago saying the Lloyds decision to buy HBOS was nothing to do with him, "it was ultimately there decision."
Yeah right! That deal went through like lightning. Of course Brown did not have a motive, interest or sweetener.
3. tyrellcorporation said...
truly depressing...
4. inflation is eating my savings said...
I wonder if we are not forgetting other stories about September 2008, when desperate times were calling for desperate measures.
One report said we were hours from Armegeddon. Perhaps this had an effect as a confidence trick at the time.
5. inflation is eating my savings said...
After 2nd thoughts this is an outrageously pathetic article. Not a mention of what was going on with Lehmann Bros (sounds like a Kosher butcher....am I allowed to say that?).
I advise the keeping of some kind of record of these events, so you don't get consumed by this tripe.
6. techieman said...
Due Dilligence on a medium size company takes a minimum of around 3 weeks with a small army of accountants working into the wee small hours. [wether or not you think they do a good job is another issue]. The DD should be overseen (IMO) by the Finance Director of the company buying. I dread to think how long DD takes on a bank the size of HBOS but it dont take a weekend!!!! Then again maybe its done differently in banking [ :-)]
IF i were a lloyds shareholder i would be reviewing the possibilities of a claim against the D&O of the company for a lack of fiduciary duty. In that way Gordon is right - "it WAS ultimately [in the eyes of the law] their decision".
7. techieman said...
http://www.insurancetimes.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=377224
"The UK has seen its share of financial disasters. Last year Northern Rock was the first bank to collapse after investing too heavily in subprime mortgages, HBOS was also taken over by the Lloyds Banking Group in a government backed rescue after shareholders lost confidence in its ability to survive the credit crisis. It is from these crises where the [D&O] claims will arise, added Smerdon, warning further that the machinery exists in the UK for class action lawsuits."
Perhaps the D&O of HBOS was underwritten by AIG?!?!?
This story has some legs chums
8. matt_the_hat said...
I ask the question again (if nobody answers I assume we don't need to question government intervention at all, just talk about the random number generator that is house prices)...
Why would any company buy insurance if it can't afford the excess??? 25bn sounds outside Loyds reach!
9. crunchy said...
8. matt_the_hat
It does not matter the printer is on baby and the mickey mouse money era is now with us.
Hey. it's not real money to the government who are on there last legs SO WHO CARES!