Cassandra

Don't know whether this has been said before but everyone can help. Let's have a total BOYCOTT of TOTAL at the pumps. Go to another filling station. The only way that these multinationals can learn is when it hits their bottom line. I don't approve of proectionism but we as consumers do have the right to choose. Personally I will not be filling up my car with TOTAL but go to Shell, Esso, BP etc. Other than the dispute in Lincolnshire TOTAL have an appaling record on human rights and have aiding the despots in Mynamar and other evil regimes.

A new role for Kirsty!

I think this is just the tip of the iceberg for the City of London (and possibly also Wall St). I would expect more European banks to move much of their investment banking back to Frankfurt/Zurich etc. Likewise I would expect a growth of banking activities in SE Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore). Whereas in previous downturns the jobs have returned after a year or two I think this time round it is likely to be more permanent. The banking crisis is to my mind fundamentally a defeat for the US/British form of laissez faire capitalism.

Voted Monday as I expect that the rumour circuit will work overtime over the weekend so that by Monday morning there will be long queues of savers wanting to get their money out (a la Northern Rock).

The basic problem is that they have paid way over the odds for land. As far as I understand it they have borrowed massively against the assumed value of this land. With this falling by the day they are basically screwed. If this is revalued to reflect the its true value then they are effectively in negative equity territory (like a lot of their customers!). They are totally BROKE!!! I guess the alternative is to pretend there isn't a problem and keep an artificially high valuation on their books. This happened following the crash in Japan in the '90's with the result that even today there are plots that have been vacant for years as to sell them or build on them would be to accept their lower value. The banks might actually go along with this as otherwise the builders will be declared bankrupt and the banks will have to write off their loans.

The agents have valued it at 100k. There is of course absolutely no certainty that there is a mug prepared to pay this.

Not posted much but been around a while. Still crazy after all these years.

GB has also been developing flapping jowls

Actually I remember Vince using a very similar expression- Privatising the profits and socialising losses- in the days after the Nothern Rock debacle.

BLOODY!!! This is just a flesh wound. Expect some real cuts soon. Maybe 100,000+ by the end of the year.

Liked this comment regarding the Curse of Brown; Uri Geller used to do some spoon bending or mind powers on TV and then ask people to check things in their homes. People would phone in reporting clocks stopped, or a suddenly falling picture from the walls etc, at that exact moment. I tried an experiment. I put up a newspaper picture of Mr Brown [he looks a bit mystical as he has something on his forehead] in the kitchen. After a day I checked around the kitchen but everything seemed to be in order. It was only when I went into the garden that I noticed something had happened. My house had fallen in value by 20% http://www.order-order.com/2008/04/jonah-b...ica-dollar.html

The argument that prices won't fall because sellers will simply refuse to lower there asking price is complete nonsense. It never worked in other housing bubbles and it won't now. There are always those that HAVE to move though divorce, job, bereavement etc. In addition the explosive growth of repo's and BTL's forced to get out will massively accelerate the process.

One way is that the bankers are forced to accept the moral hazard of there actions. Fines are clearly not enough and there should be a mass round up and the whole lot of them thrown into jail. Make the sentences proprtionate to the bonuses that they have creamed off over the last few years. The investment part of banking should be allowed to fail with NO bail out. For the clearing bank operations these should be restricted to lending money they have on deposit. The execs should be treated as mere bean counters with salaries commensurate with running a public utility. And definitely no 6 figure bonuses.

Watching the Jon Snow interview on Ch4 thiseveing with GB made me realize that what he says will only make the crisis worse. No-one believes him and assumes (I think correctly) that it is all b******t. Even some Labour MP's are now realizing that having Gordown as PM will doom them to a lost generation in the political wilderness. There is an element of Shakespearean tragedy in all this as Gordoom waited 10 years to take over as PM and has screwed it up so completely in 10 months that it will take at least 10 years (if they are very, very lucky) to undo the damage.

For those of us that remember the 70's Seems it never rains in Southern California Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before It never rains in California But girl, don't they warn ya It pours man it pours.

The Euro was worth around 67p in the summer of last year. Now 80.5p. I make that a 20% change!! This is a big a crash as at the time of the ERM debacle. And bigger than the the 60's devaluation with Wilson "The pound in your pocket...".

How about this. A BTL inverstor slashes his wrists. (Actually the Death of Marat by David).

Actually the slump had started several months ago as the Land Registry data reflects completed sales.

I reckon 20 years plus! Japan crashed in around 1990 and still hasn;t recovered. Germany has also suffered benefited from maybe 20 years of stagnant houseprices (which taking into account inflation means an effective drop).

I worry for this country. This must be the opposite of Darwins theory of natural selection where now the fittest chose not to breed!!!

I totally agree. Modern banking practice is totally shameful. As someone who believes in an afterlife I wonder what the temperature of some financiers will be!!

Thanks for posting. I'm also not very good in this posting lark! and have only posted ~200 times in the last year. However IMHO your contribution is very valuable.

IMHO everyone now works in internet time which with the speed of communication means that everything should go at light speed. Unfortunately the dynamics of the house price crash ain't like that and this could take years to unfold. As they say. Patience is a virtue.

Just goes to show how much everyone has a house made of straw!!! Hope that you haven't got a large mortage on it!!

As someone who bought in the 80's I can remember the situation very clearly. We bought a terraced house in NW London (Harrow) for 34k (which seemed a vast amount at the time and was a real stretch). We lived without a car for a couple of years and holidays basically consisted of camping in a small tent (which my wife really hated!). However after a couple of years our salaries had gone up enough that the mortgage was not such a big issue and we could buy a car (a little Renault 5) and go on a decent holiday (Greece). We could also afford to eat in the local bistro a couple of times a week and still pay off our credit card bill every month. After that it was sailing!!! The difference compared to today is that then the high interest rates of the 80's were also accompanied by high inflation and for most people (including yours truly) big increases in pay. Today, sadly, this is not the case so anyone getting a large mortgage (say >3x salary) will be burdened with it for many years. My thinking is that the present crash (for be assured that the crash is already under way!) will be like that in Japan from ca 1990 (I know this having also lived in Japan). With low inflation it might take 15 years to reach the bottom. This is very depressing as it doesn't really help anyone except for a few vested interests. In Japan those who seemed to be OK were those that hadn't too much debt and had decent jobs. I am sure that the same will be true in the in the UK (and for that matter Australia, USA, Netherlands Ireland...).