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Here we go.. Gordon Brown will use his new year message to draw his election battle lines as he warns voters not to let the Tories "wreck the recovery". The PM will promise "a decade of shared prosperity", warning against Tory "austerity and unfairness" as "the privileged few protect themselves". It follows Mr Brown's attacks in which he suggested the Tories were elitist. The Conservatives said the message showed Mr Brown was "intent on waging a negative and pointless class war". Mr Brown's new year message, to be delivered in a webcast on the Downing Street website later, will include a prediction of the economic recovery in the year ahead - pledging to "go for growth" and "really get Britain moving forward again". Fairly shared He will promise to outline this week plans to invest in the "industries of the future" - such as high speed rail, the digital economy and clean energy - as part of plans for "a successful, fairer and more responsible Britain". But he will also use the message to attack the Conservatives - who have maintained a lead over Labour in the polls all year - and draw what he sees as the dividing lines between the two parties. More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8434137.stm Discuss

Here we go.. Gordon Brown will use his new year message to draw his election battle lines as he warns voters not to let the Tories "wreck the recovery". The PM will promise "a decade of shared prosperity", warning against Tory "austerity and unfairness" as "the privileged few protect themselves". It follows Mr Brown's attacks in which he suggested the Tories were elitist. The Conservatives said the message showed Mr Brown was "intent on waging a negative and pointless class war". Mr Brown's new year message, to be delivered in a webcast on the Downing Street website later, will include a prediction of the economic recovery in the year ahead - pledging to "go for growth" and "really get Britain moving forward again". Fairly shared He will promise to outline this week plans to invest in the "industries of the future" - such as high speed rail, the digital economy and clean energy - as part of plans for "a successful, fairer and more responsible Britain". But he will also use the message to attack the Conservatives - who have maintained a lead over Labour in the polls all year - and draw what he sees as the dividing lines between the two parties. More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8434137.stm Discuss

From Bloomberg: July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, will post writedowns of 50 billion pounds ($82.2 billion) by the end of 2010 as rising unemployment causes bad debts to soar, said Sandy Chen, Panmure Gordon & Co. banking analyst. Lloyds’s impairments will rise to 23.5 billion pounds this year from 15 billion pounds in 2008, Chen said at a meeting with reporters in London today. Bad debts will reach a similar level next year before declining in 2011, he added. “We won’t be post-crisis until 2012,†said Chen, who has a “sell†rating on Lloyds. “There’s no sector in the economy providing an outlet for the newly unemployed.†Lloyds, 43 percent owned by the government, has cut almost 9,000 jobs this year and is considering asset sales after a 7.7 billion-pound takeover of HBOS Plc, previously the country’s biggest mortgage lender, caused the quality of the bank’s loan book to deteriorate. Lloyds’s first-half profit will be “very strong†because of accounting gains from the HBOS takeover and a 6 billion-pound gain as a result of a debt-swap, Chen said. A London-based spokeswoman for Lloyds declined to comment. The stock rose almost 2 percent to 73.44 pence in London trading today, valuing the bank at about 20 billion pounds. The shares have tumbled 70 percent in the past 12 months. Chen had a “sell†rating on HBOS since August 2007, HSBC Holdings Plc and Barclays Plc since September 2007 and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc since October 2007. U.K. unemployment will peak at about 12 percent, Chen said, from its level of 7.6 percent at the end of the second quarter. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=ar9W7sv_Atns

Yeah I think it's from the tickerforum. I've seen the chart before on there quite a few times. I don't fully understand what it shows though.

I mentioned Mr Mortgage earlier (aka Mark Hanson). He has a great website with some great info and figures. I think he's actually in the mortgage business so he knows what he is talking about and does his own research: http://www.fieldcheckgroup.com/ Anyway, he updated his blog just yesterday. "One in five properties in Florida is in some stage of foreclosure". I don't know if I can copy and paste his stuff here so please check out the link, best sit down first though becaise the numbers are pretty horrific.

Sorry about that.

Thanks for that yellerkat. I knew there was an updated version of it but I only had the original version in my photobucket account.

I wanted to post the original mortgage reset chart. Scary, yet very interesting, however, this chart only tells us about the resets and NOT default rates when these resets happen. I've been looking around online and can only find this info about default rates. This info was produced by Mark Hanson (AKA Mr Mortgage on several other sites and so can be assumed reliable). http://www.fieldcheckgroup.com/2009/04/23/231/

The old guy's son is about to buy. Says he doesn't think NE will be a problem for him, okaaaay.

Guests - some estate agent and a journo.

And another thing, the banks actually booked those extra interest payments which were to be added on to the original principle as EARNINGS. Therefore, they were generating "profits" which weren't actually there. IE, collecting future potential "earnings" before they actually got that money.

I think you may be right. Some info from a WSJ article: -San Francisco-based Wells Fargo holds a mountain of Pick-A-Pays, having acquired $115 billion of the loans in its purchase of teetering Wachovia Corp., which it agreed to buy late last year. -JPMorgan, for its part, holds $40.2 billion in option ARMs that the bank acquired when it purchased most of Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc., which collapsed last year. The New York company also said in a filing that it has some exposure to an additional $46.5 billion in option ARMs sitting in complex off-balance-sheet entities. http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20090710-713165.html

Interesting.. thanks OP for the info, much appreciated.

I'm sure most of us on here have heard of these types of mortgages which were available in the U.S right up until the top of the market actually. I've been looking into them since I first saw that now infamous mortgage reset chart late last year. Anyway, if you have only heard of these and do not understand what they actually were then I thought I'd help you out. Basically, the Option ARM mortgage which allows the borrower to get a mortgage at an initially very low teaser rate which lasts for a set number of years. Great right?? Well no, say the full rate is 6% (that is the full interest and principle rate) and the teaser rate is 2%, that remaining 4% is actually added on to the principle (ie, the principle goes up during the teaser rate period). Now, as soon as the teaser rate period is over, say 4 years, you then have to pay the full 6% rate on an already increased principle. Therefore, a monthly payment on a teaser rate could be $1500 per month but when the rate resets it can shoot the moon to double or even treble that amount. According to Fitch, 80% of all option ARM borrowers only make the minimum payment each month. Some info: http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/wp-cont...-option-arm.png A great youtube videos explaining the numbers: Yeah so basically I just wanted to give any newcomers some basic info about this type of product.

Someone's got to him. I've followed his stuff since last year and his u-turn is pretty laughable. Ask yourself, what has changed? Has anything that caused this really gone away?

BTW Eric, I actually watched that BBC documentary last night that you link to in your sig. Very informative, thanks.

I thought it was great. Some of the acting was a little ropey though. However, this programme was exactly what was needed. To me it gave a face to the names in all the scenarios. All of us who see numbers and figures see just that, numbers and figures, it's all too easy to forget that those numbers represent actual people, families, people with dreams and aspirations. In some ways it could have been written as a documentary. What we need now is a channel four documentary detailing exactly how this happened and who caused it. No ******** about "how banks didn't know what they were getting into", just plain facts in a clearly presented way. This show was a start.

I agree, it was quite poignant.

So he's moved onto the next scam.

Real payback time? Yeah, until we bail you ******* out.

That's them ******ed then.

Ding! There we go. The rate reset.

She knows they can't afford it.

Nice, extra tenner? How about an extra £500 a month.