Comments on: Another day, another bank in trouble – Lehman

By: Pete Chown

Pete Chown — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:25:40 +0000

Don’t be so pessimistic about the UK’s financial position. If the government can’t borrow any more in the markets, there is always the IMF…

Darling says that the downturn is the worst for sixty years, therefore worse than the 1970s. In the 1970s, Labour really did have to go to the IMF, and inflation reached 27%. Makes you wonder if he knows something we don’t, doesn’t it?

By: Freeborn John

Freeborn John — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 12:51:40 +0000

The differences between 2001 and 2008 are interesting. When the Internet bubble burst the TV crews were outside our London offices as laid-off colleagues left the building. Alan Greenspan’s talk this week of a “once in a century event” is exactly the same phrase used by Silicon Valley CEO’s in 2001. One difference between now and then is that it was the startup tech companies that went bust. The well-established tech-majors were able to ride out the downturn thanks to the billions accumulated in the bank during the preceding Golden Decade, but the coffers are bare at some of the famous names in the world of finance. The biggest difference though is the government intervention. I don’t think it even entered anyone’s mind that the US government would pump money into Silicon Valley in 2001 like they are doing today on Wall Street.

The tech-bust was a hurricane for anyone near the eye of that storm but did not cause a broad-based recession. The talk today is of recession in the wider-economy, but it seems more likely to me that Greenspan’s “once in a century event” will also prove to be limited to the one sector (finance) closest to the recent “irrational exuberance” in house prices.

By: Neil Craig

Neil Craig — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:57:59 +0000

Bankruptcy is the ultimate guarantee for free enterprise. Failing enterprizes have to be allowed to fail to clear space for better ones. This is what Schumpeter called the “gales of creative destruction” & if America has been driven to it becauses they no longer have the money to do otherwise at least they have bitten this bullet.

By: APL

APL — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:44:22 +0000

JR: “The massive rescues of Fannie and Freddie stretch even the long pockets of Uncle Sam.”

Sad to say, it has been a very long time since Uncle Sam had anything in his deep pockets except crumbs.

Uncle Sam now sits on the street corner begging the Japaneese and Chinese and the Russians for charity, (please buy my bonds).

The Uncle Sam that launched the Marshal plan, was a fine upstanding fellow who was able to fund himself entirely from his own resources. Uncle Sam today, is a down and out crack addict.

It is so sad, with potentially horrendous implications for all of us.

By: adam

adam — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:23:14 +0000

Why does our government still not know how much NR is worth

How can they make any announcement about NR if they dont even know its value.

Why do we need to pay 5 million to have it valued, cant the market do that. With the market the way it is, wont the valuation simply be out of date by the time its finished.

What have they been doing this past year if they still havent worked out its value.

Economy collapses, Labour fiddles.

confused

By: Brian Tomkinson

Brian Tomkinson — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:21:11 +0000

The answer to your final question is that Brown thinks only of what is best for him not the country. The other incompetents, laughingly called the cabinet, are similarly fixated on their own futures. Your party could have a louder and more authoritative voice too!

By: David Eyles

David Eyles — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:20:31 +0000

For at least a year before Gordon actually got the job he wanted, the nation was in thrall to the endless “will he, won’t he?” discussion. Although much of the governmental administration went on as usual, it was pretty clear that decisions were not being made at the highest levels because civil servants did not know who would be in power next week or next month or whatever. Added to which, Gordon was doing everything he could to scupper any necessary reforms by using his powerbase at the Treasury to block progress.

Gordon is now in power and things have only got worse. As Janet Daley suggests this morning, the entire Labour party, not just the government, are fretting so much about their own careers and the future of the Labour Party, that they have completely terminated all interest in governing.

Effectively, this country has been without a proper functioning government for two to three years – some would argue eleven – so it is hardly a surprise that the BoE is in a similar state, given that much of its activities are curtailed and hidebound by a non functioning government.