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Bill Jamieson: No hiding place as New Order wreaks its revenge

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Published Date: 10 October 2008
By Bill Jamieson
TODAY the blaze still rages in markets and the sky rains fire. Yet no sooner has this storm in money markets started to wane than another is gathering on the horizon: the Great Recession Storm. And as this gathers force, it carries the ominous sound of hammers working on the hanging scaffolds. There is going to be a Reckoning. The trial will be by outcry. The sentencing a formality. The executions swift.
The days of supermarket whizzkids running banks are over … banks will come to resemble highly regulated public utilities

With every great wave of wealth destruction comes an atavistic, vengeful retribution. Years after the onset of America's Gre...



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  • Last Updated: 09 October 2008 9:00 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Guga II,

Rockall 10/10/2008 03:13:26
Good stuff, but probably wishful thinking.

The pollies, including Maggie Broon, will be covering each other's backsides, as well as the backsides of their pals in the financial sector. There might be a few minor figures picked out to be scapegoats, but the majority of them will escape with nothing worse than a huge "golden parachute".
2

Marian,

10/10/2008 09:40:16
According to the Guido Fawkes Website Gordon Brown thinks that the UK financial crisis will give him his “Falklands War moment”, by this he appears to think his performance in dealing with the crisis will be seen by voters as being similar to Mrs Thatchers and will give him the “bounce” to win voter support and perhaps call a snap general election. However a far more appropriate “Falklands war moment” for Gordon Brown would be if he took full responsibility for “falling asleep on his watch” and resigned honorably as Lord Carrington did.
3

energizer,

edinburgh 10/10/2008 12:20:42
Interestting that the Edinburgh grandees are only now prepared to acknowledge, albeit behind closed doors, that perhaps ABN was an unwise vanity purchase. Anyone looking at it objectively could see that then, so it's not 20/20 hindsight. Goodwin even swallowed the poision pill payment on the American back to have his way and look what's happened: Partner bank Fortis has all but fallen, to be bailed out by the government of the country where ABN was based. Santander was the third partner and who can say they are safe when no one else is? The Spanish property market was indicating it was bust last year and there must be a feed through. Santander has had a UK mortgage bank foist on it yet it already owns Abbey. This is not over by a long way. However, the prospect of returning to [2.5 times salary + the lower salary if you're lucky] for an 80% of valuation mortgage loan, may sober the ridiculously inflated property market we have in the UK. Current domestic debts will be wiped out when the government starts to print money, but what level of inflation will they accept before turning off the presses? I remember 26% in the 70s and buying a house at somewhere over 12% in the eighties. Inflation isn't always bad, so long as you can service the pre-inflation debts before rates rise. So for the lucky ones, their house debts and other big debts will shrink. For those who can't service current debts, these will only get worse as interst rates rise with inflation. And, having had to sell an ISA at the bottom of the market today, I need to work out what to do with my HBOS and Abbey/Santander shares. I'm not sure where the view that Brown has gained in authority has come from: his plodding but relentless tinkering, meddling and dithering throughout his Chancellorship and current glove-puppetry have contributed to the present mess. This is the man who plundered pension funds, sold gold in his own third-world debt vanity project,only to see the price rise, very predictably with that

 

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