Rolling UK Economy Into The Shitbin Thread

re. NR's subprime exposure -- are we talking about subprime lending in the UK?

yes

oic.

repossessions are going up anyway -- faith in a "good mortgage book" is hard to come by even if the loans aren't strictly subprime. or at least that seems to explain why no-one would touch NR with yours.

Also, what is prime today can be subprime tomorrow

Also when your brand is a national byword for 'financial incompetence and failing economy' its going to be difficult to persuade people it's worth investing in.

Ugh apostrophes.

Ironically this means the government is now be responsible for the creation of money!

(other than coins and notes obviously)

On the other hand, Barclays seems to have done alright, considering.

yes, considering.

although of course those are the 2007 figures, including the benign first 7 months of last year.

Northern Rock has apparently put 2% on Labour's poll ratings.

Does anyone in this country actually have the slighest fucking clue who they're voting for next election?

Mentalist swings in poll ratings are kind of New Labour chickens coming home to roost. In the same way the Tories were undone in 1997 by the fact the voters they created had loyalty to no one, New Labour neutralisation of ideology means that people will grasp at anything that may swing their decision.

although of course those are the 2007 figures, including the benign first 7 months of last year.

Yes, it also depends on the extent to which Barclays' accountants have written off its exposure to subprime-based securities though. If they've taken the full hit now then they'll be able to move on, if there are worse revelations to come then they're kind of inaccurate.

They'd have been wise to write it off now IMO.

Since constituency-wise I now come under Hammersmith and Fulham (CON) I suspect I may have to vote tactically yet again.

Well presumably this is all still largely related to exposure to US based subprime. Its going to be difficult to even rate, never mind write off, homegrown subprime exposure until it actually goes bad.

Plus the US stuff is still early days, a lot of that is spreading into prime, auto, student debt

Setting up an ISA with the scarborough building society and came across this from august 2006

http://www.scarboroughbs.co.uk/publicrelations/pressreleases/2006/august14_ssm_announce.html

quote: "‘We have a great deal of experience in the sub-prime arena through our existing subsidiaries and we believe this will give us a head start in the non-conforming sector.’"

But I thought there was no subprime in the UK!?

There probably still was in August 2006.

Might explain why their ISA is a notice ISA.

http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Cartoon-Mortgage.article.jpg

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aEaHw4s_pqKg&refer=uk

BOE been reading the feds notes?

fuck you BOE, and fuck you the city.

My experience up here in the grim up north at the moment is of being in a recession. Would anybody like to buy a bike? I have plenty, and no takers at the moment.

I desperately need a bike actually. If I were up there Pash I'd know exactly who to buy it from! :/

If only you had a bike to get up to South Shields...

He does orders, if you know what you need.

That whole Bear deal reeks of pre panic

What is incredible to me is that Bear's employees accepted approx. 1/3 of their compensation as shares?? (I would hope that's an average, and that the top fund managers had more like 1/2 and the support and tech people had more like 1/10)

Oh, they should have a bit put away.

Oh no, wait! They don't have plump financial financial cushions!.

A plum cushion, yesterday...

http://www.shopdekko.com/products/630787m.jpg

Wow, it seems like it was only yesterday when they paid their CEO a
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/22/business/22bonus.html4.8 Million bonus. In fact it was a whole 15 months ago. Bet he's kicking himself he didn't get it in cash.

Ooops, fckd up...
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/22/business/22bonus.html

finding myself curiously indifferent as to the fate of bear employees :/

Well I'm not sure it's fair that they have to shoulder the burden of risky strategies undertaken by the whizmenschen managers at the top of the pyramid.

Ana amazing fact that I've not seen on any of these threads yet: on Thursday, the chairman of Bear Stearns was participating in the North American Bridge Championships in Detroit. He and his partner were fourth in a field of 130. By Friday, they'd fallen to 26th.

yeh, this is the same guy who took a lot of shit for being away playing golf during some previous crisis.

Is he some distant relation of the Bush family?

^ well wasnt Carlyle one ot the dominoes for bear?

The day Katrina hit New Orleans, Condoleeza Rice bought shoes at Ferragamo and saw a Broadway play.

As SoS Rice isn't that concerned with domestic shit. Not on her beat.

That's true.

every C-level executive is part of the marketing effort!!

ask seth godin!!!

That whole Bear deal reeks of pre panic

-- Dandy Don Weiner, Monday, March 17, 2008 12:46 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

the spectacular run on Bear's liquidity was the panic... If the same happens to Lehman (however unlikely) the shitbin will burst.

The share prices of the banks got a hammering today. RBS at 304p, HBOS at 460p. It was 1000p+ less than 12 months ago.

HBOS at 460p. It was 1000p+ less than 12 months ago.

We sold at 1087p :)

so.....do we believe that the hbos business this week was all down to 'rogues shorting the market'?

they still went and got their extra funding from the boe, right? even though they told us they didn't need it when they were blaming it on the rogue shorters?

Anyway this is what the banks wanted after Northern Rock, to be able to go get funding in secret. For them to complain now about this, when it was them that wanted transparency moved is ridiculuous. more likely that it is just fig leaf bluster

I love it how the losers in these situations always blame people shorting the market when actually what they mean is "I wish I'd thought of/been able to do that".

"Debt-Gorged British Start to Worry that the Party is Ending"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/business/worldbusiness/22debt.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=england+debt&st=nyt&oref=slogin