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[albitz]

Just started,giving the background to New labour and the lead up to the crash.
Very interesting so far.

[Banjax]

i watched the lehman bros episode last week - very enlightening - i'll catch this on i-player 

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

High interest mortgages given to thick pot bellied "trailer trash" Americans without any proof of employment .....or income............no wonder it all went "tits up"

If you can walk and chew gum at the same time.......you could get a loan.....the good old "liar loan".........or self certification ......as we like to call it in England.

[x.ray]

the private sector at its very best.
greedy self centred and now moaning

[Nickbat]

Just started,giving the background to New labour and the lead up to the crash.
Very interesting so far.

Haven't watched it, but I expect it's the usual "greedy Northern Rock" bit. The root cause lies in the advancement of sub-prime mortgages in the States, which were packaged as CDOs, SIVs and so on, until they were unrecognisable as junk, only to be flogged on. Trading debt has always been a major component of international banking and the European banks were unwittingly suckered in to buying what they thought was Triple-A rated debt, but was in fact pretty much worthless. What has interested me is why the default rate soared in such a short time-frame, especially when the US economy was in pretty sound shape.

Oh, and I found this most interesting background piece on the "Cloward-Piven strategy". Don't know what it is? A Google search is rewarding, but here is a
Washington Times Op Ed:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/oct/15/the-cloward-piven-strategy/

 

[Nickbat]

the private sector at its very best.
greedy self centred and now moaning

As I said last night, the private sector is the life blood of the public sector. If you got rid of the private sector, where would your precious public sector be?

I presume you work in the public sector. Which branch?

[x.ray]

thank god for this informative piece indentifying reds under the beds.
for one awful minute i thought it may have been greedy capitalists

[Nickbat]

thank god for this informative piece indentifying reds under the beds.
for one awful minute i thought it may have been greedy capitalists

Why do you talk in riddles?

Yes, I am Centre-Right and a supporter of free enterprise. I won't apologise for that. Clearly you aren't of a like mind, but at least you could try to be a bit more civil and informative. 

You didn't answer my question as to which branch of the public sector you are connected. 

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

thank god for this informative piece indentifying reds under the beds.
for one awful minute i thought it may have been greedy capitalists

Why do you talk in riddles?

Yes, I am Centre-Right and a supporter of free enterprise. I won't apologise for that. Clearly you aren't of a like mind, but at least you could try to be a bit more civil and informative. 

You didn't answer my question as to which branch of the public sector you are connected. 

Free enterprise and capitalism are all fine Nickbat.....but it still needs some sort of state regulation..........where there is human nature involved (greed).......letting the markets sort everything out will............ and has caused the problems we have today....... deregulation.....or light touch regulation ......can and will be abused. :-/ :-/ :-/

[albitz]

If you had watched the programme x-ray,you would have seen that not only was the crash traceable back to the U.S but to President Bush (not a private sector employee,but a vote hungry politician)making a speech about how they were going to ensure that many millions of Americans from minorities and generally poor backgrounds were going to own their own homes by 2010.
The politicians were up to their necks in it on both sides of the pond,.
You would also have had confirmation of several things I sais last night,particularily about Gordon Brown.Within a month of becoming Chancellor he made a speech at the mansion house dinner to the bankers and told them that what they do is "the genius of Britian",he then followed the American Greenspan model of cutting the Bank of England free from the Treasury and set up a structure within the FSA which had a "light hand on the tiller" approach to the banking industry.
He was up to his neck in the circumstances which brought about the problems and he made the problem immeasurably worse by squandering the countries gold reserves and blowing all the money in the boom without putting any aside for a rainy day.
If he was the finance director of a small private company he wouldnt have lasted 5 minutes.
The public sector is going to be hit hard very soon whoever is in number 10,and when it happens dont forget where to lay the blame.

[Nickbat]

thank god for this informative piece indentifying reds under the beds.
for one awful minute i thought it may have been greedy capitalists

Why do you talk in riddles?

Yes, I am Centre-Right and a supporter of free enterprise. I won't apologise for that. Clearly you aren't of a like mind, but at least you could try to be a bit more civil and informative. 

You didn't answer my question as to which branch of the public sector you are connected. 

Free enterprise and capitalism are all fine Nickbat.....but it still needs some sort of state regulation..........where there is human nature involved (greed).......letting the markets sort everything out will............ and has caused the problems we have today....... deregulation.....or light touch regulation ......can and will be abused. :-/ :-/ :-/

I am not suggesting for one moment that regulation is not required. Of course it is. Unfortunately, over the last few decades, we have bred a whole new breed pf career politicians who don't actually understand market mechanisms (or real life, away from Parliament) and are unqualified to establish appropriate regulation. That's why we get the daft laws to which Baroness Scotland has become (rightfully, it would appear) a victim. Hoist by her own petard, it would seem.

Of course, this applies not just to the UK. The EU is full of career bureaucrats who know sod-all about industry. The private sector is much more nimble than the lumbering public sector, so it needs a correspondingly agile set of regulators: people who understand the markets and can regulate in an effective, but not stifling, way.    

[Dishevelled Den]

thank god for this informative piece indentifying reds under the beds.
for one awful minute i thought it may have been greedy capitalists

Jesus wept!!!!!

[albitz]

thank god for this informative piece indentifying reds under the beds.
for one awful minute i thought it may have been greedy capitalists

Why do you talk in riddles?

Yes, I am Centre-Right and a supporter of free enterprise. I won't apologise for that. Clearly you aren't of a like mind, but at least you could try to be a bit more civil and informative. 

You didn't answer my question as to which branch of the public sector you are connected. 

Free enterprise and capitalism are all fine Nickbat.....but it still needs some sort of state regulation..........where there is human nature involved (greed).......letting the markets sort everything out will............ and has caused the problems we have today....... deregulation.....or light touch regulation ......can and will be abused. :-/ :-/ :-/

Of course there must be regulation, but it is knowing where to draw the line that is the problem.
If you tie the Banks up in red tape and constrain everything they do they will stop creating wealth in the long term or simply go to less regulated countries.
As one eminent person (whose name I cant remember atm) sais on the news last week,the UK attacking its financiers is like the japanese deciding its a bad idea to make electronic goods or the Germans deciding to get out of the luxury car market.It just doesnt make sense.
As for governments deciding the level of pay that private institutions can pay their own employees,dont even get me started.

[albitz]

the private sector at its very best.
greedy self centred and now moaning

To be honest mate,I think the level of this conversation is a bit above the level of sixth form Marxist rhetoric,no offense.

[Dishevelled Den]

I am not suggesting for one moment that regulation is not required. Of course it is. Unfortunately, over the last few decades, we have bred a whole new breed pf career politicians who don't actually understand market mechanisms (or real life, away from Parliament) and are unqualified to establish appropriate regulation. That's why we get the daft laws to which Baroness Scotland has become (rightfully, it would appear) a victim. Hoist by her own petard, it would seem.

Of course, this applies not just to the UK. The EU is full of career bureaucrats who know sod-all about industry. The private sector is much more nimble than the lumbering public sector, so it needs a correspondingly agile set of regulators: people who understand the markets and can regulate in an effective, but not stifling, way.    

....agreed for the most part but the problem will always be - who chooses the Regulator and who then regulates that Regulator?