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onewatt

Listed below are comments made by onewatt between Monday, 22nd September 2008 and Monday, 1st December 2008.

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RBS, repossessions and recovery 6:49pm on 01 Dec 2008 #157

There's something strange about blaming US house prices for government failures.

If the government was building our whole economic and social well being opon US house prices don't you think it would have been mentioned somewhere along the way?

Maybe something like this would have been included in one or two budget reports over the last 10 years - "We are embarking on an ambitious new social order that will ensure the well being of all the Queens subjects - but only if US house prices permit".
Momentous Monday 10:56am on 13 Oct 2008 There's been full attention on the solution, but not much on the consequences of the solution.

There must be some downside to the government's creation of all these billions, otherwise they would have done it before for long-standing needy causes, such as the NHS, education, transport, pensions, immigration, care of the elderly etc.
Only one conclusion 6:41pm on 10 Oct 2008 I don't have a problem with Robert Peston's recent reporting of the bursting bubble.

But I wish he would have been just as active during the bubble building period.
Why bank shares are falling 5:33pm on 08 Oct 2008 #179 Very good. If the banks aren't lending to each other they must be sitting on wads of cash they otherwise would have been lending.

So why would banks rather lend to each other than use the cash themselves? Maybe, just maybe, every time they pass it to others a commission is created. And hence give strength to the legendary bonuses.
Why bank shares are falling 12:19pm on 08 Oct 2008 The government say they want to support the average person in the street and small businesses.

Wouldn't it have been more efficient to put these funds into a new lending organisation, charged with doing solely that? By the time the banks apply the funds to their own pet projects and mountains of overheads will there be much left to address the government's aims?

Then, free of having to service small depositors and lenders, the banksters can come out of the closets and do what they've always wanted - open betting shops in all their branches. That way they never have to worry about giving the money back that's brought into their branches.
Why bank shares are falling 12:06pm on 08 Oct 2008 Isn't it a bit disingenuous using the nationalisation of Northern Rock as an example of the government's good policy results?

I thought Northern Rock stopped lending, or at least drastically reduced its mortgage books, and had to stop taking deposits as their market-beating interest rates were knocking the takings of independent banks, and possibly contributing to the later crisis.
Why bank shares are falling 11:57am on 08 Oct 2008 The government say they are trying to restore the fluidity of the movement of funds around the banking system

But what if that's the problem - the rapid movement of funds around the banking system, like a pass-the-parcel game of gigantic proportions? It gives the appearance of banks acting like credit card tarts, covering up short positions one day and with their borrowed cash helping another bank cover up their short positions the next day.

Isn't then the constant feeding of the system with further cash like feeding a fire? And especially if the cash doesn't really exist, it's virtual money the government has created.

Someone, somewhere, has to take the hit for the bad debt risks taken over the last 10 years. The sooner that's recognised and the hit taken the sooner it can all be allowed to settle down.

Maybe the USA did get it right in their rescue plan, by tackling the bad debt in the system, rather than by pursuing other distractions like taking shareholdings in banks, etc.
Full deposit protection is nigh 5:57pm on 05 Oct 2008 Banks used to be thought of as a safe haven for your cash and investments. Not any more, not after the bankers exploits and evolutionay practices of the last 10 or 20 years.

Since bankers have blown it, and who knows if that genie can ever be put back in the bottle, we need a new institution that takes savers deposits and makes the ordinary loans society needs for everyday activities.

If banks want to engage in more exotic activities and keep their prospects secret they should be cut loose, not given any government protection and allowed to sink or swim with their shareholders and customers. But also the swashbucklers should be prevented from taking deposits from ordinary people and issuing mortgages and the like.

You wouldn't allow Mr Bean to run an electricity company, so why allow a banker to run the essential public service of taking deposits and making mortgages.
No shame to European defeat 1:40pm on 22 Sep 2008 Does anyone know why Americans can see the Ryder Cup on free-to-air tv whilst in Europe we can only see it if we pay a subscription?

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