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Listed below are comments made by Extra Bold between Thursday, 17th July 2008 and Tuesday, 7th October 2008.

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How to blow the head off this crisis? 11:14am on 07 Oct 2008 1. Total deposit guarantee

Are there any half measures we can take here?

2. Government takes controlling stake in banks

Not for the sake of it, but we should at least get equity for our trouble.

3. Massive interest rate cuts: 3% cut as wished for by Prof Blanchflower?

Certainly temporarily follow an inflation target that includes large rises in food and fuel costs. 2.5% is just false at the moment.

But money shouldn't be cheaper than free, so moderate rather than massive rate cuts.

5 Quantitative easing: central bank prints money to improve money supply

Yes. Doubtless some people are stashing cash under the floorboards. It has to be printed. If it stays under the floorboards it shouldn't contribute to the "money supply" and inflation.

That most of our money supply is in bank balances rather than cash, should perhaps not be seen as a policy, but as a consequence of people choosing to keep money in the bank. If that choice changes, the nature of the money supply should change accordingly.

6 Temporary nationalisation of commercial banks

Only when they fail

7 Create central clearing house for credit default swaps

Oh, is this a way to repackage the debt so that the risk gets lost in the system. Genius! Why hasn't it been done before. :P

8 Close all offshore tax havens and force all hedge funds onshore

What does this have to do with it?

9 Government takes control of the commanding heights of the economy with the power to hire and fire bosses...

Ha ha.

10. There is of course an alternative: do nothing. Let market forces rip and the strongest survive.

And perhaps confidence in banks is not rational, and there should be no banking as we know it.
Alistair wields the subtle knife; but where will the dust settle? 8:24pm on 28 Sep 2008 Yes, absolutely, the government should replenish its social housing stock from failed buy-to-let properties. What is the alternative? Dump them at fire-sale prices?

It is bad enough we taxpayers have to bail out the banking sector from time to time, without the worst end of every deal too.

Privatise profit, socialise loss, etc, more on my blog.
The cost of well-paid chief executives 7:34pm on 17 Jul 2008 CEOs have leverage over shareholders that unions can only dream of. They pay themselves a lot because they can. They are, in a sense, the triumph of labour over capital.

Pay levels are not determined by moral considerations but by bargaining power. You might tell Dave Prentice that executives are more powerful than unions and that he should get over it.

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