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brothbeard

Listed below are comments made by brothbeard between Tuesday, 2nd September 2008 and Thursday, 16th October 2008.

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Banks still not lending 08:40am on 16 Oct 2008 I'm probably about to display deep ignorance of the banking system but here goes anyway.

My understanding is that banks make money through lending to people/businesses/other banks and charging an interest rate greater than the rate they give to savers.

I appreciate that there are a lot of complex instruments about but essentially that's what they do.

If the banks are unwilling to lend they will make no profit. If they are unwilling to lend whilst still taking deposits and paying interest they will make a loss.

In which case, how long can the banks continue to refuse to lend before their shareholders (including the government) cry stop.
Who pays? 10:41am on 02 Sep 2008 Frankly, I'm baffled. A short while ago everyone was complaining that house prices were going up too quickly and people weren't able to afford them. Furthermore, house price inflation fuelled people's appetite for borrowing and that, coupled with the banking sectors greed, got us into the mess we are in today.

House prices have a very long way to go before we get back to where we were even five years ago. The measures the chancellor has announced today are likely only to keep prices at present levels if not push them up again.

It doesn't exactly fair that the government should use public (i.e. our) money to support a minority of people who wish to buy now. They might anyway be better off renting for a few years whilst house prices fall further - which they probably would and should if the government left it to market forces.

When the global situation improves, as it surely will (although here I agree with Darling that it may be some considerable while), prices will once again move up and that will be the time to buy.

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