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LITTLE GORDON - BIG JOB

Notice how Gordon has to tell us 'his' action is "UNPRECEDENTED" just in case we fail to realise his greatness.

How satisfyingly unprecedented it would be, if we had politicians of GENUINE STATURE who had no moment-to-moment awareness of status, just a natural volition and aptitude for elegant functionality in the interest of country and people.

They are 'out there' and that is where hypocritical politics intend they should stay.
Small wonder that every aspect of our 'culture' is in decline - not just money management.

"ADMIN USE ONLY "

"Do come to the meeting armed with ideas on how we are going to do this story. We're bidding for Darling on these events. "

Should this blog entry really be here - it doesn't seem exaclt impartial does it????

In the Trial, a duly Kafka title, I hope you won't get sucked into what seems to me as spin blind alleys like:

a) Blame the bankers bonuses. But they are just mice on the wheel doing their jobs. The bonuses are not what sent us over the edge. The government was responsible for regulation and oversight and I assume that they were given the facts or we would have heard about criminal proceedings.

b) Its a global problem. The government does not control the world economy. But if sub-prime was identified as high risk early on then they should have been looking at what our exposure was. There was never enough cash available to cover the CDS so we were always at risk.The high economic factors would be beyond their control but our banks and institutions were in our control - clearly they weren't. So far as I know CDS and derivatives are still totally unregulated. In the end its just risk analysis isn't it?

c) The government acted quickly to stabilise the situation. I am working on the assumption that to the public everybody seemed to be taken by surprise. To me that is the most worrying thing. Why didn't the government see it coming? If you know about Credit Default Swaps (CDS) and you know there are dubious and large sub-prime loans with instruments driven off the hard cash then it must have been obvious there was going to be at the least a very hard landing. In fairness once the problem was seen they did act although the consensus seems to be we were behind the curve instead of ahead of it.

Surely this matter affects the whole country and the global economy so we should have a fully independent public inquiry to see what the facts were if or when the economy returns to stability.

I vote Lib Dem, I am not a Party worker or member and this is about the country not a faction.

Why bid for Darling? (£0.01 on EBay, if you're lucky) Get someone with a whiff of understanding about what is going on out there. He only touts the government line

...Credit Crunch: The Trial, asking who is to blame...

you may spot some likely suspects in this report?

Hi Robert.

Here are some questions for your panel to work out the 'blame'.

Its well known that the city uses many science and maths graduates, why did no one in the city assess the risk that some of these loans were being sold by mortgage brokers in the US who were being paid soley on commission without oversight. Were they not also aware these were being wrapped up with stronger loans to mask the risk of the subprime loans?

The world has suffered before where financial instruments are sold to the public by sales people on a commission only + basic salary.
Is it now time for the financial hubs around the world like the city to regulate and say it won't deal with any financial instrument from around the globe where people that sell on commission are not constantly regulated to stop miselling.

Do ratings agencys desicions and credit default swaps now need to go through a clearing house system where each component of a rolled up debt to be sold to investors is individually assessed on each of its indiviudal components so that an overall rating can be given?
This clearing house would also stress test to assess if mortgage borrowers can afford the long term rate of a mortgage rather than the short term 2 year 'teaser' rate which many in the US could afford, but not the 'variable' rate.

Is it a safe idea for the government to force banks it now has a stake in to return to lending levels of 2007, will that not cause another property bubble, does the government want mortgages at 100% LTV for the best rates during January 2007 or 75% LTV for the best rates which they were at the end of 2007?

Just a thought. Try
Paul Krugman on Gordon Brown in the New York Times today.
Oh by the way-Krugman has just been awarded the nobel prize for economics.
Welcome back Keynes!

Don't spend what you can't afford to pay.

Always keep something back for a rainy day.

Be professional, ethical and true in your dealings.

Understand your limitations.

Listen before speaking.

Don't fib.

Don't underestimate your audience....



Nope. I can't see who you could invite on either.
As to guests....

The FTSE is up 6% in one day (still 1000 points below the post 9/11 period I think) and it has been hours - if not days - since government data was lost!

Labour are on a roll! Can't lose the next election.

On a more serious note is it just us that loses computer hard drives like a child loses Smarties? Are we, desirably, more open and therefore more aware of our failings than our European and US counterparts? Or are we a country of "check list bureaucrats" who are too busy to notice the chuckling foreign agents snaffling our USB memory sticks?