(Daily Doom) UK on a knife edge

[BlasterBates]

UK on a knifedge

If house prices continue to rise the Government will be able to trade their way out the debt, and the party continues:

However

If house prices plunge then the £3500 that every single tax payer has to fork out for the current Northern Rock debt will be peanuts, compared to the soaring debts that would occur in a housing crash, not to mention other building soc's.

Anyone moving their funds into Euro

[tay]

I will be seriously grumpy if the GBP drops any further against the pesky NZ peso..

[shaunbhoy]

I will be seriously grumpy if the GBP drops any further against the pesky NZ peso..

I am already seriously grumpy, and therefore immune to sudden fluctuations in currency exchange rates.

HTH

[Marina]

From that article:

There was a sector in 2000 where you could have made almost 10 times your money in the next seven years. But who would ever have chosen tobacco, up 960%

That's smoke in the eye for the health fascists

[PAH]

I suppose that means the government will do all it can to sustain an artificial housing boom, until it's managed to offload NR some years down the line.

Is it possible for the UK to go bankrupt? What happens when the next bank comes unstuck after investing in dodgy american products?

Where do they magic all these billions from? Does the Bank of England just issue more money out of thin air?

[Bagpuss]

Interesting dispatches programme last night on the mortgage debt abyss, the Northern Rock debacle might soon seem like a drop in the ocean especially when the large institution exposure to sold debt is revealed

[Moscow Mule]

Interesting dispatches programme last night on the mortgage debt abyss, the Northern Rock debacle might soon seem like a drop in the ocean especially when the large institution exposure to sold debt is revealed

Interesting programme last night - the very last part is what worries me the most - Credit Default Swaps - basically an insurance policy on a company going bust.

The trouble is these insurance policies are oversold to many times the market cap of the companies they are based on. IF a big FTSE100 company goes down in the coming downturn, then many banks are going to have to pay out on their CDSs - potentially worsening the downturn.

These debt products are all very well in a known market, but in these uncertain times nobody knows what the hell is going to happen.

[Cheshire Cat]

is this what marx meant about capitalism devouring itself?

[BlasterBates]

I get the impression that what currently holds up the UK housing market is the realisation that if it goes pear-shaped the consequences are so horrific, that it can't.

[Francko]

I get the impression that what currently holds up the UK housing market is the realisation that if it goes pear-shaped the consequences are so horrific, that it can't.

Ah well, horrific.... a few people will be burned out... the ones who bought in the last 2 years thinking that it will go up forever... the majority will just see their dreams of becoming rich in a few years time vanishing (hardly can feel too much sympathy for that) and most of them will stop feeling like millionaires only because they have one house. In reality young people and the ones on an average income will finally be able to get on the property market. In a few words... let the crash roll ... it's for the benefit of the country....