Sterling recovers

[Bagpuss]

OK try this for starters:

Don’t expect to read about this in the "mainstream media,"

No just some neocon crank site


The second article talks about deregulation, which is I believe a major part of Right wing market ideology. It's was up the Banks if they wanted to get involved in subprime lending, they did, and their greed was as boundless as their stupidity. Sounds like you want some nanny socialist Government to control the blameless bankers who otherwise wouln't have offered 125% LTV self cert mortgages.

[OwlHoot]

Don’t expect to read about this in the "mainstream media,"

No just some neocon crank site

Clinton Democrats are to blame for the credit crunch (2008-10-01)

Does the credit crunch all stem from American political correctness? (2008-04-24)

In all the discussion of the American sub-prime mortgage market, few people have pointed out that the US government actually compels banks to make loans to poor people in poor neighbourhoods – regardless of whether those loans are prudent and are likely to be repaid.

It started with the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, which aimed to support community groups, but in 1995 the Act was extended and beefed up, giving regulators far more powers to punish banks who refused to lend to people in poor urban neighbourhoods – so-called ‘redlining’ – because they considered the risks too high in those particular areas.

The Community Reinvestment Act and the Credit Crunch A Culprit in the Current Crisis (2008-09-28)

Politicians and pundits have differing opinions about the cause of the credit crisis now afflicting the American economy. Everything from deregulation to "Wall Street greed" has been pointed to for blame. But the Community Reinvestment Act of 1995 may be the real culprit.

The Community Reinvestment Act of 1995, which was a revision of a similar law enacted in 1977, was a Clinton era law that purported to increase the availability of loans to low income business owners and home buyers. What the Community Reinvestment Act did to further this goal was to punish banks and other lending institutions that did not sufficiently provide credit to low income borrowers. The Community Reinvestment Act empowered community organizers, such as Barack Obama, to pressure lending institutions to loan money to people without the ability to pay it back.

Aargh! Those neocon cranks are everywhere

[Bagpuss]

One wonders why the bankers acted in the same way in the UK? Who was focing them this time to offer 125% self certs?

Bankers are to blame and government for letting them get away with it/ not properly pricing money (raising interest rates)

[BrilloPad]

One wonders why the bankers acted in the same way in the UK? Who was focing them this time to offer 125% self certs?

Bankers are to blame and government for letting them get away with it/ not properly pricing money (raising interest rates)

AFAIK it was just the drive for markt share.

I would like loans to be for no more than 75% of asset value. At only 3 times salary.

[OwlHoot]

One wonders why the bankers acted in the same way in the UK? Who was forcing them this time to offer 125% self certs?

I bet it wouldn't be hard to dig up reports of "initiatives" by the British Government. In fact I vaguely recall five years or so ago British banks being pressured and threatened to offer "social loans".

But even if not, there's the "money as quicksilver" argument I keep coming back to: Because every investor wants a quick return, no bank can be much more prudent than the looniest anywhere else in the World, provided their lunacy isn't completely obvious or too soon disclosed. So, although it pains me to admit, McSnotty does have a point to that extent about the crisis starting in the US.

Bankers are to blame and government for letting them get away with it/ not properly pricing money (raising interest rates)

Bankers have always been greedy. So why haven't there been major crashes like today's for decades before now (apart from those which everyone agrees were caused by oil price shocks in the 70s)? The answer, as you say, is because Governments have been "letting them get away with it".

But why stop there? The next question is why have Governments been letting them get away with it in recent years? The answer to that, I submit, is because of more pressure from minorities and immigrants, whose numbers have recently increased rapidly.

(I dare say one could also argue that the Depression of the 1930s was also caused originally in large part by the after-effects of mass migration to the US at the start of the 20th century. But I don't have the background or to pursue that.)

This may not be the answer well-disposed people want to hear, and again I'm not suggesting these minorities are morally to blame, for grasping at opportunities put their way, because anyone would do the same in their position. It's just that this time there are so many of them.

So ultimately it comes down to population increase, which is still proceeding apace...

[Paddy]

I think the masses are too stupid to own their own homes.

[PM-Junkie]

"Bank 'did not understand crisis'"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7794604.stm

Clearly they should have been consulting the economic expertise of cybertory, who apparently knew exactly what was going to happen 18 months ago.

[eliquant]

"Bank 'did not understand crisis'"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7794604.stm

Clearly they should have been consulting the economic expertise of cybertory, who apparently knew exactly what was going to happen 18 months ago.

I like it how he says something along the lines of "we need to develop new financial instruments which focus on the sub divisions of the economy - unlike interest rates which are a blunt economic instrument".

He makes no suggestion as to 'what' he proposes to introduce to govern the control of the economy.


Quick note: when an idiot manager hasn't got a clue he always uses the word 'we' as in 'we have got to', 'we must do this by ..' etc. what he really means is "I haven't got a bloody clue about how to do it but I will defer the actual doing of that which I cannot conceive or do to someone else more capable than myself.

Lazy incompetent so an so's !

[PM-Junkie]

I like it how he says something along the lines of "we need to develop new financial instruments which focus on the sub divisions of the economy - unlike interest rates which are a blunt economic instrument".

He makes no suggestion as to 'what' he proposes to introduce to govern the control of the economy.


Quick note: when an idiot manager hasn't got a clue he always uses the word 'we' as in 'we have got to', 'we must do this by ..' etc. what he really means is "I haven't got a bloody clue about how to do it but I will defer the actual doing of that which I cannot conceive or do to someone else more capable than myself.

Lazy incompetent so an so's !

Do bear in mind though that the person making the program is a complete nob.

[Purple Dalek]

One wonders why the bankers acted in the same way in the UK? Who was focing them this time to offer 125% self certs?

Bankers are to blame and government for letting them get away with it/ not properly pricing money (raising interest rates)

IIRC the Government told the banks to lend subprime or they'd force them to.

Never saw it much in the papers, but it was always seemed to be there whenever they were doing one of their 'social' spin away days, i.e. when they were telling Oxbridge to take in students who were too thick (which bizarrely gets loads more column inches), etc. etc.