Snot Goblin; not my fault!

[Doggy Styles]

If you have information that a major high street bank is about to go under, you can do two things;
1 protect the shareholders and management by keeping your mouth shut
2 protect the customers by telling everyone the news

Number 2 doesn't always protect the customers. Sometimes it f***s them.

[Cyberman]

Agreed

That sounds like a conspiracy theory of almost David Icke proportions.

Not really, when you consider that Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England stated that he was not prepared to help banks due to 'moral hazard'. Why would he say this when his first duty is 'Lender of the Last Resort' !!??.

This helped to cause the first run on a bank in living memory, and his incompetence has been further underlined by the fact that Northern Rock would have cleared all of its loans by now(it has repaid 14 Billion), but for the extra debt caused by the run !!!

[DiscoStu]

Please stop quoting Cybertwatty, it defeats the purpose of having him on my ignore list.

[Mich the Tester]

Number 2 doesn't always protect the customers. Sometimes it f***s them.

Hmmm, but if their best course of action is to get their money out as quick as possible, then at least a few of them will be saved. The point is that Peston's job is to tell us the news and that's what he did. He didn't overstretch the bank, he didn't f**k up the UK's public finances, he just exposed the incompetence of those who did and we should be glad that people like him work for the BBC. We could of course choose the Chinese option where journalists are slammed in the nick or even executed for publishing stuff that's inconvenient, but I prefer it this way.

[DiscoStu]

Hmmm, but if their best course of action is to get their money out as quick as possible, then at least a few of them will be saved. The point is that Peston's job is to tell us the news and that's what he did. He didn't overstretch the bank, he didn't f**k up the UK's public finances, he just exposed the incompetence of those who did and we should be glad that people like him work for the BBC. We could of course choose the Chinese option where journalists are slammed in the nick or even executed for publishing stuff that's inconvenient, but I prefer it this way.

WHS

[Mich the Tester]

Please stop quoting Cybertwatty, it defeats the purpose of having him on my ignore list.

OK, then I'll quote you and answer him.

'Lender of last resort'; the clue is in the last two words. Last resort, in other words, when every other option is exhausted. This option should not be encouraged and indeed positively discouraged as there is indeed a serious 'moral hazard' involved in bailing out banks.

[Solidec]

Anyone got offical data on what HMG's interest debt obligations are on a daily basis?

[PM-Junkie]

Anyone got offical data on what HMG's interest debt obligations are on a daily basis?

Excellent question.

The latest reliable figures I have are that the UK’s net debt reached £697.5bn at the end of December, equivalent to 47.5pc of gross domestic product. Of course, the government are borrowing like it's an olympic sport at the moment so that will very soon be out of date, if it isn't already.

It's a complicated calculation, but based on that figure interest works out at around £45bn per annum.

[Doggy Styles]

Excellent question.

The latest reliable figures I have are that the UK’s net debt reached £697.5bn at the end of December, equivalent to 47.5pc of gross domestic product. Of course, the government are borrowing like it's an olympic sport at the moment so that will very soon be out of date, if it isn't already.

It's a complicated calculation, but based on that figure interest works out at around £45bn per annum.

****. That's nearly a grand out of taxes for every man, woman and child in the country. Every year. Even before we start paying for public services.

Brown! What have you been doing for the past 12 years? To my office immediately!

[Sysman]

Number 2 doesn't always protect the customers. Sometimes it f***s them.

The run on Northern Rock was akin to the effect of shouting "Fire!" in a theatre.