Nick Leeson's take on it - who's to blame & who will be punished?

carolt

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/19/banking.creditcrunch

BlondeHeadOn

I was particulary interested by Nick Leesons take on the financial crisis, and his comment quoted below:

"Anybody and everybody could get whatever credit they wanted as recently as three years ago. I returned from Singapore in 1999, responsible for £862m worth of losses that brought down Britain's oldest investment bank, personally liable through an injunction for £100m, and yet within the space of a week had been offered five different credit cards. Ridiculous! Any central bank will tell you that the system exists on the premise of "responsible lending"; but the experiences of the past few years clearly show this is utter rubbish."

How true!!!

Cranston_2

BlondeHeadOn wrote: »

I Any central bank will tell you that the system exists on the premise of "responsible lending"; but the experiences of the past few years clearly show this is utter rubbish."

How true!!!

Leeson is dead right on this point.

When people are in crowds they often act irrationally. And this is what happened to our bankers particularly in the period 2000 to 2006.

This phenomenon is detailed in the excellent book called Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay.

You can read a brief summation of the book here.

I highly recommend the book for anyone interested in markets and capitalism in general.

mewbie_2

Cranston wrote: »

Leeson is dead right on this point.

When people are in crowds they often act irrationally. And this is what happened to our bankers particularly in the period 2000 to 2006.

This phenomenon is detailed in the excellent book called Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay.

You can read a brief summation of the book here.

I highly recommend the book for anyone interested in markets and capitalism in general.

Do you have any thoughts on the dock industry at Felixstowe, as I am unable to get a sensible answer out of Pickles?

Cranston_2

mewbie wrote: »

Do you have any thoughts on the dock industry at Felixstowe, as I am unable to get a sensible answer out of Pickles?

To quote Clint Eastwood (Dirty Harry) "a man's gotta know his limitations", I know nothing about the dock industry.



P.S. I have never posted on this forum under a different name.

FungusFighter

Leave the maestro alone Mewbie, you are just jealous you are not successful enough to be able to spend your days sharing wisdom on here like Cranston :mad:

Look at these; forget Leeson, these are my favourite Cranstonisms - I don't know how to post a link so have cut and pasted. Read them and tell me he is Pickles110564, that eejit isn't fit to wipe Cranston's posterior!

Quotes:
I got a 4k limit and when I spoke to them they asked if that was enough. I said I could do with some more due to a holiday and they gave me another £800 limit.

I 100% agree with you.
I don't see anyway around this expect lower house prices.

Many Dutch prefer to rent rather then own. A friends mum out there rents a very large 2 bed apartment for £300 per month. She's very happy and does not want to change

I confidentially predict no saver with a UK bank will lose money. The Govt will be there. There will be a price and that will be inflation.

Past performance of how central banks and Govt's work. There are a number of tools that they can and have been used.

I know, you couldn't make that stuff up no one would believe you.
I think I am right in saying that Citi have been there before 1991 and recovered with a little help from some friends;).
And I prefer a world with Citi than without. Bank lending is a vital part of the economy and helps create millions of jobs.

Don't worry about that. Really. we have been here before and this too will pass.
Yes, shareholders may loose more money

I can tell you that at least one of the UK clearer's was flirting with insolvency during 1992 when the base rate hit 15% and they are still here today.

:T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T :T

mewbie_2

FungusFighter wrote: »

Leave the maestro alone Mewbie, you are just jealous you are not successful enough to be able to spend your days sharing wisdom on here like Cranston :mad:

Look at these; forget Leeson, these are my favourite Cranstonisms - I don't know how to post a link so have cut and pasted. Read them and tell me he is Pickles110564, that eejit isn't fit to wipe Cranston's posterior!

Please don't make me read them again! I have applied due diligence to my research ('Cranston' would be proud!) and have picked up sufficient similarities for me to be 97.3% sure that they are one and the same. It is not based only on post contents, but login times and patterns of posting which add up to the MSE ten points of similarity test*.

If Cranston is for real then since when did economic gurus have the same patterns of MSE action as someone on shift work?

How important is this anyway? Not at all. All I want is a simple answer to the question - what signs of recession are there at the Felixstowe Dock?

*patented

Mary_Hartnell

I called in to ExCel in docklands today.
Pretty damned quiet.
Little groups of reps talking to each other.
Where has everyone gone?

carolt

Get any nice freebies? Free house thrown in? Glass of bubbly?

harbinger13

FungusFighter wrote: »

I can tell you that at least one of the UK clearer's was flirting with insolvency during 1992 when the base rate hit 15% and they are still here today.

You mean Citi? Right now they are getting away with things - buried their assets in their bottoms - hiding everything.

As Warren Buffet said - when the tide goes out we will see who has been swimming naked.

Mary_Hartnell

carolt wrote: »

Get any nice freebies? Free house thrown in? Glass of bubbly?

I don't think there was much free bubbly in the other bigger "Property Investor" hall, It looked pretty quiet in there too.
Building & renovating is all about practical things like the new Permitted Development rights coming in at the start of October (your neighbours can now stuff a big room-in-the-roof into their loft without planning permission and peer into your garden).

Is it now time to employ out of work building workers to build a flat in your loft, so you can rehouse your brother, who has lost his job as a banker?