What have you personally learned from the current crisis?

juicyjude

I have learned to spread my money around more although I didnt lose any after B & B's problems. I will never now deposit more than £50K in any one institution and tie up my money over that amount in a fixed rate bond. My motto now, dont worry be happy

Fred_Bear_2

I have learnt that Gordon Brown is responsible for the global banking crisis. The USA and Iceland etc must be furious with him.

Sapphire

It has brought it home to me just how dishonest and greedy the financial institutions are, and that they absolutely cannot be trusted. Also that people can get away with what should be classified as criminal acts – and individually pocket millions and tens of millions of pounds/dollars in the process, even as the institutions they worked for go down and ordinary taxpayers have to bear the brunt of their avarice.

The behaviour of people in the financial system is Mafia-like, yet the 'government' has done nothing to curtail it – indeed, during the last few years it has colluded with them. It appalls me that what must surely be the most corrupt leadership we've ever had should be 'governing' our country.

wagdog

I've learned that this section of the forum is misnamed -- It should be called "Investing & Investing". Put money in a high interest account and you take on similar risks of investing in the bank itself. Keep it in cash under a mattress then you're essentially playing the exchange rates, and betting on low inflation.

I've learned that laissez faire unregulated free markets are a mythical fantasy. Left to their own devices, private institutions are really as risk averse as the rest of us individual "savers", and they end up hedging every investment they make using unregulated credit default swaps. In effect, they are hand-cuffing themselves to every other private institution - the ultrawealthy equivalent to what suffragettes and anti-globalisation protesters do when resisting prosecution for their actions. Let one financial institution go bankrupt, the tangled mess of CDSs threatens to drag everyone down. And now no one can be allowed to go down thanks to all the global bailouts. Banks have effectively handcuffed themselves to the frontgates of the government, and formed a great banking union that will remain on strike until they receive better terms of employment. Some commentators are saying the era of deregulated free markets has passed away; it was never alive to begin with.

I've learned that ratings agencies don't know how to judge risk, but that doesn't prevent people using their hindsight picking of winners to condemn you.

I've learned that shareholders cannot tell the difference between luck and prudence.

I've learned that central banks cannot tell the difference between growth and a bubble.

I've learned that inflation can rise even though commodity prices are tanking.

I've learned that gold is only a good safe haven, when hardly anyone thinks it is.

I've learned that I'd really really really underestimated what would constitute as pain for a CEO of an insolvent financial institution.

I've learned that ideological tribalism is the rule of the land.

I've learned that workingclass/middleclass consumers and "savers" alike have a very high tolerance for crap, before they'd even begin to organise into their own tribe.

Sapphire

wagdog wrote: »

I've learned that this section of the forum is misnamed -- It should be called "Investing & Investing". Put money in a high interest account and you take on similar risks of investing in the bank itself. Keep it in cash under a mattress then you're essentially playing the exchange rates, and betting on low inflation.

I've learned that laissez faire unregulated free markets are a mythical fantasy. Left to their own devices, private institutions are really as risk averse as the rest of us individual "savers", and they end up hedging every investment they make using unregulated credit default swaps. In effect, they are hand-cuffing themselves to every other private institution - the ultrawealthy equivalent to what suffragettes and anti-globalisation protesters do when resisting prosecution for their actions. Let one financial institution go bankrupt, the tangled mess of CDSs threatens to drag everyone down. And now no one can be allowed to go down thanks to all the global bailouts. Banks have effectively handcuffed themselves to the frontgates of the government, and formed a great banking union that will remain on strike until they receive better terms of employment. Some commentators are saying the era of deregulated free markets has passed away; it was never alive to begin with.

I've learned that ratings agencies don't know how to judge risk, but that doesn't prevent people using their hindsight picking of winners to condemn you.

I've learned that shareholders cannot tell the difference between luck and prudence.

I've learned that central banks cannot tell the difference between growth and a bubble.

I've learned that inflation can rise even though commodity prices are tanking.

I've learned that gold is only a good safe haven, when hardly anyone thinks it is.

I've learned that I'd really really really underestimated what would constitute as pain for a CEO of an insolvent financial institution.

I've learned that ideological tribalism is the rule of the land.

I've learned that workingclass/middleclass consumers and "savers" alike have a very high tolerance for crap, before they'd even begin to organise into their own tribe.

And don't forget the greed of individual consumers, who wanted to cash in on the action (BTL, MEW, lying about their earnings to obtain loans they wouldn't be able to pay back just because they were panting to move up the property 'ladder', credit card debt to obtain vacuous fripperies, the 'must-have' society). Until a few years ago, people used to buy a house as a home and not expect to 'move up' any 'ladder' every two years because they thought they could profit from the sale, or brag to all and sundry about the perceived 'worth' of their property.

Also the press, who failed to engage in any debate about what was going on (indeed encouraged profiteering and speculation, as did the 'government'), despite the fact that it was clear that we were heading for a meltdown .

Those who did not engage in the above are now going to be made to pay for it. Appalling, absolutely appalling. :mad:

(Welcome to the forum. :eek: )

Primrose

I think there's an even more frightening scenario here when we consider the meltdown that has just happened to the banking system and the way it is affecting the economy. What we have all stood by and allowed to happen will undoubtedly happen to our environment. But when the steam engines of climate change and global warming start to gather momentum, all the governments of the world with all their billions of dollars won't be able to step in and bail us out.

North_Sea_Bubble

That the emperor is wearing no clothes !

pumpndump

paul5046 wrote: »

and trying to predict the stock market is for idiots.

Wayhey! I get paid a salary and a bonus for being an idiot!

worrypants

amistupid wrote: »

worrypants wrote: »

and now live in a wilderness area of Canada and its like going back 70 years in the nicest possible ways.

Living in in freezing cold log cabins, horse in the garage, daren't go in the garden in case you're attacked by a grizzly, having the Americans laughing at you all the time, and maple syrup on pancakes for breakfast. Not for me Rule Britannia! As the Lone Ranger once said to his sidekick as they were heading north "On to Toronto Tonto!" but they soon came back!

:rotfl: absolutley amistupid so dont you ever consider moving to canada lets keep it for us idiots who already live here

dreadful place to live in me log cabin with the bears and the snow:rotfl: :rotfl:
ps 79 degrees here today tehee
no water rates, free heat from own wood, no car tax, no tele licence, no council tax, loads of acres and huge homes for under 50 k, fabby steaks for less than one pound, nil crime, no thugs, petrol 48p ohhh what an error I made moving here!!!

Primrose

"If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

Was Rudyard Kipling a stock market investor I wonder ??