Government to break up the rescued banks

Cleaver

Wookster wrote: »

Doctor/ patient confidentiality won't change. Any breaches of this will be severely punished with doctor's being struck off the register.

Oh, well, I guess it's all okay then. Phew. I thought Tesco were becoming a bit totalitarian for a second there.

mizzbiz

I'm still wondering why the 'loans' that the government took out to bail out these banks is to be repaid by the public through tax and not by the banks from their profits, but we also were told that the banks were to repay. Something really ugly has gone on here and we're all being made mugs of.

Wookster

Cleaver wrote: »

Wouldn't it be fair to say that no individual entity sustains the economy, it's a mix of a variety of things. And I could argue that some companies produce innovative mortgage products.

I think you are misunderstanding what wealth is. Buying ever more expensive houses doesn't make us wealthy as a nation.

It simply gets us into debt.

Heyman_2

Cleaver wrote: »

Oh, well, I guess it's all okay then. Phew. I thought Tesco were becoming a bit totalitarian for a second there.

The Tesco Political Party should be running for government next year. If you vote for them you get 100 Clubcard Points.

Harry_Powell

Wookster wrote: »

I think you are misunderstanding what wealth is. Buying ever more expensive houses doesn't make us wealthy as a nation.

It simply gets us into debt.

I agree with what you're saying here. Investment in mortgages produced nothing but debt and income for bankers but invest that money in businesses instead and the whole economy benefits.

I do agree though that our banks need to be smaller so that the mentality they seem to have of "we're too big for the government to allow us to fail" is removed. Instead we'll see a return to a more prudent appraoch to banking, perhaps the re-emergance of mutuals. Had Halifax and Northern Rock just remained building societies, they would not be in the mess they're in now.

I feel that NR should have been allowed to fail - what is the point of having an insurance policy of £50k of savings covered (or whatever it was) if the government is then going to step in anyway and cover 100% of savings. Even more annoying was the way they also covered overseas savings in Iceland with our taxes - outrageous.

I dont pay my taxes to bail out savers who put their money overseas, or have so much money that they go over the insurance limits, or indeed pay taxes to bail out idiot bankers who one year on from almost bringing downt he financial system, award themselves million pound bonuses while we continue to pick up the tab for their mess.

Cleaver

Wookster wrote: »

I think you are misunderstanding what wealth is. Buying ever more expensive houses doesn't make us wealthy as a nation.

It simply gets us into debt.

No, you've deliberately misunderstood what I was saying and paraphrased in to cliched rhetoric. If I thought that buying ever more expensive houses made us wealthy I would have said: "Buying ever more expensive houses makes us a wealthy nation". But I didn't say this. What I said was:

Cleaver wrote: »

Wouldn't it be fair to say that no individual entity sustains the economy, it's a mix of a variety of things. And I could argue that some companies produce innovative mortgage products.

What I meant by this was that a health mix of manufacturing, innovation, financial services, small business, production, job creation and a whole host of hundreds of other things drives an economy. A sensible, sustainable, healthy mortgage market allowing people to buy houses is one of the many important factors in the mix. It drives the economy in a number of ways: flow of credit, allowing house builders to build houses, tradesmen to work, stamp duty to the government etc. etc.

I would probably agree that over the past 10 or so years the balance of the economy has been tipped far too much in favour of debt, especially in the form of property. But this doesn't mean that a healthy mortgage market can't form an important part of the matrix that is our economy.

chucky

mbga9pgf wrote: »

Why would foreigners buy into basket case UK banks with toxic waste on their books? The Quatari royal family dropped 600 million in barclays shares overnight a fortnight ago.

and they still kept a very large number of shares - that's not really the point though.
we're talking mortgage market not the banking sector.

mbga9pgf wrote: »

Only way they can make it profitable would be to hike margins. Significantly. They know rates have only one way to go and margins are going to have to reduce, not grow. Would you invest in an overleveraged, overvalued asset in a run-out country with poor future prospects? And if this is not the case, why did the government have to step in and not just rely on foreign capital when the market collapsed?

that's your opinion but a bit too dramatic...

the UK is not a run-out country with poor future prospects.
Zimbabwe is a run-out country with poor future prospects.
you do need to get some perspective and context here...

chucky

mizzbiz wrote: »

I'm still wondering why the 'loans' that the government took out to bail out these banks is to be repaid by the public through tax and not by the banks from their profits, but we also were told that the banks were to repay. Something really ugly has gone on here and we're all being made mugs of.

i think that they are being paid back that's why RBS and HBOS/Lloyds (the biggest bailed out) are wanting rights issues now - to pay back the debt.

Graham_Devon

Cleaver wrote: »

Careful everyone, there's a Cleaver Tesco rant coming up...

So, Tesco are in talks with the NHS about putting GP surgeries in their stores and I think we all know that by hook or by crook they will have a full high-street banking arm soon. Who needs an ID card scheme?

If you are a Tesco customer with your bank account and credit card, a club card for your shopping and you decide to register with the GP in the store (and why wouldn't you? I imagine you'd get clubcard points for visiting) then can you imagine how much Tesco would know about you? Every intricate detail about your health, wealth and every financial transaction you make. Scary stuff. I'm not a conspiracist, but I can imagine the above customer popping to Sainsbury's and mysteriously finding that their Tesco bank account isn't quite functioning properly...

Y'know, I get what your saying. However, in all honesty, I don't think this would bother me. Tesco's have only got to where they are because they have done what customers wanted.

Tesco's cannot drag me in to their store to do my shopping. They can however open their doors to me when I want to do my shopping, offer me incentives, make it easy for me.

It's for that reason that I will part with my cash in Tesco's.

It would be very different if they somehow forced me to shop there. But, they don't, and in all honesty, won't ever be able to. If Walmart has not taken over America, Tesco's is not going to take over the UK anytime soon.

Thrugelmir

mizzbiz wrote: »

I'm still wondering why the 'loans' that the government took out to bail out these banks is to be repaid by the public through tax and not by the banks from their profits, but we also were told that the banks were to repay. Something really ugly has gone on here and we're all being made mugs of.

Which loans are you refering to? The Government has taken equity stakes in the banks.