Taxpayers nursing £32bn loss on Lloyds

michaels

If only Scotland had had its independence 5 years ago - we could have left them to sort out HBOS and RBS

Graham_Devon

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

So?

Indeed.

They were supposed to have been sold by now. We were supposed to be in profit by now.

All you have to say on that is "So?".

You make it sound as if the taxpayer took a collective decision to "invest" in banks. It wasn't a decision and it wasn't an investment. It was an emergency bailout.

If it wasn an investment, we should be spreading the risk and also investing in BT, Tesco, National Grid etc.

wotsthat

the_flying_pig wrote: »

if I buy [say] a cup of your bodily fluids from you for £60bn, does the fact that I'm not a "forced seller" [i.e. am solvent] alter the fact that I've been sold a pup?

It depends what you predict the future value of a cup of p**s is and whether that value minus the storage cost is more or less than today's price. If you expected p**s and got a puppy I'm not sure what to advise.

Just to be clear. I think the government should hold as the price will rise. The worst thing they can do, financially and politically, is to overpay for an asset then sell it back to the buyer for less.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Graham_Devon wrote: »

All you have to say on that is "So?".

No I had quite a bit more to say.

You just chose to ignore it.;)

Graham_Devon

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

No I had quite a bit more to say.

You just chose to ignore it.;)

Because it was all about investing. Which isn't what we did. You are merely spinning, and you have enough yarns spun already.

Thrugelmir

michaels wrote: »

Funny how although the problem originated in the US,.

What problem?

Rochdale_Pioneers

Who said they definitely had to be sold by now? I thought the idea was that we sold them when things had recovered, which clearly they haven't.

Did Oik factor a windfall from selling the shares into his political budget? Silly boy....

Mr_Mumble

The market loss is Lloyds and RBS shares combined. The total investment in Lloyds Banking Group is 'only' £17.4bn (£20.3bn excluding fees) and £45.2bn in RBS (£45.5bn excluding fees). This info can be found on pages 19 & 24 of:
http://www.ukfi.co.uk/releases/1396.pdf

These are huge numbers but still a tiny fraction of the government's overall debt levels that have been brought about by overpromising and overspending.

Thrugelmir wrote: »

What problem?

Think that comment from michaels was very much tongue in cheek

RenovationMan

My pension was down £15k at the worst of the recent falls. It's now down £7k. That's the way of it with shares.

They go up, tiddlee up, up,
They go down, tiddlee down, down.
They enchant all the ladies and steal all the scenes,
With their up, tiddlee up, up
They go down, tiddlee down, down.
Up! Down! Flying around,
Looping the loop and defying the ground.

The government is just holding its shares until they recover, unlike the so-called 'mug punters' who buy shares when they are high and panic during a downturn and sell low.

IronWolf

Taxpayers haven't lost anything until they sell.