Why Do Banks Get All The Blame?

FTBFun

StevieJ wrote: »

BTW it looks like we have (at least) two bankster apologists now. Big cigar for Fred the Shred and his multi million pound pension as a reward for abject failure

!!!!!! is a "bankster apologist?"

An apologist for Bristolian graffiti artists?

StevieJ

FTBFun wrote: »

!!!!!! is a "bankster apologist?"

An apologist for Bristolian graffiti artists?

Someone who jumps in every time there is the slightest criticism of the banks, as if you couldn't work that out.

daveyjp

StevieJ wrote: »

So whose bloody stupid idea was it then, the customers?

The reason you cannot is because people have now realised what a bloody stupid idea that was in the first place.
Which people?

Jimmy_31

AliceJenkins wrote: »

The banks have taken ALL the responsibility, thats the point of the topic, did you miss that?

I missed that.

To take responsibility for something you must sort out your own mess.

Jimmy_31

doire wrote: »

Its like a plumber i heard about who my father employed to install a new bathroom suite.

During the boom here in NI he bought a house for £170k. In the area he bought houses pre boom were around 50 to 60k (a council estate area).

Now he would be lucky to get 70k for his house.

I've often wondered what planet people like him are on? Did he not for one minute think that this bubble would eventually pop? Last i heard he had little work on his books

Lots of people in the construction industry got carried away during the boom as their wages shot up and life was good.

Lots of people in the construction industry now have no chance of keeping up the payments on their mortgage.

Money makes some people very very stupid.

AliceJenkins

Jimmy_31 wrote: »

Money makes some people very very stupid.

See people can't even take responsibly for being stupid! it's the banks fault their dumb!

Loughton_Monkey

As usual, there is no black or white here. And (to me) the people who irritate me most are those unintelligent enough to understand that the reasons for the "mess" we are in is very complicated and stems from many directions, including banks.

For example, what we have here includes this:

1. A long period during which individuals have decided to overspend, live on credit, overhouse themselves, and in some cases blantantly lie on mortgage applications.

2. The banks who "threw away the pen" when they underwrote mortgages (particularly in USA). Self-cert, 120% mortgages are absolute lunacy to any 'responsible' bank.

3. Again, the banks behind the scens, had extremely murky activity. Parceling up dodgy mortgages and hawking them round the derivatives market. Shady complex hedge-fund dealings, very high risk taking, and loans to shady Greek Governments [Governments can't go bust can they?].

4. But by far worse than the combination of all the above, has been overspending by Governments. Particularly Brothers Blur and Brown, the absolute masters of pumping £billions of money they couldn't possibly collect in taxes into benefits, high public worker salaries, PFI, Quango's, and general irresponsible spending. Bailing out the banks was mainly a capital expenditure issue that certainly hasn't helped, but is being used as a smoke screen to blame the banks.

Any single issue in the above on its own could probably have been solved relatively easily. But they have co-incided and to a large extent all magnified each other with a big domino effect. Throughout the world it has caused a realisation that the kitty went dry years ago and eventually there is simply no money around anywhere to keep the illusion going tht we were all getting richer. We weren't! We were just behaving and spending as if we were.

The same with individuals. Choosing lifestyles taking them to the edge (and over) of what they earn.

Apart from the obvious very slow return to 'living within our means', Governments these days only have one weapon and this is printing money. USA are doing that. We are doing that. Eurozone is doing that in the most bizarre way, but their complicated 'solution' emerging is a form of printing money.

Put simply, if I were given a gun and two bullets, plus Fred Goodwin and Brother Brown, I would definitely use the first bullet on Brother Brown. Then I would use the second bullet on him too, just to make sure!

pqrdef

DervProf wrote: »

I`ve always wondered why/how people on modest incomes end up with > £10K credit card debts. It is partly the fault of the lender for allowing the borrower to get into trouble (that's greed on the part of the credit card company). However part of the blame must be with the borrower, who must have known that a credit card balance of £5K is going to be hard to be pay back, but carried on spending.

But the solution was at hand. When the 0% BT deals ran out, you could get one of those consolidation loans that were advertised on the telly all day. Oh, and add on a bit more for a holiday.

There wasn't really any need to repay. One day you would die, and your creditors might get something back from your property, but that would be a bonus. They didn't mind writing off the principal, because the interest would have covered it several times over.

So the lenders were really in the interest-only loan business, although of course it would have been fatal to say so.

All made possible by loose monetary policy, which doesn't work unless people exploit it. That's why it's not working now.

bendix

daveyjp wrote: »

Bendix- answer the question I posed earlier. Why can't I get a 110% mortgage anymore?

Because they're a bloody stupid idea.

It was a stupid idea of the banks to offer them. It was a stupid idea of borrowers to accept them.

Joint culpability is just that: joint. Is that so hard to grasp.

But, you see, I am able to walk through life and make adult choices. Everywhere I look, I see things offered to me and I am old enough to make sound rational choices about which of those offers I accept.

A loan I can't repay? No thanks, that's not in my interests, but thanks for the offer. A diet of crap but convenient food - well it would be very nice, Mr McDonalds, but while I might buy one every now and again, I value my health so will make the effort to make a salad tonight, if you don't mind. An extra pint, bendix? Wow, that sounds great guys, but I have work tomorrow, and I'm worried about my waistline.

See? It's not that freaking hard, is it?

Capitalism is a dynamic tension between companies (including banks) offering products which might or might not be good for us on the one hand, and consumers on the other. It relies on educated choices and mutual self-interest.

Sadly, it seems, modern Western man can no longer be trusted to act responsibly or in their own self-interest.

Boo bloody hoo.

bendix

StevieJ wrote: »

Bendix, answer my question, who is responsible for the RBS share price drop from £7 to 25 pence ?

oh oh, I think I know the answer.

It's the free market, isnt it?

Next question please.