Super Rich & Credit Crunch

PasturesNew

Well, there was nothing in there I didn't know.
Except the actual pay structure of a hedge fund manager.

However, I feel the programme was well written and took people with 0 knowledge right through the process using examples and language they would understand (I hope). The question is, who would have bothered to watch it if they weren't already au fait with the concept "something big is going down, but what". And many aren't.

icefall

It will be available to watch again on iplayer on BBC website, but yes who would bother to look for it to watch, unless they are wondering what the real causes of the credit crunch and rising costs are?

PasturesNew

As the man said: people don't see that any of it affects them.
They are miles from America.
They don't have a sub-prime mortgage.
They're all right.

They don't understand how the credit crunch jams up the whole waterworks.

They'll wonder why they're laid off ... because their company didn't get an order ... because the company they expected the order from didn't get THEIR order ... because another company couldn't raise the money to do grow.

They'll wonder why their credit card limit is reduced, when they've always been good, because the banks don't have the money to lend because other banks aren't trusting each other.

icefall

Yes and what will get blamed is anything they can see to blame.

Its just not patently obvious at the moment what those execs with 'hearts of gold - literally' have got away with scot free...

PasturesNew

Until I came to MSE, I had NO IDEA how much debt people had managed to get.

I thought that "a lot of debt" was £2k on a credit card, that I knew some people in the country had.

I also had no idea just how much people were earning and borrowing. e.g. couples with £50-60k incomes... and mortgages of £250-300k.

I was locked away in a poor part of the country and really had no idea any of this was going on.

It's a real eye opener seeing debt lists here.

$$$_12

Not a huge amount that was new in that programme but very well put together.

So basically privatise the profits and socialise the losses/costs - twas ever thus.

The only difference is how these robber barons have done it. Remind me why we need these parasites at all.

icefall

$$$ wrote: »

Not a huge amount that was new in that programme but very well put together.

So basically privatise the profits and socialise the losses/costs - twas ever thus.

The only difference is how these robber barons have done it. Remind me why we need these parasites at all.

They tell us these parasites are good for the countries economy apparently!

WTF?_2

$$$ wrote: »

Not a huge amount that was new in that programme but very well put together.

So basically privatise the profits and socialise the losses/costs - twas ever thus.

The only difference is how these robber barons have done it. Remind me why we need these parasites at all.

Hey - go easy on them. Thanks to their wonderful 'innovative financial instruments' the good people of the UK have been able to easily borrow outrageous sums of money to bid their houses up to hitherto unheard of prices.

Without these genii circumventing the checks and balances how else could the average Brit get himself in enough debt to keep a small third world village running for a decade?

Why, we'd be looking at affordable housing and low levels of personal debt if these Masters of the Universe weren't around to feed the greed with cheap credit.

Guy_Montag

I alwsy thought Poppy was a bloke, not sure why though, name like Poppy should be a giveaway. Maybe s/he is, just likes Peston... hmm...

icefall

And another thing that bothered me.

They showed clips of the American adverts originally used to lure those not credit worthy into sub prime mortgages.

Saying things like 'Are you just out of Prison? Unemployed? Well come to us, we can help you get the home you want'...

Those companies literally raced to get those sub prime mortgages, and they started them with a teaser rate of 25% of the actual monthly cost, when the rate went up by 75% , 6-12 months later. It was unbelievable as they had been led to believe the first 'teaser rate' was what they would be paying per month! Correct me if I am wrong here but is that not practically fraud?