Comments on: Do we need a bank bail-out?

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:12:49 +0000

No bailout.

Brown’s “boom” is busted.

Time for a change.

By: Chas

Chas — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:18:58 +0000

No bail-out. The money will mainly go to enrich those that have caused the situation while they enriched themselves.

Let market forces do their work. Capitalist Society so let it work.

In the course of my work, I have discovered people who all but lost their pensions a few years back due to mismanagement. Nobody came to them and aid, ‘We’ll help you out.’ Now they have a much reduced income from what should have been a good pension.

Market forces every time.

By: john montgomery

john montgomery — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:09:28 +0000

let the shareholders go down with the banks as who gets the benifits when banks report billions in profit year in year for the past several years if the government bail out theys banks what do myself as a higher rate tax payer get from this .as a sugestion as i have three young kids turn my taxes used to bail out the banks as future shares for them in which i am happy to agree otherwise let them go to the wall.just like any other institution

By: David Knopfler

David Knopfler — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:48:24 +0000

when the dust settles some investors will clean up - but meanwhile Darling and Brown will have to hold their noses and agree to underwrite all private savings - Merkel’s decision to do that will have to be matched, or savers will migrate to banks in Denmark, Ireland, Germany etc.

By: merina

merina — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:34:07 +0000

100% mortgages, self certification mortgages, 0% credit cards, balance transfers…do I go on?. The levels of debt generated in the last 8 years are staggering. Consumers have had a ball - the money tree had to go bare at some point.

Oh and the government has had their hand in all of this too…house prices…is does not take a genius to work out that the ordinary man in the street was borrowing way over the odds of their income but as long as the stamp duty was rolling in the government failed to address a very serious financial issue that was brewing…ie the extortionate debt levels - all it needed was for interest rates to rise and the boom would be followed by a bust!

As for the bankers….capitalism…supply and demand. They are not to blame. If they were doing anything wrong…CORRECT regulatory policy should have been in place to prevent their actions from materialising.

I wonder who the economic advisors are to the government….Tom and Jerry?

Hopefully we can learn from this….famous last words I fear though.

By: David

David — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:50:42 +0000

We live in a capitalist society and run the risks of doing so.
Northern rock and dinosaurs were very successful but the environment changed quickly and neither could survive. We need to be flexible, keep our heads and do what needs to be done now without hesitation. History shows that things go wrong, but this often leads to opportunities and further prosperity.
We need to be positive and position ourselves to take full advantage of the future.

By: tommy

tommy — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:43:05 +0000

Their is no money in the coffers–the government has mortgaged our assets to middle eastern financial brokers

By: Edward

Edward — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:31:14 +0000

I sometimes wonder if people actually understand what is happening around them. Legislation will not be of any effect on any institution when its primary goal is to make money! We live in times of necessity and no amount of control will ever leverage a banks stance on capitalism. The one rule of law also applies to banking as it does in the real world, the big banks will swallow the little banks. When equilibrium is restored we will all have rather a large tax bill to digest?

By: Jim xxxx

Jim xxxx — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:44:44 +0000

We are seeing the worst of all worlds now, the unacceptable face of Capitalism, pure unadulterated greed, and that of Socialism, nationalisation without compensation. This is stuff of the French Revolution! Adding to our woes, ordinary folk cannot choose between Bail-out or No Bail-out, there are no means to do so.

By: Richard Thomas

Richard Thomas — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:11:43 +0000

Lets be clear - many good comments about where we are now. Silly lending etc. However if there is no banking system there is no economy.

The banks are struggling because there is no longer an interbank market to lend to each other and many have used this to operate.

OK - so where now? Nationalise will not get us anywhere. Provide liquidity at a low cost now with a large future payment when the banks are back to better times in a few years would work.

I think that the Government should match Ireland and guarantee all the savers deposits and those of other UK banks when they lend to each other.

This will start to open the markets. Remember that confidence is what has caused this problem. It is getting worse as we are not being firm in what we are doing.

Lets steady the ship and then charge the banks that survive when they can afford to pay - which they will be able to in a few years if we get the markets and the confidence back.

I realise there are other issues - still think that this approach will work - Nationalisation certainly never has!!

Regards

Richard