tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073991368963140015.post4981186764723810844..comments2023-11-05T12:18:27.222+00:00Comments on Labour And Capital: A state-run banking sector...Tom Powdrillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05511483398745094803noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073991368963140015.post-45207631753263921042009-01-23T03:55:00.000+00:002009-01-23T03:55:00.000+00:00If Northern Rock staff got involved in the housing...If Northern Rock staff got involved in the housing market, who can blame them? This was after all the way forward offered up by successive governments - "Workers of the world, untie! You have nothing to lose but your investment in your home!"<BR/><BR/>The unusual Tory historian (unusual Tory, that is: he's Scottish) Niall Ferguson pointed out that mass participation in the housing market, while unsound as a sustainable economic policy (the bubble! could've been a horror movie with Steve McQueen!) it provided what he called "a constituency for capitalism".<BR/><BR/>I recall one New Labour figure justifying capitulation to the Thatcher (counter-)Revolution from an electoralist perspective. I wonder now if that hasn't completely reversed - note that Cameron is warning his lot to be "progressive" through this recession (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7845331.stm) whilst keeping up the attacks on state intervention / pinning the blame on GB as if he was the central planner (in a free market economy!)Charlie Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12770820928636046622noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073991368963140015.post-55721866639759230392009-01-22T08:11:00.000+00:002009-01-22T08:11:00.000+00:00"A lot of them wouldn't have had their jobs n the ..."A lot of them wouldn't have had their jobs n the first place without the jiggery pokery that fuelled the lending growth."<BR/><BR/>I'm not sure that's right. A lot of them would have been employed in the mortgage business regardless of whether there was a bubble or not. <BR/><BR/>And I wonder if the actual jiggery-pokery (if we're talking about things likes the banks deciding to take a punt on the housing market, getting involved in the mortgage-backed securities market etc) actually accounts for that much employment in the banking sector as a whole, compared to all the basic admin stuff.<BR/><BR/>I agree consumers ought to hold their hands up too.Tom Powdrillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05511483398745094803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073991368963140015.post-65910745858199461312009-01-22T01:03:00.000+00:002009-01-22T01:03:00.000+00:00CM,A lot of them wouldn't have had their jobs n th...CM,<BR/><BR/>A lot of them wouldn't have had their jobs n the first place without the jiggery pokery that fuelled the lending growth.<BR/><BR/>I bet a lot of them got involved in the joggery pokery in person, by buying into the housing bubble themselves.<BR/><BR/>It's unreasonable on one hand to blame the lack of foresight on the part of the bankers for everything that has come to pass, then on the other remove the consumer from blame entirely because the bankers should have known better.<BR/><BR/>If you ask me, the main threat to the world is that the herd mentality becomes nationalistic and protectionist to the extreme, threatening armed conflict over who owes who what.Steven_Lhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05029437876479574883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073991368963140015.post-77965701311410924352009-01-21T22:58:00.000+00:002009-01-21T22:58:00.000+00:00didi you see the Willem Buiter bit on nationalisat...didi you see the Willem Buiter bit on nationalisation recently? he reckoned the whole lot (including Barclays and HSBC) could be nationalised by the end of the year.Tom Powdrillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05511483398745094803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4073991368963140015.post-29629411211358047392009-01-19T02:02:00.000+00:002009-01-19T02:02:00.000+00:00That last para is spot on.If there is wholesale na...That last para is spot on.<BR/><BR/>If there is wholesale nationalisation, the point should not be to eventually return it to the market, business as usual, but to have cooperative, democratic forms of ownership.<BR/><BR/>If the staff at Northern Rock had any say in the matter, I doubt they'd've bet their jobs on getting invovled in financial jiggery-pokery that the most intelligent folk struggle to explain...Charlie Markshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12770820928636046622noreply@blogger.com