I have no doubt that the official line, whenever they may be asked about the collapse and filing for Chapter 11 of the investment bank Lehman Brothers, will be somethign like "this is a problem that has started in the US and hit the whole global economy, Gordon is getting on with the job and the right man to take us through these troubled and challenging times".
Meanwhile anyone with half a brain will be going "oh fuck, if Lehman Brothers go under who next? Merrill Lynch?" Yes they may just be an investment bank but that makes it all the more scarier because what and who do they own? Or more correctly, what businesses have liabilities tied up with Lehmann and whoever else might follow?
Whilst Gordon Brown faces all sort of leadership questions, the far greater stroy of the day right now has to be what the knock-on of Lehmann going belly up will be. There is an interesting point on this in relation to Brown in the Times today by William Rees-Mogg. He noted that Brown was stupid to claim he would end "boom and bust" because it showed he didn't understand global economics. Too true.
7 comments:
From the interviews I have seen over the last week on various financial programmes I watch, we could see DOUBLE the losses that the banks have seen so far!
"They" said that so far the credit crunch has cost us all around half a trillion dollars, this could rise to a trillion before the credit crunch is done!
This could be the reason banks, businesses & others! Are going to be left to go under, there just isn't going to be the funds to bail those in trouble out.
It's called an economic cycle for a reason. Being a Merrill Lynch customer I eagerly await them telling me what being part of BoA gives me.
One of the great lies political parties spin is that they can control economies they just can't anymore.
the problem for the Tories is if they keep blaming Gordon for the downturn if it moves upwards while he's still in power won't he be able to take all the credit?
Mostly ordinary -re you mad? Even if it started moving up whilst Gordo was still in charge ( and today's news makes it even more unlikely) he would bugger it up by doing the wrong thing at the wrong time
Brown has ended boom and bust. While he is in power it will be all bust and no boom. If the economy picked up he would tax it all to spend on another poor value for money project.
HBOS?
You can't help wondering how much Government regulation and interference (in any country) has contributed to all this - introduce tortuous legislation, and businesses will try to find (necessarily) more complex ways round it.
This is not to deny the insane greed and shortsightedness of much of big business and finance.
More interesting is what will happen at Sotheby's tonight and tomorrow? The result of 'that' auction could be far more interesting than investment banks going down the tube...
hhhmmmmmmm....
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