Print Story Panic On The Trading Floor
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By jump the ladder (Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:07:17 AM EST) (all tags)
The major British banks apart from HSBC looking extremely shakey. My prototype exposure system pressed into service to monitor Royal Bank Of Scotland trades. RBS looks in total  shit, no more trading with them boys. The pound's sinking like a stone. As Dulltrev say we're all doomed...

Poll: doomed?


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Panic On The Trading Floor | 34 comments (34 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback
Rubbish by DullTrev (4.00 / 5) #1 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:11:49 AM EST

Good old British pluck will see us through. Or something.

Yeah, you know it's bad if I'm telling you not to worry.


--
DFJ?


ObBuffet by R Mutt (4.00 / 2) #2 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:24:12 AM EST
"I will tell you how to become rich. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful."



Hmm by jump the ladder (4.00 / 1) #3 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:27:09 AM EST
So lets all pile into the Icelandic Banks and Royal Bank Of Scotland shares plus a little subprime mortgage debt. Fill your boots.

[ Parent ]

Hmmm, he wasn't that specific by R Mutt (4.00 / 1) #4 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:29:56 AM EST
But it might be worth buying up Lloyds or Barclays shares if they're plummeting on general bank-panic...

[ Parent ]

Lloyds is only included in this because by jump the ladder (2.00 / 0) #5 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:47:19 AM EST
Of the HBOS takeover. Barclays not sure about but is definitely in a better position than RBS.

[ Parent ]

Probably doesn't help you much by R Mutt (2.00 / 0) #9 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:59:24 AM EST
But when I see the "WORST CRASH FOR TWENTY YEARS!" headlines, I try to mentally subsitute "WORST CRASH SINCE THE 1987 CRASH WHICH HAD FUCK-ALL IMPACT ON ME."

[ Parent ]

Different to 1987 by jump the ladder (4.00 / 1) #11 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 06:04:48 AM EST
Major banks are in big trouble not just shareholders. Banks that you and me use on a daily basis.

[ Parent ]

True by R Mutt (2.00 / 0) #12 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 06:12:34 AM EST
I think it's a knock-on from the credit crisis.

I'm still thinking it's going to be an early-Nineties style recession, rather than Seventies Stagflation or Thirties Depression though.

[ Parent ]

Depends by jump the ladder (2.00 / 0) #14 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 06:17:45 AM EST
Could get very messy. Credit is the lifeblood of the economy. Imagine if the banks have to  start reducing overdrafts and call in mortgages.

[ Parent ]

My guess by R Mutt (2.00 / 0) #15 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 06:32:23 AM EST
As one of the econoblogs was saying, we've had a hypertrophied finance sector. Every time Joe Bloggs borrows a pound, about five different banks borrow a pound from each other, each creaming off a bit of profit.

I think that's pretty different to the Thirties when many of the banks just went bust. Sooner or later, the banks are going to have to start serious lending since that's how they make their money.

It seems to me that they've been holding off waiting to see how much bailout they can get from the government first. That's being settled at the moment: once they're sure they've squeezed every penny out of the taxpayer, I reckon they'll start doing proper lending again.

[ Parent ]

Lloyds look a bargain by Vulch (2.00 / 0) #13 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 06:14:39 AM EST
I missed getting in at around £2.10 this morning though. Shame as it looks like I'll need something to make up for the deposit with an Icelandic bank made last month.

It's tempting if by the end of the week I've got a hundred quid or so left (note to self: visit hole in the wall at lunchtime, you need a hundred quid to follow a cunning plan) to hire a small van and buy up a load of flour and rice from the local wholefoods place. Everyone's so busy noticing the financial meltdown they've forgotten about the harvest failures.

Dooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmed.


[ Parent ]

Not, but by nebbish (2.00 / 0) #27 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 02:06:04 PM EST
I'm quietly hopeful I might be able to buy somewhere to live in a few years time. It was completely impossible before.

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It's political correctness gone mad!
[ Parent ]

Indeed. by dmg (2.00 / 0) #29 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:07:40 PM EST
I'm hoping to upgrade my shoebox. This is all good news if you just don't buy into the media BS panic.
 
--
Hard work is morally wrong.
[ Parent ]

For once the panic seems justified. by Tonatiuh (4.00 / 1) #33 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 07:00:28 PM EST
There are plenty of examples of how this is affecting regular folks (me for example).

I think this is going to be very messy,  anybody that did not save during the bountiful years we had the last decade is going to suffer. Big time ....


[ Parent ]

Fingers crossed by nebbish (4.00 / 1) #34 Wed Oct 08, 2008 at 04:52:06 AM EST
Working in local government I'm relatively safe for now (if govt needs to make cut-backs to pay for bail-outs it's a different matter). However I am concerned about my pension.

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It's political correctness gone mad!
[ Parent ]

I've already checked by Phage (4.00 / 2) #6 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:48:27 AM EST
The in-laws have enough room to put us up when we lose the house.

The Czar of Accounting. No Nit Too Small To Pick


Good lord by DullTrev (4.00 / 2) #7 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:56:06 AM EST

As if you needed another incentive not to lose the house.


--
DFJ?
[ Parent ]

who will come take it? by garlic (2.00 / 0) #25 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 11:47:43 AM EST
if everyone's losing their home, how will there be anyone to come take the homes away from anyone?

[ Parent ]

There's always someone by Phage (4.00 / 1) #26 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 11:58:55 AM EST
Ref Orwell. Local courts. Lynch mobs. Zombies. Secret Police.

Less for you is more for them.

The Czar of Accounting. No Nit Too Small To Pick
[ Parent ]

The banks. by Tonatiuh (2.00 / 0) #32 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 06:56:16 PM EST
Who will sell them for close to nothing.

But, unlike in the US, in the UK the government may have a saying as partial owner of the banks, which may mean some more leanient treatment for house "owners" in the UK....

In reality nobody knows. The situation we are living is unprecedented ...


[ Parent ]

Does this mean Nat West might collapse? by priestess (2.00 / 0) #8 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:57:58 AM EST
Will they take my overdraft with 'em when they go?

Adam............

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Chat to the virtual me...


Maybe and no by R Mutt (4.00 / 5) #10 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 06:03:02 AM EST
If it does go bust, they will just sell your overdraft on to a tattooed Lithuanian called "Sergei the Slasher".

[ Parent ]

Oooh Exciting by priestess (2.00 / 0) #18 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 07:03:57 AM EST
Is Sergei a part of the government? Will I finally have my account at a nationalized high-street bank? It'll be like a dream come true!

Adam..........

---------
Chat to the virtual me...
[ Parent ]

I can see the Swiss Stock Exchange from my window. by Merekat (4.00 / 1) #16 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 06:40:58 AM EST
No sign at present of ambulances.




That's because by jump the ladder (4.00 / 1) #17 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 06:45:16 AM EST
There's no stockbrokers there as all the terading is done via computer inside banks and over financial institutions.

[ Parent ]

RBS and Barclays by Metatone (2.00 / 0) #19 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 07:29:40 AM EST
Oct. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. government may invest at least 45 billion pounds ($79 billion) in banks including Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Barclays Plc to bolster capital depleted by mortgage-related losses, two people with knowledge of the situation said.


http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aMHZQGRgtjyE&refer=home




on the positive side by webwench (4.00 / 2) #20 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 08:08:11 AM EST
with the euro being down, I ought to be able to get BMW parts cheaper.

Getting more attention than you since 1998. Ya ya!


DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED! by Breaker (2.00 / 0) #21 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 08:22:15 AM EST
There's some puckering on just about every trading floor I have contacts on right now.

Current scaremongering - if US or UK has to go to the IMF to borrow cash to put up to shore up these banks, what if the IMF can't find anyone who'll lend the cash out?  DOOOOOOOOOMED! And Gordon "Texture Like Sun" Brown's cunning plan - fill his cabinet with a "government of all the talents" by bringing Mandelson in.  Is he just doing that to make himself not the most hated member of the government? (For UKians, Mandelson resigned twice from the previous UKian government for questionable dealings, although I don't think corruption was ever proved in court).




IMF by jump the ladder (2.00 / 0) #22 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 08:36:46 AM EST
Isn't big enough to bail the UK or US out. Printing money and capital controls are the only way out if it gets very bad.

[ Parent ]

Inflation, inflation, inflation by Breaker (2.00 / 0) #23 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 08:49:14 AM EST
Buckle up, you there at the back...


[ Parent ]

And/or Bank nationalization.... by Tonatiuh (2.00 / 0) #31 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 06:53:13 PM EST
Welcome to the PPR of GB&NI.


[ Parent ]

Please to be shoring up RBS by ad hoc (4.00 / 2) #24 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 11:30:35 AM EST
as that is the owner of my bank. I don't want my bank to be owned by Bank of America (soon to be renamed "Only Bank in America").

--
The three things that make a diamond also make a waffle.


Doomed? by dmg (2.00 / 0) #28 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:04:18 PM EST
A small number of us may be doomed, the rest of us are merely enslaved.

If you have balls of steel, (or if you just don't really give a fuck and enjoy a high risk gamble) you could always follow the advice of Nathan Mayer Rothschild.

Basically, there is a lot of panic around, and a shortage of cash.
If you have some cash, there are could be some good bargains to be had.
However, I'd hazard an uneducated guess that we haven't seen the worst of it yet.

Interesting times...


--
Hard work is morally wrong.


On the bright side by dmg (2.00 / 0) #30 Tue Oct 07, 2008 at 05:14:23 PM EST
The Euro may implode... 


Here's hoping!
--
Hard work is morally wrong.


Panic On The Trading Floor | 34 comments (34 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback