Brown's spend, spend, spend during his Chancellor's days has brought us into the current economy we are facing today. His appeal at a Downing Street meeting for the lenders to pass on cuts appeared to fall on deaf ears with HBOS, which owns the Halifax, increasing its rate on some mortgages from 6.09 to 6.59 per cent. Borrowers taking out this type of deal will now pay 46 more a month. On a two-year tracker, the rate will increase from 1.49 points above base rate to 1.99 points, giving a current rate of 6.99 per cent.

Other lenders are expected to follow Halifaxs lead.

If the Government wants the banks to lower mortgage rates to home owners - why not just offer them through Northern Rock? Everyone would rush to the Rock to get the loans forcing banks to match the rates or lose the business? Or maybe the government would then run into bigger credit crunch?

Yeah but he does allow shorting scotty .... that gotta be a big plus :-)

he doesnt understand free market or stock market.......even pakistan has outlawed short selling and angela merkel of germany and italian finance minister are against it.

gb doesnt allow it......he probably just doesnt know it exists....he's a brainless womble thats done nothing in life

apologies to any brainless wombles who may be offended

But this is Tory capitalist theory in practice. The fat get fatter and the lean go to the wall.

The sub prime market was due to fine capitalist theory on practice, grab, greed.lies and borrowing to make more without respect of others. Flog anything for what you can get not necessary for its value. Suck others into the madness.

5 years ago if the government had tried to step in with legislation there would have been the outcry of government intervention. When a moneylender gets caught out, there is immediate cry by people shouting that the government must step in to save the capitalist bacon. Northen Rock is a typical example of bleating tory capitalist policies. It should have been left to go to the wall.

How the the government is responsible for the majority of present inflation points to the blindness of the public who wish to be responsible for good times and blame anyone else for the bad.

I would like to hear what realistic proposals a Political Spiv like Cameron proposes to deal with the present economic problems this country and the world is encountering.

What we are seeing at he moment if the effect of large (international companies) due to their financial sizes, having disproportionate effects on various country economics when they make the make mistakes.

There may be a case for not allowing a company to have a turnover above a certain proportion of the total GDP of a country.

PS. I think the economic problems of the moment was not initially due the sub-prime market, but due to the low cost of borrowing from Japan, which allowed the markets to have money at low cost and low risk, which fed into the hedging funds and various "buy outs and takeovers" at crazy valuations.

Added to that in this country were the crazy tax allowances on "debt".

The British pound has dropped to US$1.86. Thanks to Gordon Brown.

lol......he's getting on with the job.....thats what he keeps on saying.

its going to get a lot worse before its going to improve.....just to cheer u all up

hyleo

pound going to 1.70-1.8$ from some analyst but longer term it says 1.5-1.6$

Well, it means the gadgets I buy in the U.S. will cost a tad more if I use a Sterling credit card, but it really helps my company which is a technology exporter to the U.S. We have to price in dollars, and we've been badly hurt by the overvalued pound in recent years. $1.7 seems a much more natural level. Some of my existing supply contracts were originally struck at that level in the 90s.

We will see less tourists going to the States and Europe. Let's all sit down and watch TV instead.

Womens beach volleyball looks good at the moment!

Thanks for reminder "tabasco" must check TV guide for today.

When watching Brazil vs Greece, my partners comment was "do they really have to wear Bikini's for the sport"

answers on a postcard

Question his how low can Sterling go on the Euro and the dollor.
Most imports goods in this country are used for manufacturing and almost all food in this
country is imported as well But Gorden as gamle on the economy and hes the only one
can guide this ship out of trouble and he willing to run the gauntlet on the behalf of the
British people over the next 15 months also. Then he will write a book like the rest.
His will be about British history and his old skills running the economy. As for his mate
Tony Blair saying labour will not get in at the next election his that were someone votes
for a leader of a government that run the country that will be called a general election
then the people vote in agreement
What did tony give us cctv camera for every 14 people in great britian and the next
the president of Europe

What do you mean "is ruining" he has already done it and is so deluded that he can't see the job is beyond his capabilities ... while Parliament is full of people who do not understand their responsibilities.

AGREED//AS ABOVE//BUT JUST TO SAY THEY ARE ONIY THERE FOR THE BEER OH AN THE MONEY EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS/

Corruption rules UK!

This is a very informative thread.

I wonder what the first 5 steps would be appropriate for an economic recovery in Britain, and who do you think would have the ability to implement these brilliant suggestions?

there might be people to sort out uk but these people r probably not politicians.......people like brown, prescott etc r professional politicians......they aint really worked, ran a business, know how a company operates etc.....so how do they know how to run a country........also they become brainwashed after researcher etc, junior minister before going higher up....rather than having beliefs or idealism.

1st step is out of europe.....blair cancelled uk rebate that mrs.t fought for.....then doubled amount we got to give for next 6 years.....when we r at our poorest!

ofd course if uk never invaded iraq and spent tens of billions, that would be more money saved.......then again uk now has its 1st war criminal

I have to laugh about all the free-markeeters on these boards. The idea that "business knows best". Give me a break. What about the banks and sub-prime? The onlyone who saw it coming was Goldman. Fortunately, clydesdale and lloyds tsb and some others ignored sub-prime. RBS has humiliated Scotland. It is supposed to be the country's flaghship businesss. shocking. Scotinvestor said a few months ago that people in the public sector don't work so hard but in the private sector they're expected to perform. Fred Goodwin is earning 4 million this year. Surely, if his pay was performance related he would be getting sacked without any pay-off. I personally think members of the public are within their right to take action against directors and boards who underperform, eg. tarring them, putting them in stocks that kind of thing.

Performance related is one of the biggest myths going. Warren Buffett has only ever paid himself 100 000 thousand dollars a year, his reward , his capital, is completely dependent on his performance. There is a tangible link. Not so with other fund managers , who pay themselves on average 400 000 thousand a year , and hardlyany of them beat an index fund over the long term. If you can't beat an index fund regularly then you don't deserve to earn anything, since you're not doing your job, you're not adding any value over a tracker.

And another thing, I'm no fan of Brown, but do you think things would be better with Cameron? Would electricity prices be cheaper? doubt it. At least, Brown got 20 billion off the 3g licenses at the height of the dot com boom, that puts in the shade whatever he would have got form gold at these prices.

The georgian team are gorgeous at the beach volleyball,helps they're brazilian.

How can London compete with China's Olympics??? Their opening and closing ceremonies were spectacular. And Zhang Yi Mou has done a marvellous job.
Who needs Steven Spielberg anyway?