Sharesmagazine
 Home   Log In   Register   Our Services   My Account   Contact   Help 
 Stockwatch   Level 2   Portfolio   Charts   Share Price   Awards   Market Scan   Videos   Broker Notes   Director Deals   Traders' Room 
 Funds   Trades   Terminal   Alerts   Heatmaps   News   Indices   Forward Diary   Forex Prices   Shares Magazine   Investors' Room 
 CFDs   Shares   SIPPs   ISAs   Forex   ETFs   Comparison Tables   Spread Betting 
You are NOT currently logged in
 
Register now or login to post to this thread.

Northern Rock (NRK)     

irlee57 - 13 Aug 2007 09:03

any comments, thoughts, on this stock.

fliper - 01 Oct 2007 12:17 - 503 of 1029

Keep looking at these glass rock shares , to buy or not to buy ? a buy at 1.30 ?

cynic - 01 Oct 2007 12:21 - 504 of 1029

buy at 1.30? .... would not have thought so except on an arguable bounce ..... same would apply at 1.00 but with rather more cogency

hangon - 01 Oct 2007 12:31 - 505 of 1029

Feather-bedding shareholders . . . are shareholders some special class of saver?
When NRK was created, savers got shares - so even without intending to be shareholders, they ahve an equitable interest in the business.
Where the Government should address its wrath is towwards the Bank Top-execs that ( it would seem) had no plans for the company's future if the international borrowing-rate went above (say 6%)....that anyone could think this would "never happen" would appear to me to be very silly.
So the Execs should be lined-up for the village stocks - and maybe joined by the Regulator, who presumably between Lunches go round Banks and checks what they are up to.....otherwise he's hardly a Regulator, rather he a waste of space. Then we ahve the BoE who appear to have a Role - yet they don't want to exercise the Role , even though at least one of their tasks is to keep the British Economy strong ( er, internationally).

So as I see it the Public who own shares in NRK are at the mercy of dark-forces - there is no-one that asks Shareholders if this is the way they want their investment to conduct business, AND they are then "blamed" for some dire consequences of a drubbing by both the Press and Government Agencies that are supposed to check on NRK's state of health - before the patient shows signs of a heart-attack
So, IMHO my friend, whilst you may be Right in historical fact-forthcoming, morally shareholders are NOT the root-cause of this fiasco, indeed I doubt if many of them even attend the agm's to vote for Directors' pay.

Of course I know that investing is risky and all that stuff, but here we are facing a different scene - a Government that is both in-control and trying to avoid responsibility....it's a bad place to be invested....

cynic - 01 Oct 2007 12:44 - 506 of 1029

i never remotely intimated that the ordinary shareholders were remotely to blame for the disaster .... however, holding shares in NRK is intrinsically no different from holding shares in SEO .... whether or not the gov't should carry any "blame" is also a pretty tenuous argument, and for sure it certainly has no responsibility of any kind other than to protect, at least to some extent, the savers and mortgagees ..... even that could be argued as debatable, but not to do so would create a truly terrifying scenario, for all sorts of very obvious reasons.

halifax - 01 Oct 2007 12:53 - 507 of 1029

Cynic who granted NRK a banking licence and who is responsible for monitoring their activities? Wake up to reality!

cynic - 01 Oct 2007 13:17 - 508 of 1029

not the gov't that's for sure! .... nor does BoE have any say, and nor should it, in controlling to whom and what terms NRK or any other institution lends, always assuming that it is legal.

Guscavalier - 01 Oct 2007 13:23 - 509 of 1029

Brown must be quaking in his boots over this situation. A situation that has been totally mishandled from the start. Whoever is to blame be it the gov. the BOE or the FSA or combination of all of these, the collapse of NRK would cause one almighty stink and will lose him a few votes. NRK is not just a bank from Brown's viewpoint. It would mean job loses and small shareholders being wiped out. He may be totally useless and detrimental to the economy but, unfortunately, he is no fool and some compromise between interested parties will be found.

cynic - 01 Oct 2007 13:30 - 510 of 1029

there is no (meaningful) backlash whatsoever aimed at Mr B and his merry gang - the polls make this abundantly clear ...... you are right to say Mr B is no fool, and hence why the gov't will absolutely correctly keep its distance and let matters unfold of their own accord ...... for sure the shareholders will get nothing back, but that is nothing new when any company goes belly up ...... further, job losses will not be significant, and undoubtedly a damn sight less than those associated with Ford or similar when they shut their factories.

Guscavalier - 01 Oct 2007 13:51 - 511 of 1029

I am sure he is doing his best to keep his distance but, with electioneering in the offing it could well go against him. I am not sure he can be seen to be at the distance he would prefer, although he is a master at keeping a low profile at the right time. Agreed, job losses not on large scale, but this is a bank with Northern roots and the press would be scathing. Brown knows this may cause a backlash and could be blown up out of proportion.

cynic - 01 Oct 2007 13:54 - 512 of 1029

clearly you are one of the Tory supporters who will grab at any straw in the hope that it will change the outcome of the elction ...... more chance of AMER or GOO hitting a gusher in the next 3 months

Guscavalier - 01 Oct 2007 14:07 - 513 of 1029

I am not grabbing at any straw and has nothing to do with my politics. I was trying to look at the situation from Brown's view point. He has plenty of negative things on his plate without another such situation adding to the potential mire. Perhaps he will be happy to rely on oppinion polls then.

cynic - 01 Oct 2007 14:12 - 514 of 1029

wouldn't you? ...... Brown would be in genuine and deserved deep water if either gov't or BoE came to the aid of the ordinary investor ..... that really would hand the Tories a realistic chance!

Brown's continued refusal to allow a referendum on EU constitution is likely to be far more damaging, but at the moment he wears a teflon overcoat

cynic - 01 Oct 2007 14:18 - 515 of 1029

surprisingly light volumes today ..... only 8m so far

hewittalan6 - 01 Oct 2007 14:21 - 516 of 1029

Blame?
Take your pick. Any of the following 3.
The treasury for the rules which allowed NRK to head deeper and deeper into it.
The FSA for applying those rules in such a way that meant NRK had to lend money it did not need, therfore going public and causing a run on the bank(s).
The NRK board for following a cavalier approach to business with other peoples money.
Arguably, its all 3, but its also a world wide phenomenon. Look at our friends across the pond and the european banks facing very similar issues.
Difficult to pin blame on a single countries politicians for a world wide event, though I think some blame lies there.
For my money, the board needs replacing and the FSA needs to hand banking and retail policing to someone who understands it.

Guscavalier - 01 Oct 2007 14:24 - 517 of 1029

Agree with you about EU referendum position. Re NRK a complete wipe out for shareholders could reflect badly on the government when the press start dishing out the blame. He may get lucky, then he may not.

driver - 01 Oct 2007 14:26 - 518 of 1029

It got to 150p then, still not buying I may go in at 50p

Guscavalier - 01 Oct 2007 14:27 - 519 of 1029

Agree with what you say hewittalan6. I was just trying to look at it from the govt view point with an election coming up.

hewittalan6 - 01 Oct 2007 14:34 - 520 of 1029

I have a thing about the FSA, so I love the idea of attaching blame to them.
Since their inception they have overseen (orchestrated) many financial scandals and have somehow managed to make life impossible for many financial businesses.
They have also overseen the decimation of "industrial branch" financial advice and then bemoaned the lack of it. They have made "profit" a dirty word, then bemoaned the lack of professionalism in the industry, and just when we believe they are as bad as they can get, they replace prescriptive rules with statements of principle then leave the industry to work out what the hell they mean, with them waiting to prosecute when the industry gets it wrong.
That kind of track record and muddle headedness is bound to lead to many more NRK scenarios.
There. Blast over.

cynic - 01 Oct 2007 14:40 - 521 of 1029

alan .... do you want to see lending pretty much government controlled, for i certainly don't ..... if you concur, then so long as the financial institutions stay within the rules of the time, there is no blame to level other than at the board(s) of the institutions that find themselves in a deep hole.

i actually find it more than a little sad that whenever something goes wrong, whether it is an NRK that goes bankrupt, or someone trips over a slightly raised paving stone, or falls down the restaurant stairs when somewhat inebriated, blame has to be attached elsewhere, preferably with some swingeing fine or similar attaching.

halifax - 01 Oct 2007 14:41 - 522 of 1029

Do you remember to BCCI?
Register now or login to post to this thread.