Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

I think the banks will have no alternative other than issue apologies.

I'll draft one for them.

"We are absolutely horrified that our customers took it upon themselves to take up mortgages, loans and credit cards without so much as a thought as to the consequences. We can only apologize on their behalf to the world at large."

Over the last few years, banks have been a bit like sex and the single girl.
Remember when those sweet (or not so sweet) nothings whispered in the current girlfriends ear was enough to get you a few hours (alright minutes then) of raw unbridled sex. Those wonderful nights when neither could get or give enough, you know the cries of more, more. Same every night, with no limit on deposits or withdrawals (sorry couldn't resist).
They could have avoided the current situation if they had acted more like a married woman. Sex is only offered when they know you don't really need/want it, like when watching football or racing on TV for example. You have to work bloody hard to get any when you do want it, and when you get it the promised collateral (payback) costs are high like an expensive meal out, clothes shopping etc, leaving you thinking is it worth all the effort.
Mind you I'm sure that many present bank managers go home each night and like the wife, give that old excuse. Please, not tonight I have a headache.

Prerequisite to a night of sex............always have a pack of paracetamol in your pocket.

Kimmost people use a luffa for packingyoure a bit cocky!

I'm thinking about showing them my pet hamster. I reckon it might work every time.

I'm surprised the general concensus here seems to be 'the banks are to blame for everything for lending money to stupid people'.

Blaming the banks is a little like blaming god for putting the apple in the garden of Eden and not Eve for eating it!

This is another example of people not wanting to take responsability for their own lives/actions.

There may be exceptions, such as very very dim or mentally ill , but on the whole people taking out loans, buying bigger houses than they can afford, etc. know exactly what they're doing - a loan isn't one-sided it takes two. Most people in difficulties now stretched themselves through greed, took a gamble, and in some cases it didn't pay off - in most cases it probably will.

There are a whole host of things being sold that we have the choice of buying or not - are we going to blame the shoe shops for my wifes wardrobe being full of shoes although she can only wear one pair at a time? Do we blame off-licenses if we become alcoholics? Then why blame the banks if we become greedy?

True Oblo but on the other hand Banks are supposed to be a responsible body. There has been an element of fear/panic in the house market over the last few years resulting in people paying far too much for a property that is nowhere near it's real worth, which is far less than even now.
The Banks were responsible for ensuring that their customers could repay borrowing leaving over a substantial sum for living expenses and allowing for the inevitable slump in house prices. They did not, so I would apportion the blame at 60% Banks 40% customers.

I agree that the lenders are not fully to blame but if you put easy temptation in peoples path, like those desperate to get a foot on the property ladder or those already struggling to make ends meet, un-repayable debt occurs.
Very few people are totally immune to the devil on the shoulder.
The person who goes through life without ever getting in a bit too deep, is either very lucky, always financially viable or both.
Banks are to blame due to their very poor risk management, IE lending to those who would struggle to repay.
I mainly blame banks and those other financial institution for purchasing those sub prime debt packages that many of them now fully admit to not knowing their value or content. A bit like the old market scams where you buy a box and contents on the word of the seller that it contains something of equal or more value than its buy price.
I feel though the main blame lies with the governments that allowed such debt build ups in the first place. Whilst I am totally against the so called nanny state, governments do have a responsibility to the population to regulate. Without any regulation it is almost impossible for the public at large to know what is or what is not sound financial products, be that an investment of loan or/and interest.
But yes, some people will always blame others and never take any responsibility for their own actions, Gordon Brown being a very prominent example.
As to the future, no doubt governments will make the usual mistake of even more regulation, when what is needed is less such regulation, but better.

Just talking to myself a bit and wondering if our old friend Addo's wealthy customers were the typical sort of punters, who might have been affected in the fallout from recent offshore banking failure?

I'm reading this kind of stuff:

"Many investors did not even invest with the Icelandic banks but joined them by default after Landsbanki took over Cheshire Building Society in Guernsey while the Derbyshire Building Society was acquire by Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Isle of Man.

Wealthy investors who had their cash in offshore bonds could also lose their nest eggs. British investors have as much as 5bn in the schemes, which are used by people who intend to move or retire abroad and mostly have very high minimum investment limits.

Most of the bonds sold by big companies such as Aegon Scottish Equitable, offered an offshore cash account with the Icelandic banks as part of their bonds portfolios.

These are corporate accounts with a collective investment structure and are not automatically eligible for the kind of compensation available to ordinary investors, even if any existed.

So far, 300 Aegon bondholders have been hit with investments amounting 57m, 300 at Axa with holdings of 50m, 120 at Norwich Union with 15m of deposits. The Prudential, Skandia and Clerical Medical who also have exposures said they were investigating the extent of the problem."

More at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/....

I also feel quite sorry for the couple who sold the Caravan Park and lost circa 1.2m, which was temporarily stashed with an Isle of Man subsidiary of Icelandic bank Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander (KSF), which went bust this month.

Despite losing their sale proceeds, they also have a CGT bill of 120,000 to pay. Big Bummer!

More on it here:-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article....

some sympathy but last August when things started to go pear shaped I started looking closely at the guarantees offered by these offshore offshoots and was horrified to discover that Guernsey had no compensation scheme and the Isle of Man 15k - I immediately brought all my cash onshore. These little fiefdoms are finished for banking

Copied from another thread by permission of Smiler.

Once upon a time in a place overrun with monkeys, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for 10 each.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at 10 and as supply started to diminish, they became harder to catch, so the villagers stopped their effort.
The man then announced that he would now pay 20 for each one. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.
But soon the supply diminished even further and they were ever harder to catch, so people started going back to their farms and forgot about monkey catching.
The man increased his price to 25 each and the supply of monkeys became so scarce that it was an effort to even see a monkey, much less catch one.
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys for 50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on his behalf.
While the man was away the assistant told the villagers 'Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has bought.
I will sell them to you at 35 each and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for 50 each.'
The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys.

They never saw the man or his assistant again and once more there were monkeys everywhere.

And that my friend is pretty much how the stock market works!

Yet more allegations of corrupt practices in government (Mr Osborne , shadow chancellor).
I think very few of our so called Honorable members could lie in bed straight.
Crooks the whole bloody lot of them.

Looks like a bit of Mandelson skulldugery to me - its what he's been bought back for isn't it? Cant see Osbournes done much wrong even if he did talk about a possible loan, he didn't take one. But who would you believe - two bankers and Peter Mandelson or George Osbourne? I know who I'd trust.

None of them?! ;o)

Britain deadYahooGoldman Sachs Merck.huge job losses.Government spent out.Dow struggling on 9000.and still they ask the question.are we all heading towards a recession.I thought I was thick?.on a plus side Swindon looks good for a ride!

Just talking to myself.
With Christmas just round the corner there will be a lot of people in financial troubleThose will be forced to used their last bit of credit to have any kind of festivities.what does the future hold?I know of a mid 30s woman that works at M&S and is left with one option.the credit cardsor mortgage?.a single mother works hard very sadyou will find most of the credit card companies have operated outside their guidelineslent money without legal requirements proper checks and so if it came to outside agencies/debt collectors/court proceedingsthe Judges are not looking favourably upon the lendersi.e. the card companies cant threaten your house! Or much elseAs if the financials are not in enough troublewhat would be the result in massive defaulting on cards which is inevitable!families being faced with no optionmy thought iswe have had eighteen months of media warningI have been personally persuaded for five yearsand yet people come on here and still buy Banks would you buy a lotto ticket if first prize was 2?...well you have been! all this and the equity markets losing more often than Spurs commodities looked as safe as Arsene Wengerand are also in Ramos land!!!!

Tabasco,

Ramos land. Is that near Egypt. If I were you I would not put my money in any Egyptian bank, that's asking for trouble.

I walk like an Egyptianand the wife wears bangles.as for Banksthats Phareohs land.nick nick!

Anyone see Question Time 1030 BBC 1 last night.
Roy Hattersley was unbelievable. According to him, Gordon Brown is saving the world single handed, and was in no way to blame for he present crisis. I half expected him to state that he had seen him (GB) walk on water, turn water into wine and can feed the whole worlds population with 5 loaves and 2 fishes.
If he had got any further up GB's backside he would have completely disappeared, which would be some feat considering his size.
And he did appear to believe what he was preaching, although he was probably the only person present that did.

I must say , that I rather liked Dimbleby's tie. It had an enormously large pink spider on it.

The opening comment from Baroness thingummygob (what a voice!) about the credibility of the Immigration Minister now being shot to pieces, because of an instruction from above banning his presence on the show, was also rather funny.

Up the Poles! Where would be be now without them, eh?