Red Tuesday: Banks Fall, The Experts’ Top Tips And Spending Is The New Saving
MORE news that no-one knows what’s going on in the money markets as the Sun screams: “BLACKEST DAY”. Or as the Mirror puts it: “BLACKEST MONDAY.”
Black Monday is the name given to Monday, October 19, 1987, when stock markets around the world crashed. Should not yesterday be “Blacker Monday”?
Readers may be confused. To be in the black means to be free of debt; it is in the red that suggests debt and poverty. The Sun’s headline should read: “REDDEST DAY.”
Happily for Daily Express and Daiuly Mail readers, it’s all a “MELTDOWN”.
Elsewhere on the Sun’s front page, readers learn that the US Treasury rejected a $400billion plan to bail out the financial system.
The failure of US lawmakers to gather enough votes to pass the $700bn rescue of the US financial system is big news, and triggered a 777 points drop on the Dow Jones index.
But on the currency markets, confidence in the dollar is higher than it is in sterling. Yesterday, by mid-afternoon in New York, the dollar was up 1.6 per cent to $1.8145 against the pound. That £400bn rescue package is getting more expensive all the time, at least if it’s funded in pounds it is. Althogh the optimistic Telegraph says it works out at £380bn.
Of all the papers, it’s the Daily Star alone that gets it right: “US SNUBS £388bn BAIL-OUT.”
What The Experts Say
But at least the experts can agree on the course of action:
INDEPENDENT (front page): “SELL! SELL! SELL!”
JOHN HUSBAND (Daily Mirror): “Be smart and buy shares”
VANESSA FELTZ (Express): “Credit crunch was a convenient, snappy and alliterative phrase that… soothed us… Unfortunately euphemisms only do the job until they are exposed.”
Feltz prefers the words “recession”, even if it isn’t.
It is a credit crunch - it is a credit crisis because banks will not lend to other banks, or are very cautious about doing so.
“It is misleading, unhelpful and will start to seem a downright insult to those struggling to stay afloat.”
Yeah, let‘s stick to the facts, Vanessa, we owe it to the readers who need to know why they can’t sell their home.
Buying Is The New Saving
On a brighter note, we – taxpayers that is – have just bought a concrete carbuncle in Bingley (surely ‘a fine example of brutalist architecture?’ – Ed) and a shiny office block in Bradford. Both buildings already have tenants.
We are now experts in the mortgage game, thanks to our investment in Northern Rock.
And because we are all so financially savvy, the future bodes well, does it not.
So save, save, save, as the Government’s new mantra goes.
Save Northern Rock… Save Bradford… Save Bingley… And spend our money…
Image: Hack
Posted: 30th, September 2008 | In: Money, Tabloids Comments (24) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
- yampster on Global Warming: Every Time You Breathe A Bangladeshi Dies
- Paul Wainwright on Global Warming: Every Time You Breathe A Bangladeshi Dies
- tuesday on The 19th Annual Le Bal Crillon In Pictures And ‘Well-Born Young Ladies’
- June on The 19th Annual Le Bal Crillon In Pictures And ‘Well-Born Young Ladies’
- Fact Checker on The 19th Annual Le Bal Crillon In Pictures And ‘Well-Born Young Ladies’
October 1st, 2008 at 2:46 am
Hi June,
Yes, hollow is a good word to use June, and why does it take an American(Greenspan) on the other side of the Altantic to finally shout that “its the worst financial crisis I’ve ever seen” Why wasn’t someone in the UK giving a clear warning about the possibility of an economic crunch long ago?
Over and over again you heard people on CNN stating that Wall street has hit another record high and on the FTSE shares again have increased in value.
Banks have been throwing credit and credit cards at customers .People given mortgages when they had little chance of repaying them because their incomes weren’t
big enough.
British banks over the years have often reported billions in profits and they have often over-charged their customers left-right and centre.Pure greed.
Manufacturing in the UK has been in steady decline for a long time. I can see many products from a variety of countries here in Brazil(China, Switzerland,USA, Japan etc)
but its more difficult to locate products made and imported from the UK.
The next few months will be most interesting to watch and see how the crisis has real impact in unemployment, housing, credit, and confidence in governments and banks.
Let’s hope there is a light in the tunnel and things will get much better. In the meantime, stash away some money or buy some gold.
September 30th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
John
I think the boom just had a very hollow ring to it.
But I think these clouds have been gathering for a lot longer than the summer.
I also feel its going to carry on for years, there won’t be too many who are solvent, and it was held that people were going to inherit their parents mortgages, I somehow feel it will grandparents mortgages.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Chamberlain said (with his little piece of paper) “Peace in our time” and with Brown it looks certain to be “Bankrupt in our time” Oh, how talk of a booming economy has changed so quickly and now, the perspective is so very different. With job fears and higher unemployment in the UK and US, many jobs will soon be lost in the hospitality industry(Hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs) and in tourism.These jobs are always very vunerable in difficult economic times.
Brown and Bush weren’t tellng the public with loud and clear voices that dark economic clouds were gathering even two or three months ago.There were more accurate predictions about economic worries surfacing here on Anorak.The failure of Bush to get a $700 billion dollar bailout, has placed a few more coffin nails in his presidency, and, Brown is skating on very thin ice indeed in terms of public confidence in his leadership(plus Darling’s ability with UK finances)……..a couple of jokers in the pack but few are laughing at their Laurel and Hardy political double-act.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Thanks FSBF,
I hadn’t realised they were going to lose that many stores if they hope to survive.
A lot of jobs are going down the pan…
September 30th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
MFI needed £19m for the next quarters rent, and the banks aren’t lending, I had heard they had found another backer.
Ford are also cutting back to a 4 day week in all their factories world wide.
This is the problem, no one can get credit,mortgages or what have you and then it’ll get worse when everyone is on shorter hours.
Val, talk to Cheryl on here, she is US based, and can tell you their side of it
September 30th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
yeah despite the buy out there’s abotu 100 stores closing - jobs going everywhere
September 30th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Val,
I think there’s been a management buy out to rescue MFI, and they are talking about redoing the Lloyds HBOS deal because the market has dropped so badly since then…
September 30th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I had an e-mail yesterday from a Friend in the U.S. who luckily does not have a
Mortgage and she says there is a lot of anger at the proposed bale-out. Survival of
the fittest has been the American way and with the Election so soon, many in
Congress worry about losing votes.
There is no guarantee either that this bale out will stem the tide.
In the U.K., on the News, MFI is in trouble.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Well, if the markets keep tanking then there will be any number of former high flyers in need of a ghost writer, so don’t dismiss it out of hand!
Could be money in them thar junk bonds…
September 30th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
never written a memoir in my life!
September 30th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
And I forgot that the author of misery memoirs has a vested interesting in inducing as much misery as possible…
September 30th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Oh dearie me… I clean forgot the oracle has no sense of humour.
September 30th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
C&C
I’m sorry to have to break the news, but it’s wrong.
I do appreciate that people like to see things they understand, but it was people doing things which they did not understand which got us into this mess, and we are unlikely to ever get out of it until we buckle down and start trying to live in the real world…
September 30th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
This I like. This I understand.
http://www1.sky.com/news/MONEYCYCLE.jpg
September 30th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
pardoned
September 30th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
shouldn’t that be Lone Heron…? pigeons are quite gregarious and flock around together, if you’ll pardon the expression…
September 30th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
you left one out dairy. Lone pigeon!
September 30th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
…so in future are you going to reveal yourself as Fully Secured Bank Funding Retired Bunny Eating Heron, or do you intend to remain cloaked in mystery…..?
September 30th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Only for the real me
September 30th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I see; the Pigeon bit was a nom de plume, was it?
September 30th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?The_early_bird_gets_the_rabbit&in_article_id=330499&in_page_id=34
In case noone believes me that Herons eat rabbits!
September 30th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I’ve retired. Brought my boat and am going fishing. Hell I might even eat a bunny or two! Has anyone seen the Dutch heron eating the bunny? Incredible!
September 30th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
‘Wall Street Bonuses Could Drop 50%’
it says, right here in the New York Times.
That’ll wipe the smile off the face of the Gnomes of Zurich, not to mention fat cats like Fully Secured Bank Funding Pigeon!
September 30th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
It’s a hyper credit crunch plus the ftse is actually stable and recovering. We must be on the up!