Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Do You Want to See Something Really Scary?

If you pop over to the Northern Rock homepage right now - this is what you'll see...




Further news for all Northern Rock customers

Northern Rock has agreed new guarantee arrangements with the Bank of England and H.M Treasury, which brings enhanced protection for all our customers during the current instability in the financial markets.

This protects all retail savings in all accounts, regardless of the amount deposited and applies to all existing and new products.

You can be sure that all retail savings - for both existing and new customers – remain guaranteed, safe and secure.

Everyone at Northern Rock continues to work hard to ensure our customers enjoy a high standard of service and we thank you for your confidence in us.


WTF!!?

.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Get every penny you have in Northern Rock sharpish!

Stef said...

as Lord Patel has pointed out, all deposits in Northern Rock appear to be as safe as government bonds but paying out at a considerably higher rate

you'd still have to be brain dead to put your savings there though

Stef said...

I doubt if other UK banks are concerned about the apparent competitive advantage this guarantee gives to NR

if NR were allowed to implode in an unseemly and thoroughly deserved manner there would be plenty of other banks vying in the queue to be the next to go down

it would appear that the financial cackstorm our politicians and bankers have been lining us up for for so long isn't supposed to happen quite yet

Anonymous said...

We must ask WHY is the BoE doing this? Why do they want people to put their paper back into the bank in exchange for a lazer printed letter with some numbers on it
(the 2nd dimension of fiat currency).

Even a Blobfish preserved forever in formalin can assert NR is cruicial to the BoE's plans. But what is it?

I Don't have a strong wiff of anything yet suffice to say they obviously dont want all this paper (2-4 bn I heard was withdrawn) in the economy. Why y y Delilah?

I have a few suggestions but they are not very strong, such as they dont people to use this money to purchase Gold (the price rocketed up by almost 15%) with their newly reclaimed worthless paper.

Anyone got any spidey-sense on this one?

Stef said...

There's a fairly obvious reason for this behaviour which comes to mind

If Northern Rock goes down there's a very high risk that ordinary people will take a long hard look at the business practices and financing arrangements of other banks, take their money out of those as well and start a chain reaction which would implode the entire system

If that's the concern, and there's a very high probability that it is, then the other f*cking banks should be propping up Northern Rock not the British people

Stef said...

... who's supposed to be running the country again?

I forget

Stef said...

and there's a shortage of standard one ounce gold coins at the moment...

www.taxfreegold.co.uk/wesellkrugers.html

not surprising really

Stef said...

as discussed elsewhere, there's a rather large, rarely discussed, economic factor that might stave off implosion of the UK banking system

and that is the fact that the UK continues to be an excellent place for billionaire crooks to do business.

Hence the reluctance of our beloved ex Chancellor/ Prime Minister to make any changes in our tax laws that would piss off those billionaire crooks

We might have few natural resources of our own or produce very much that the rest of the world wants to buy but our Deny All Knowledge based economy is growing from strength to strength

Anonymous said...

If Northern Rock goes down there's a very high risk that ordinary people will take a long hard look at the business practices and financing arrangements of other banks,

I thought NR's collapse would also precipitate similar woes from other centres of usury but it never happened. I think it's only because NR wasn't liquid enough that investors got worried the bank had overreached itself was in imminent danger of collapse rather than any moral pangs of conscience about business strategy.

"the other f*cking banks should be propping up Northern Rock not the British people" A good point but don't forget, the BoE is a privately owned bank! which makes the Knight in Stinking armour attitude towards NR even more spooky.

"Hence the reluctance of our beloved ex Chancellor/ Prime Minister to make any changes in our tax laws that would piss off those billionaire crooks" - Good point and when you factor in the BoE as being the facilitator of this and its extraordinary measures to stop NR sinking like a rock, you begin to wonder what role if any, NR plays in the crooked field... I think were on to something.

We have v. little resources, but we have the commonwealth - an organisation that has amongst its principles the fact that Elizardbeth is still recognised as the head of state!! Hummm... Also 'we' moved from military control to Economic control (DeBeers being a good example as may British American Tobacco and so forth...)

Hummm....

Yours whose had FAR too much coffee! - lw

Stef said...

when I refer to 'business practices' I'm referring to rash lending policies

when I talk about financing arrangements I'm referring to the fact that ordinary depositors' money is unsecured and therefore prone to evaporation

I too doubt very much if morality comes into it

try camomile tea - it's very calming, if somewhat pukey tasting

Anonymous said...

From the FAQ section:

> What are the guarantee arrangements and how long will they stay in place?

Northern Rock has agreed an extension that brings enhanced protection for all of our customers - existing and new.

The Bank of England and HM Treasury have announced that they will extend the guarantee arrangements already provided for existing deposits to cover new deposits made with Northern Rock after 19 September 2007. These arrangements will cover all deposits regardless of the amount deposited and applies to all existing and new products. The guarantee will remain in place during the current instability in the financial markets.


Ahem.. when have financial markets ever been stable?

Anonymous said...

Stef: aired Income. Thanks.
As for the tea, I couldn't - the thought of drinking shampoo would be too strong in my mind. {Well, yes, you did say pukey!} - lw

Anonymous said...

Presumably the decision is entirely down to the fact that if NR goes under, it'll start a chain reaction and the whole tower of cards that is the British economy will come tumbling down. As we speak, all those self interested parties like the City and the government are desperately paper over the cracks. (I think Brown would do pretty much anything to delay the inevitable judgment day). They can only go so far before the gaping chasm is exposed for all to see. And it probably isn't going to be pretty when it happens...

Merkin said...

Well, Steffo, I have been following it and learning a bit.
Is it 'well possible' that the whole thing will go 'Country by Country' rather than as a whole shot?

Stef said...

anything is possible in this wonderful, globally interconnected world

though if I were living in a country where personal debt, national debt, house prices, and trade deficits were all through the roof I'd be thinking my country was especially vulnerable to a catastrophic financial crash

er, hang on a minute...

Anonymous said...

Stef,

If you get a chance then check out this week's edition of Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe. It's all about TV news, with a nice piece on Northern Wreck. Oh, and a feature by your fave; Mr Adam Curtis!

Repeated Sat 12th @ 12:10 & 21:30, Sun 13th @ 01:40

BZ

Anonymous said...

....and that's on BBC4, dontchaknow...

BZ

Anonymous said...

...and them there dates should be sat 13th & Sun 14th... Back to lurking for me...

BZ

Stef said...

@BZ

ta, I shall

Anonymous said...

Phish of the month? Rock Phish?