13 September 2007:
Chancellor Alistair Darling has urged Britain's banks to take a more cautious approach to lending*... Mr Darling said both lenders and borrowers needed to "think long and hard" about the risks involved. He also suggested a return to "good, old-fashioned banking" ..."In crude terms [lenders] need to know who they're lending to [sic], how much they're lending and what the risk is. Now, that's elementary banking, one might think, but there are times when going back to good old-fashioned banking may not be a bad idea." But Mr Darling made no suggestion government would intervene with tighter regulation of lending.
* This was about two days before Northern Rock went *pop*, of course.
13 October 2008:
As part of today's £37 billion bailout package Gordon Brown said that banks would be expected to help struggling homebuyers and small businesses by restoring the availability of loans to last year's more generous levels. But today the Council of Mortgage Lenders quickly warned that this might not be 'prudent or desirable'.
A grim document
8 hours ago
7 comments:
Cough.... 13th October 2008
Surely?
;-)
Ooops ... I have amended.
Sort o/t, but have you thought of doing / been able to do a P&L and balance sheet for the UK?
Many a time. I've got most of the figures in my head but it is largely a problem of classification and accounting nuances. For example, GDP figures includes a notional amount for the value of school exam results!
...looks like they'll have to be lots of those famous 'notes to the accounts' then?
Yup. One page P&L, one page balance sheet and a thousand pages of notes.
Tell, you what, just do the P&L and the BS - we'll be able to guess the notes!
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