Friday, 9 December 2022

"However, critics say it risks forgetting the lessons of the financial crisis..."

From the BBC:

The government has announced what it describes as one of the biggest overhauls of financial regulation for more than three decades.

It says the package of more than 30 reforms will "cut red tape" and "turbocharge growth". Rules that forced banks to legally separate retail banking from riskier investment operations will be reviewed. Those were introduced after the 2008 financial crisis when some banks faced collapse.

The package of changes, the "Edinburgh Reforms" is being presented as an example of post-Brexit freedom to tailor regulation specifically to the needs and strengths of the UK economy.

However, critics say it risks forgetting the lessons of the financial crisis.


Famous last words. The government is clearly insane. It's like scrapping regular checks on bridges on the basis they haven't collapsed for years. This is all just setting us up for the next financial crisis starting in 2025.

If you start at the ideal kind of economy, with free and competing markets, you can either veer to the left: over-regulation, nationalisation, socialism, communism... and end up with a small handful of people living in luxury at the expense of the impoverished masses.

Or you can veer to the right: de-regulation, privatisation of national wealth, corporatism, crony-capitalism, allowing rent-seekers to run the show... and end up with a small handful of people living in luxury at the expense of the impoverished masses.

There's no real difference, is there? Russia pivoted from the Communist extreme to the crony-capitalist extreme in the 1990s, with the same people doing the controlling and exploiting.

Thursday, 8 December 2022

They own land, give them (easy) money!

Spotted by TBH in The Daily Mail:

Homeowners who run into financial trouble will be able to make reduced mortgage payments under a deal brokered by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt at a summit with bank bosses yesterday.

The Treasury said last night bank chiefs had agreed a series of measures to help struggling customers. Those who run into difficulty with payments will be offered targeted help, which could include a ‘short-term reduction in monthly payments’, a temporary switch to interest-only payments or extension of the mortgage term to reduce monthly costs.

Banks also agreed that households coming to the end of their fixed rates should be offered a new deal without another affordability test, provided they have kept up with payments.


This is how they will keep the credit/land price bubble going for another two or three years before the inevitable big financial crisis/house price crash in 2025. Apparently, a recent Welfare Reform Bill had similar measures for people claiming Universal Credit.