Jezza does it again
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The roles and shortcomings off the credit ratings agencies has yet to be fully established. If it's as you say then they are liable for the losses, but I see little sign of that happening.
Companies aren't forced to use the US govt approved credit rating agencies, they chose to. And again, no-one forced non-US banks to bet the farm on sub-prime American mortgages, and just because someone tells you that it's AAA quality it doesn't mean that you have to accept that. If a car salesman tells you a car does 80 mpg do you believe him? or check the facts?
They should have known what they were buying, and made sure that they weren't over-exposed to a collapse in that market. Credit rating agencies are supposed to give an indication of risk - not to do the bank's job for them.
Of course it was, we're seeing the natural result of decades of extreme short-termism in the financial services industry, and of the general electorate buying into the myth that companies are the best self-regulators of themselves.
Of course he's responsible for the budget deficit during his time as chancellor - although unlike most of his EU counterparts he managed to keep UK debt to 40% of GDP until Northern Rock. However I can't see the relevance of the UK public spending to the sub-prime mortgage collapse in the lightly-regulated USA.Media taking things too far as usual, this is a complete no-story. If he hadn't included the world "Scottish" in his sentence I doubt anyone would have picked up on it despite it being a remark against the blind/partially blind.
Now if GB was a Muslim or Jew, Jeremy would be looking for a new job.
Now if GB was a Muslim or Jew, Jeremy would be looking for a new job.
You fail to see my original point...
I couldn't give a toss about Gordon Brown, but nobody should have to have the **** taken out of them for a disability, it's just not the done thing....hence the "fuss" that everyone on here can't seem to understand.
Maybe my standards are too high in your mind but unless your about 8 years old and ignorant of the world, there is no justification for such a pathetic and lazy shot.
Would Clarkson have said this to his face?
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Watching the Labour moaners on the TV, it seems to be more about JC saying something bad about gordon brown rather than anything else. There's already been one on BBC news demanding that JC retracts the statement that GB is an idiot who doesn't know what he's doing. Why should he? It's entirely true.
There is no reason to retract the idiot part of the statement and I hope he doesn't.
Associate
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It's biggest ever champion Mr Greenspan's admissions and comments a couple of months back seem at odds with that.
In a functioning credit market, the ratings agencies would work for those purchasing securities, rather than those selling them, and would gain reputation based on accurate prediction, not government approval.
Actually, they are forced to, under the Basel accords.
For accounting purposes, only the ratings of certian credit rating agencies can be used, and that's an internationally agreed standard. Are you advocating that banks should be ignoring the government regulated and mandated CRA's and go to someone else? That doesn't bode well for your confidence in the government to regulate an industry.
They did know what they were buying, securities regarded by the international government approved bodies as being safe.
As opposed to the outright lie that governments are better regulators?
Because if he'd not consistently run a high budget deficit through the longest period of growth in the 20th century, we'd be in a much better position to stimulate the economy now?
Soldato
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What outright lie?
Are you saying things would be just as bad right now if the Government had better regulations in place/was able to regulate?
What outright lie?
Are you saying things would be just as bad right now if the Government had better regulations in place/was able to regulate?
No, I'm saying that the idea that the Government (any government looking around the world) knows what is 'better regulation' is flawed.
Every government regulation is put into place with the idea that it's the right thing to do, including most of the regulations and interventions in the market, recent and not, that have been a significant contributor to the perfect storm that has been the current issues.
The idea that the government, somehow, magically knows what regulations to put into place to control the market, now and in the future, and make everything shiny and happy, is the lie.
That's why it's better for the government to leave things alone, because things tend not to work out according to plan.
Soldato
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Are you saying Moodys is a Govt pawn or owned by the US Govt?
GREED, pure and simple, by the banks and the investment houses created this mess. Of all the people I have heard, watched or read on this crisis you have the distinction of being the only one who blames the Govt and absolves the market[/quote]
Both were created in a different age for a purpose, which they served.
Your faith in the market borders on fanatacism
I leave that to the chief political editor on CH4 news when this story broke. He said "Mr Cameron is trying to make political headway with this story. It must be remembered that he never once voted against the Govt spending plans. He is relying on the voters to forget that. Only time will tell if he is right"
I just died a little inside.
dont worry... he olny said sorry about making fun about his eyesight...he didnt apologise for calling him either scottish or an idiot..
No, I'm saying the government created the ogliopoly via regulation.
Actually, I haven't absolved the market, I've said the market failure wasn't the result of free market principles. Put simply, I do not believe a free market would have grown in the way the international markets did, and as such any attempt to blame the free market is misplaced.
The market that we have failed, but the market we have was not, and hasn't been for a long time, anything that resembles a free market.
Both also created significant market distortion that would not have been seen otherwise.
Your faith in the government to be able to do something about it is even more fanatical, given their part in causing the circumstances that allowed it to happen.
Unfortunately, the public in the UK are stupid enough to believe large government spending is a good thing...
...Ooooooook
Because Jeremy Clarkson is on the same scale of Sharon Stone
You cannot say anything in the public eye, without it being ridiculed.
Fact.
Aye, this is completely pathetic
man up, have a chuckle and crack on with life!
what JC said was on the money!
AYE RIGHT!!! we loath cyclops just as much as you lot down south!
Soldato
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He aint, its the americans who ****ed our banking system with a load of sub prime mortgages, what the hell is he supposed to do?
It aint down to him if american banks want to **** the world, like their armies do.
He hasn't done anything wrong, you just want to blame the PM because he's in charge of the country, he aint a magical robot with all the answers. He can't fix things in an insant.
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I'm not saying the CRA's behaved ideally here - a minimum standard of regulation in this field is sensible, if not necessary. Obviously those standards weren't heavy enough and allowed the CRA's to be manipulated by the Von Hussler's of this world. However in isolation, the failures of the CRA's would NOT be causing the current mess we're in. The main problem is banks creating money that they didn't have and investing it in unknown products in the name of short-term profit and exorbitant bonuses - that is the simple, inevitable consequence of the free market. You can't argue with that, it's happened time and time again in the past.
What caused the last recession? The US dot-com bubble. The one before that? The US savings and loan scandals. Anyone seeing a pattern emerging here?
What's a security? Maybe the bankers should have been asking that question before betting the farm on them.
I don't see how you can argue that they aren't? How many times does self-regulation have to fail before you accept this?
That's a bit of leap of faith. A low budget deficit could have made the pound impossibly strong for the last few years, killing off what little manufacturing we still have left in this country.