Bailouts
The UK government has come up with it's bail-out plan for the biggest UK banks.
Basically, it's going to buy equity (£25 billion) in the big 6 banks, possibly lend them another £25 billion, make another £200 billion available for short-term loans and guarantee £250 billion over their debts.
It looks to me like a good plan, though I'm not an expert.
Assuming the banks don't fail, we (the taxpayers) end up with a stake in the banks bought extremely cheaply and also get the interest on the loans.
If some of them fail, I'll expect the government to buy the broken bits and fold them into some of the other banks. It'll cost some cash, but we're good for it.
If all the banks fail, we'll be back to barter and shiny pebbles as currency, so 500 billion worthless pounds won't matter.
As someone with a bank account, mortgage, credit card, house insurance and car insurance, I'm not prepared to say "let them fail" because that'd be a little .... messy.
Basically, it's going to buy equity (£25 billion) in the big 6 banks, possibly lend them another £25 billion, make another £200 billion available for short-term loans and guarantee £250 billion over their debts.
It looks to me like a good plan, though I'm not an expert.
Assuming the banks don't fail, we (the taxpayers) end up with a stake in the banks bought extremely cheaply and also get the interest on the loans.
If some of them fail, I'll expect the government to buy the broken bits and fold them into some of the other banks. It'll cost some cash, but we're good for it.
If all the banks fail, we'll be back to barter and shiny pebbles as currency, so 500 billion worthless pounds won't matter.
As someone with a bank account, mortgage, credit card, house insurance and car insurance, I'm not prepared to say "let them fail" because that'd be a little .... messy.