Suddenly you wake up owning a bit of a bank - Go Socialism!

[casaubon]

The government is to inject up to £37bn of taxpayer cash into Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Lloyds TSB and HBOS.

Taxpayers will own about 60% of RBS and 40% of the merged Lloyds TSB and HBOS.Various chief executives and bank chairmen are quitting. Which isn't really a surprise, since they were obviously rather crap at their jobs

Comments

[saare_snowqueen]

This morning's Guardian has an article - several actually about the crisis. It seems Brown has done a good job of getting the European Banking system to agree on a similar plan. His approval ratings seem to be rising. I like him better than Cameron who seems to me another pretty boy Tony Blair in the making - lottsa style - less substance.

[casaubon]

Cameron is basically Blair-lite.
Blair did have some strong personal convictions, though they rarely showed above the spin. He managed to complete the changes to the Labour party that Kinnock and Smith began, whereas Cameron is just applying a veneer of pleasantness to the old nasty Tory party.

He'll almost certainly still win, unless Brown manages to perform an economic miracle.

unless Brown manages to perform an economic miracle

[saare_snowqueen]

Don't count him out - yet. Money talks - bullshit walks , as they say in the ole US of A. The next year in UK politics is going to be interesting I think.

maybe...

[casaubon]

The main thing he's getting out of the crisis is a more stable party. The backbiting and rumours of leadership challenges have stopped. This means there's less negative press attention on him.

And if Obama wins in the USA, he'll have an American president he can talk to without holding his nose, so that'll help too. If troops can be withdrawn from Iraq with a modicum of honour, he might pull off a hung Parliament.

Re: maybe...

[saare_snowqueen]

The latest polls show Obama ahead by 6 points. that's more than the standard deviation of 2,9, so all he has to do is hold on for 3 more weeks. Americans are blaming the current batch of thieves for this mess - a rare attack of common sense on their parts. Let's hope it lasts.