HBOS Gone

[Simon Pieman]

Short selling isn't always a bad thing. The ones that do the business ethically often put loads of research into investing before going short. This can drive down overpriced shares and make the market more efficient.

However, what we've seen this week is the abuse of that system and the short sellers are clearly trying to drive the price down simultaneously.

I think the investors themselves need to be investigated, not the system. They'll always find a way to exploit the markets if they want to, unless they are regulated more heavily.

[Don Rogers Shop]

Agree with that si just time consuming.i am sure once it has died down we will see alot of investigations

[Simon Pieman]

Yeah it can only be a good thing. Same as the financial scandals like Enron and Worldcom.

[leefer]

The way i see it is that the money men need to take a good look at themselfs...there needs to be a lot more regulations on how they deal with other peoples money....i for one prefer to do a doddy....that means looking after my own money.
Seriously i deliver all over the country and there isnt much of a slow down in other industry in fact ime really busy along with most others....unfortunatly the lunacy of a minority have dire consequences for the majority..a friend of mine had his house repocessed,the banks attitude was like your problem not ours so he and alot of others will be saying the same to them.....your problem not ours.

[Simon Pieman]

I think that's the point though Leefer. The other banks weren't prepared to lend to HBOS because they're trying to be more careful themselves.

[RobertT]

I think we may have been a bit efficient in war periods because of the threat of death, I'm sure that helped a little.

Having worked for a once Nationalised industry, they are fucking useless.  The problem with Socialism is people, the idea is sound, the people are not, and we never will be.  Equally, the same applies for the Free Market approach, it should inspire, but it corrupts.  People are the single stable factor in the failure of all.  We're just a world made up of lots of greedy people.  Us greedy ones out number the altruistic, and even most of them can be brought.

[michael]

I think that's the point though Leefer. The other banks weren't prepared to lend to HBOS because they're trying to be more careful themselves.

Inter bank lending (aka "libor") has been priced prohibitively for at least a year now, which is why liquid institutions such as Building Societies (who legally have to have at least 50% of their capital through retail channels, i.e. savings balances) are largely thriving right now, whereas PLCs (e.g. Northern Rock) are boom/bust.

You could argue that New Labour have removed "Boom" from that equasion but that's another discussion.

[ghanimah]

I have a feeling that with the stakes being so high, the Government may well just end up telling the EU Commission where they can get off.  (I know that's not how it usually works, but we're living in unusual times.)

Sadly, it looks like the Govt won't:

Speculation is growing that Lloyds may even have to relinquish its 1,000-branch Halifax network.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1213923/Brown-faces-humiliation-EU-poised-force-break-Lloyds-Halifax-superbank.html