Credit Crunch Explanation Videos

Some good videos looking at the current crisis.

A good overview for amateur:

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

A more in depth look (1 hour):

Will Hutton Capitalism Crisis is a good overview of what went wrong from the viewpoint of a Keynesian.

Barclays Tax Avoidance Documents Leaked

Where does it all go? Well, tax wise at the moment, it goes into paying for bankers mistakes, with the Government, who are at least partly responsible for not foreseeing the problem in the first place, now bailing out the banks bad debts with your money.

And now it turns out that the Banks were not only guilty of mismanaging their business but avoiding paying their fair share of tax whilst they were making billion £’s worth of profit. Allegedly.

The Guardian recently found evidence that Barclays had been busy creating companies in low-tax countries such as Brazil and Luxembourg. Allegedly.

These documents were published on the Guardian website, only to have a judge phone up at 2am demanding they are taken down, and in so doing generating even more publicity around the story than would have happened.

This take down order has now been ratified by a judge, in a chilling blow for free speech in the UK.

The confidential leaked documents describe how SCM, Barclays‘ structured capital markets division, allegedly planned to use more than £11bn of loans to create hundreds of millions of pounds of tax benefits, via “an elaborate circuit of Cayman Islands companies, US partnerships and Luxembourg subsidiaries”.

The tax benefits for Barclays are said to be in the region of £1billion a year, although this is unverified.

And so, Techcrunch in the US, has managed to publish the documents, in solidarity for free speech around the world. Here is the information Barclays do not want you to see:

Barclays Confidential Tax Avoidance Documents

Alleged evidence of Barclays tax avoidance documents:
Barclays Tax Avoidance – Lux
Barclays Tax Avoidance – Knight
Barclays Tax Avoidance – Valiha
Barclays Tax Avoidance – Brazil
Barclays Tax Avoidance – Berry
Barclays Tax Avoidance – Faber
Barclays Tax Avoidance – Brontos

Martin Lewis is better than Obama

..at least, according to the British public. Recent stats from an internet traffic website Hitwise shows that Martin Lewis beat Obama, Britney Spears and Diana Vickers to the top spot as the most searched for celeb in the UK. A dubious honour, so what is it about Marty-babes that makes him so popular?

Lord Martin o Mighty

Well, money saving is the game, and there is nothing the British public like more than saving a bit of cash. Martin is also largely held responsible for the bank charge rebellion, which started a string of court cases against the banks for unfair bank charges.

Martin also presents a very nice brand image of being impartial upon his website, the peoples champion, and enjoys 5 and half million visitors to his forum every month.

But does anyone ever question how he got to that position? Is he a money saving genius, or simply a very good self promoter making money from people’s thirst to save money? Questions have been raised in the past about how much trust should be placed in his weekly newsletter, which recently advised people to dump all their cash in Iceland banks due to high interest rates….a few weeks before the country went bankrupt.

And what of his qualifications, those which make him a “money saving expert”? “Broadcast Journalism” says his offical bio.

And is everyone sure his impartial advice isn’t influenced by the large amounts of cash he receives from the finance companies he may advise to use?

I may be indulging in the typical UK trait of knocking down someone I helped put up on a pedestal, but I guess my general point is: don’t trust everything you read, even if it is from Martin’s lips, which to be fair he does say at the bottom of every page on his website.

Update: comments on the Hitwise blog confirms the above!

Quote from the comments:

I think I speak on behalf of the majority of journalists and television producers who have crossed Martin’s paths in recent years, when I say he is one of the most arrogant men walking this planet.

And a blog post from Insiders View entitled “Martin Lewis – Money Saving Expert or Money Grabbing Show-Off?” (hey guys, no need to copy my blog design so much )

Credit Crunch Explained

All these news stories are confusing, but these videos give a good job of explaining it for us mortal folk who are not merchant bankers.

Gives a nice brief overview

SEXY Property History Lesson

Yes, its the internet, it can exist.

The BBC are always good for introductory info…beware propaganda though

BBC NEWS | Business | Credit crunch explained

Bird and Fortune are always good for a laugh….

Sky news reports Darling telling us not to borrow so much money, you naughty boys.

The End of Capitalism?

In case you have been living under a rock you’d be aware of the turmoil of the financial markets at the moment, with not a week going by without a UK or US bank having to be nationalised or taken over by rival firms.

Is the credit crunch really ending?

The Governments in the UK and US are literally on their knees as they try to correct the mistakes made by greedy banks, with just today giving news that the Spanish bank Santander are taking Bradford and Bingley over to avoid it being nationalised for £150 billion, and the US basically nationalising almost every sub-prime mortgage in the $700 Billion rescue.

America is more communist than China is right now. You can see that this is welfare of the rich, it is socialism for the rich… it’s just bailing out financial institutions

…says Jim Rodgers, CEO of of Rodgers Holdings.

As discussed by James Bennett, capitalism was a term spoken by Marx to explain market economies, saying that eventually centralised economies would dominate. That inevitability of the process has been said to be dis-proven in recent times, incorrectly given recent events?

As each news story about the credit-crunch’s effect happens, I feel I am watching the end of an era. I can dimly remember the Berlin Wall being torn down as a kid, and I have a feeling the winter of 08 will have just as much of a significance when looking back in the future.

Letting finance markets police themselves is over – American dominance of the finance markets is over – voter dissatisfaction is going to be at all time high in America and the UK with rising unemployment, crime and living costs. Labour is doomed, but what will the market loving Tories do to a UK in the midst of a recession?

A figure totted about at the moment is that for the $700 Billion the US is planning to use to buy up toxic assets, it could provide free gasoline to America for 1 and a half years.

That is an immense amount of money, but there will be long term recovery of that figure as they sell off the assets in the future. Indeed, it could be possible in a few years time America will have money to pay off its immense national debt, most of which it owes to China.

And that is the Elephant in the room – the emergence of Russia and China as the new world order opens up is the end result of all this financial chaos.

The global centre is swinging faster than ever from West to the East; in the future if may be said the East beat Capitalism at its own game – being able to switch off gas to Europe in the height of winter gives Russia immense political weight in the region, as Georgia announced to the world. (How are those break away regions now? Colonies of Russia?)

And China, buoyed up by its Olympics, ready to provide the world’s cheap goods as long as we behave and don’t piss it off too much, since China could dump the dollar and drive America into even greater recession; Foreign investors own 47% of Americas Treasury bonds.

Interesting Times, there is not much we can do but hang on and enjoy the ride.

De Ja Vu? MP Darling defends stating the UK Economy is going into recession

Aug 30th – 2008 Darling recently had a piece in the Guardian where he told us:

UK Chancellor Alistar Darling

“the economic downturn would be “profound and long-lasting”,
“…has insisted it is his duty to be straight with the
public, after telling a newspaper the UK faces its worst economic
crisis in 60 years.”
“…that voters were “pissed off” with Labour’s handling of the
economy, a key issue at the next election, and said it was “absolutely
imperative” that ministers communicated their intentions better.”

Basically, we’re fucked and going to have a recession.

And now the PR exercise starts trying to educate the masses that it is not Labours fault.
Watch the BBC interview where Darling repeats, 4 times, parrot fashion, the mantra’s the PR men have told him to say. To every question asked him his answer is:

• I’m being honest
• Every other country in the World
• Unique Circumstances
• Credit Crunch
• Rising Oil and Food Prices
• We helped Northern Rock
• Tax Rebate next month
• Helping People getting back into work
• Fundamental of Economy Sound

“Who’s going to win Eurovision this year?” “Honestly, every other country in the world has rising oil and food prices, I remember when we helped northern rock I was going to give a tax rebate next month…blah blah blah…I think they should bring back Cliff Richard.”

I do notice that not having a TV makes you more aware of the repetitious Squealer type announcements. Lets break it down a bit:

• I’m being honest – Why do I get jittery when a politician starts with that?
• every other country in the world - Asia seems to be unaffected thus far
• Credit Crunch – buzzword for people at the moment – basically free credit to everyone will eventually bite you on the arse
• Rising Fuel and Oil Prices - didn’t Mr Murdoch say it was morally correct to invade Iraq for a “$20 a barrel oil”?
• We Helped Northern Rock – Nationalising a bank under intense pressure after failing to find it a buyer, placing £1.3 billion more in national debt.
• Tax Rebate next month – What tax rebate? The one where companies can claim back VAT they shouldn’t of paid in the first place because they overpaid?
  Or the rebate to make up for the blunder of not noticing abolition of the 10p tax rate would put the lower paid workers out of pocket?