Afternoon:
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What the commentators say...
Evening Standard10 Oct 2008
Jeff Randall, Daily Telegraph: Amid all the banking gobbledygook about collateralised debt obligations, Tier One capital ratios and structured investment vehicles, it's hard to comprehend the scale of the pain that is about to be inflicted on people who least deserve it. Debris from the implosion of parallel universes in the City and Wall Street is about to destroy innocent lives.
Camilla Cavendish, The Times: This week's events have revealed the staggering incompetence of Britain's financial regulators. “Professional” is surely the wrong word – unless you add “negligence”.
Martin Wolf, Financial Times: Judged by the share of the world economy affected, this is the most significant financial crisis since the 1930s. This crisis also affects the world's most advanced economies and financial systems. This is no crisis of backwardness, but one of sophistication.
Simon Jenkins, The Guardian: “Throw away the newspaper. Turn off the radio. Forget the bank. There is nothing else to do at times like this but head for the hills. I would take the denizens of the City of London to the top of Cader (Idris, southern Snowdonia) and leave them to contemplate their sins for a day.
Dominic Lawson, The Independent: Gordon Brown repeatedly declared that a bust could never happen under his “tri-partite” system of bank regulation... These disasters are precisely what you get when financial investment decisions are subject to considerations of the national good.
Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail: “Not so long ago, councils would have had their account at the Post Office next door, not swirling around on the international money markets. Who could have ever imagined that British taxpayers would end up bailing out the losses of an Icelandic internet bank.
