Monday 12 May 2008

The wreck that can't stop sinking


Northern Rock just keeps piling on the agony for Brown, Darling and the rest of the New Labour crew. Today, the failed bank announced that its mortgage arrears jumped sharply, dramatically increasing the risk that the taxpayer will end up losing money after bailing out the failed lender.

The arrears numbers make grim reading. The number of mortgages three or more in arrears increased to 0.95 per cent of outstanding loans. In just four short months, this number has almost doubled.

It is now clear that Northern Rock's balance sheet was piled high with high risk rubblish. Moreover, all those government assurances about loan quality are now being cruelly exposed.

So, the Northern Rock disaster continues. Do you think that Northern Rock can keep on failing right up to the election? Could we be that lucky?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Northern Rock - a pit without a bottom.

Sackerson said...

Slightly off topic, but I love your pictures and graphs - very elegant, lovely colours.

Anonymous said...

Why not just make them all council houses?

powerman said...

Because either the local council can't afford to buy them at the artificially low council house rental yield, or the nationalised Northern Rock would have to discount them so much as to make an enormous write offs on their books. Worse than if the houses were just sold at auction probably.

Anonymous said...

Sackerson,

Elegance, yes, that is what I am aiming for.

Thanks for the kind words. I really appreciate it.

Alice

Anonymous said...

Powerman.

The state has already bought them.

I really don't see the problem.