Any fall in Northern Rock's credit rating would give some of its creditors 'the right to ask for an immediate refund of part of their loans under the terms of the loan deals.'
Up to now the loans and guarantees provided to Northern Rock by the Labour regime and, at its insistence, the Bank of England, approach the UK annual Defence budget.
They are now threatening to mount to half the GDP of Ireland.
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You been keeping an eye on things over here today, HG? All gone to shit - no guarantee the tax payer won't help bail out NR, another - buy2 to let - mortgage company about to keel over, and huge amounts of personal data lost by HMCR.
You couldn't make it up. Gordon must be loving it.
Somehow the left of centre must dislodge the whited sepulchre that is the union dominated Labour party.
This display of theirs in the north east is infinitely sad. All that wealth that might have been formally, democratically directed into the north east to rebuild a modern economic base in manufacturing, financial and services sectors, to replace the lost economy there under local control and choice, has been sprayed about on non-productive uses. And in whose interest?
Not the people of the north east but the empty power structures and clientage systems of unions that represent ghosts of workers of times past, and sustain the Labour regime.
It's all so familiar from the days of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno and the local banks in the days of Craxi and the Socialist Party in Italy; but at least then, there was some democratic vote to funnel tax-raised resources intended to create an environment favourable to private investment and the hope of work (which, of course, was all rediverted to clientele systems, mafia projects, and recycling into the Socialist party support. Sigh.)
Perhaps the market will deliver the final blow to these people in England, it doesn't look as if we're to get the chance of an election and vote them out like Scotland did otherwise.
The Leader was speaking of 'harnessing the market' yesterday in his vision speech on plastic bags. Market socialism is an oxymoron, (as is corporate ethics).
All those poor people, Elby, with savings for really important life events led into shareholding, into savings accounts with obviously high risk interest levels, and nothing to show for all this regime/institutional incest but a job in a call centre and a mortgaged house. And the rest of the country fed up with them again.
Banana Republic. Add this, this morning
http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,,2214477,00.html
Who are these people?
The two largest shareholders are two hedge funds, Rab Capital (chief executive Philip Richards) and Srm Global, together holding 13% of Northern Rock.
This week-end Treasury and Bank of England representatives are meeting to decide at least a short-list of acceptable buyers, probably to be made public on Monday.
But the two hedge funds are resisting what they regard as a forced liquidation, alleging a conflict of interest between shareholders and potential buyers. They have called for a special meeting of the NR Board to block the sale. The two hedge funds favour a takeover by the Virgin and the Olivant groups, which would keep NR intact, while the private equity fund Cerberus would disperse NR assets. JC Flowers are also competing, and willing to preserve NR integrity. Both Virgin and Flowers have undertaken to return BoE loans within three years.
All this you can read on p.2 of today's Il Sole-24 Ore - the Italian equivalent of the FT.
Who holds the other 87% then? Good question. I don't know, but if I had to bet I would say: actual or potential Labour voters in the North East, and Labour-associated institutions (Unions, Foundations, etc). Any takers?
It's reported Northern Rock borrowings are now up to £26.5 billion and most of this is not secure. The borrowing is running at around £1 billion a week.
All this for a few thousand grotty jobs in call centres in northern England ?
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