bugeyeandy

BBC NEWS | Business | House votes down bail-out package

What does this mean for a normal bloke like me? Big trouble or just a blip on the stock markets and then business as normal?

FlightMan

What does it mean? Well, they say a picture paints a 1000 words;




They'll try for another vote. If that fails God only knows. America could meltdown.

Sheepsplitter

In the worst case, if a lot of big banks go down and governments can't support them, then it's pretty much a meltdown.
You could very easily see the end of civilisation in it's current capitalist based society. If money ceases to have meaning (which if the banks go down it could) you would almost certainly see anarchy and rioting within days. Authorities would be powerless to stop it, because the police etc would all be in the same boat, i.e unable to be paid, or any pay being useless unless it was in gold or similar.

The US might just have made a big mistake.

On the other hand, the banks might have been over egging the situation to convince the politicians to cough up and bale them out.
Only time will tell.
One things for sure, it's going to be a bumpy old ride.

Suresh

The Republicans voted it down. Don't understand why

I'm gonna get my tin foil hat out of the loft, dust it down and put it on before going to work tomorrow

FlightMan

Because Republicans believe in the free market. And a $700 billion dollar bailout doesn't fit those beliefs.

Suresh

Don't doubt that belief causes people to act irrationally, once again.


Then again, I believe my tin foil hat is going to protect my investments from the 'slight market dip' that is going to come tomorrow

David Lock

I think the Central Bank of Zimbabwe will come to the rescue.

It's used to this sort of thing

spireite

Im goimg to start emailing the Nigerians to see if they have anywhere safe to keep my cash

CrisPDuk

More likely the Republicans representatives can see huge vote losses if they are seen ratifying a financial package that includes huge compensation deals for the people most feel (rightly) to be responsible for the crisis in the first place

CharlesW

After Alistair's comment this morning that the other banks would have to pick up the first £15 billion of B & Bs bad debts, the rest of the British banks dived today.

Now there seems to be a run on the pound. The only commodity that went up today was gold. so the market thinks no-one will be in a position to buy anything. I suggest everyone should seriously start thinking about looking after their own. Buy an acre and start providing for yourself. No-one else will.

God help us all.

mrtheedge2u2

I am not a financial bod or even pretend to understand it all.... but what is the best way out of the mess for people involved?? what is the best way to recover?

zip106

I wonder how many of those who voted against the bailout dumped their stocks over the last few days?

Suresh

I'm going to stick my head in the sand and hope it just goes away. Somewhat bizarrely, if everyone does the same, it actually will go away!

I have a little pot of gambling money to pick up some bargains tomorrow on the expectation that the markets will have sorted themselves out by the end of the day I have a funny feeling that I'm going to be wrong again though. Still, its only money.

jonc

Yes, because they are a country of millionaires and have billions of dollars just sitting in their banks, thats Zimbabwean dollars BTW.

I think banks are a lot more cautious now, they've finally heeded their own advice that investments can go down as well as up!!!

Suresh

The new version is that "Investments can go down as well as plummet"

Martin2005

Plenty of Democrats voted against it too

Couldn't be worse timing for a crisis like this; right in the middle of a presidential campaign!!

MJW

Heh nice quote from Republican representative Jeb Hensarling :

Leslie

Things can only get worse for the time being.

Pity we have not still got the half of our gold reserves that were flogged off at the minimum price available!

Les

MJW

I think the legislation will eventually go through, I don't really see any other option. It will be the fine print they'll all be arguing the toss over.

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

We suffered the same problems after the Revolution when all the commy barstewards managed to squander all of our reserves (nearly) and when finally we built up a reserve, the government manages to blast most of it to hell, again...............

Suresh

Les stop with this 8 year old nonsense. I don't know if you are aware, but the SNB (Swiss National Bank) exactly did the same thing as Gordo, but on a bigger scale as a result of a referendum there. If the UK people had been given a referendum at the time, maybe even you would have chosen to do the same.

Gold had been an extremely lack-lustre performer until then and doesn't even bear interest. Easy to be wise with hindsight of course.

mrtheedge2u2

Also, apparently, quite a lot of Americans wrote to there senators asking them not to pass the bill and to let the institutions sort out their own mess and not the tax-payer

David Lock

And they'll be the first to complain when their local tractor spares company or Al's corner shop closes because the local bank has gone belly up and businesses are starved of loans and development costs to keep them going.......... dl

Janspeed

iTrader: (1)

As they say: "The buck stops here.................."

It has to some time or another.

Leslie

It is of no consequence how long ago that he flogged it, and I do not agree that it is nonsense to mention it.

Even if gold was at a low at the time, it has always been the most reliable type of investment for safety and it has always come back up in price as it has indeed done now. What on earth was the point of flogging it at the lowest possible price, and why did he have to do it-was the World Bank cpmplaining about his borrowing at the time so he needed a quick fix? Surely the reserves are there for emergency use for times such as these-not to make money with, or to lose it spectacularly as he did!

I thought these people were highly paid to be wise with our money anyway, especially with all the advisors that they employ at our expense!

No I would not have voted to flog it believe me!

Les

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Nor would I..........but as usual, Labour didn't give us the choice..in fact they didn't give us the referendum they PROMISED us......

alcazar

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

OK well in the interests of balance can we also carry on denigrating the Tories for squandering over half of the country's reseveres in one day trying to keep us in the ERM just so their egos didn't take a bashing when every man and his dog including hitherto undiscovered tribes in the heart of the Amazon rain forest knew it wouldn't work.

A far worse error of judgement than anything Brown has done in my book and we are about to vote them back in or rather you are as I ain't voting.

jacrobat

and who was the main adviser to Norman Lamont on Black Wednesday and can be seen in the footage when The Chancellor is leaving No. 11?..why a certain David Cameron...

lozgti

They will pass it.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Why don't they just give the $700 billion to the people? It's their bloody money!