Turmoil on the seas of high finance

We are currently in the middle of one of the biggest banking and stock market melt downs the world has ever seen. The British taxpayer is now a share holder of UK banks PLC (still waiting for my certificates), with one of the biggest injections of capital in order to - wait for it - encourage credit.

Isn't this what got us into this mess in the first place?

Without my agreement, I've had to loan the banks £1,600, so they can continue to lend money to people, to keep the economy going. Well, at least they have agreed not to take a bonus, this year!

It has to stop somewhere. We can't go on lending money that we don't have to people who are having more and more difficulty paying it back. It may well be painful, but at some point we may have to go back to (sharp intake of breath) saving for the stuff that we want before we get it.

Of course Gordo's is being hailed as the saviour of the worlds economy, the hero of the UK banking system. Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, but who was one of the major architects of the mess we are in now?

Some bankers, a few weeks ago considered heroes because of the magnificent ways they created wealth, are now dropping off their perches like flies. As my wife pointed out, bankers don't create wealth, they just move it back and forth, its the people who work for a living that create the cah that pays for the taxes that goes towards bailing out banks.

Here's a great explanation of the stock market, that suddenly appeared on the internet

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 ! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!

Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works!!

As my wife commented (plaguerising again), what would have happened if this were the farmers who were in trouble, would the gov bail them out. I pointed out that when the farmers were in trouble with Foot and Mouth, their stock was shot, but with the bankers (who funnily enough have had their stock shot too), the compensation is vastly more. Just goes to show, money does talk. Makes you wonder, if the farmers had as much political power, or influence on the careers of the politicians, would the bail out package have been the same?