Britain

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has finally pulled the trigger. In the most momentous move yet in the credit crisis, the UK government is effectively partially nationalising the UK banking system. For months, I have maintained that the…

The Guardian is reporting that Gordon Brown and his Labour Government are increasingly on the defensive as the number of governments in Europe guaranteeing deposits increases.The first problem for the Prime Minister was that Building…

If you want a good laugh, take a look at what Graham Norwood reports in today's Guardian. House prices in Britain are going to rise -- a lot! Apparently, he forgot that house prices are falling at double digit rates and we are in the…

The Europeans have no idea what is about to hit them. Their banking system is collapsing and European politicians are fighting amongst themselves. At French President Nicolas Sarkozy's crisis summit, the politicians were unable to craft a…

Nationwide released its monthly survey of U.K. house prices and the results are not promising. In September 2008, the month-to-month of 1.7% matched last month's decline, but the annual change in Nationwide's index fell 12.4%, the largest…

Just in case you thought the crisis was over, I have to remind you that there are still firms out there that are very concerned about their futures. Principal among them is the UK buy-to-let specialist Bradford & Bingley.The word on the…

Given the fact that the regulatory authorities in the U.S. and the UK have taken the unusually manipulative step of banning all short sales of financial institutions outright, it bears remembering that all actions have consequences, both…

The latest government intervention into the capitalist system is the move by the UK and U.S. governments to ban short-selling of all financial stocks outright.In the wake of the severe market turbulence unleashed by the failure of Lehman…

As we plan for another day in financial turmoil, I have to admit to preferring financial services industry consolidation through merger to bankruptcy. I was just reading FT Alphaville's post on a proposed Lloyds TSB takeover of HBOS (the…

It's done. Core Lehman is sold. Now the rest of the company can be liquidated. Barclays will buy the core assets for a measly $2 billion. For Lehman staff in the US, this has to be a relief. However, staff in London are probably left…