Britain

Don't think that it is just the U.S. that has to worry about systemic risk. The Europeans have their own problems and the weaker financial institutions are getting absolutely killed in European trading right now. RBS is down nearly 13%.…

When the housing mania was in full bloom, many first-time home buyers were understandably panicked about being locked out of home ownership and missing the boat to get onto the property ladder. This was the case in both the UK and in the…

Today, David Wighton over at the Times Online referenced U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's quip that the U.S. Government had a bazooka ready to us in the case of the Frannie and Freddie Nightmare on Wall Street in saying:Helping to…

I posted yesterday that Nationwide had confirmed it was in advanced talks with both Cheshire and Derbyshire. Now, it seems the mergers are complete. However, it should be noted that these deals were done under duress (see post mentioned…

Nationwide Building Society, the largest not to demutualise, is taking full advantage of the troubles in the mortgage market and looking for rivals to snap up on the cheap. Multiple news outlets are reporting that Nationwide is in talks…

From the Guardian:

Here's the Guardian's take on the news and a story from the Telegraph.RBS axe likely to fall on Sir Tom, not Sir Fred - Telegraph

House prices are falling at an ever faster rate in the UK, according to Nationwide's latest survey for August 2008. The Nationwide Index was down to 329.5 from 335.9 in July, a fall of 1.9%. The index is down 10.5% compared to August 2007,…

I was listening to a money programme about the credit crunch in the UK this morning on my iPod Wake Up To Money (Podcast). They were discussing ways in which the credit crunch was made manifest to home buyers in the UK. In the broadcast,…

Yesterday and overnight, there was a ton of news in Europe, in banking and in geopolitics. So, I am going to alter the format of the round-up slightly and give you a rundown with links mixed in.The long and short is that the banking sector…