Should we pull the plug - Northern Rock makes hefty losses

"is it now time to let Northern Rock go, can we all continue to support the Bank with our own money. If this was a company then it would have gone into adminstration by know. Lets pull the plug on Northern Rock and let it close down - I know at lot of people will loss money but we can't afford to support the bank / share holders any longer"

by N Blakeley - recession 2009

 

Northern Rock has reported a loss of £724.2m for the first six months of 2009, compared with a loss of £585.4m in the first half of last year.

The nationalised bank said that 3.92% of its mortgage loans were more than three months in arrears, well above the national average of 2.39%.

It currently owes the government £10.9bn, but is waiting for European regulatory clearance for more funding.

Northern Rock was nationalised in February 2008

It had to be bailed out by taxpayers in 2007, when its model of borrowing short-term funds from wholesale markets to lend to mortgage borrowers was hit by the credit crunch.

It reported impairment losses from loans and advances of £602.2m for the first six months of the year, compared with £191.6m for the same period the year before.

Theatre and the recession

Hi

I went to the theatre this week to the premier of ENRON, a theatrical production based on the actions and collapse of the giant sized company ENRON.

As I though some of your might find this quite interesting i have created a new page entitled ENRON. As I live in Britain the whole Enron thing back in 2001 didn't really mean much, but know we are in the economical problems that we are looking back at began is interesting.

please follow this link ENRON

Theatre and the recession

Hi

I went to the theatre this week to the premier of ENRON, a theatrical production based on the actions and collapse of the giant sized company ENRON.

As I though some of your might find this quite interesting i have created a new page entitled ENRON. As I live in Britain the whole Enron thing back in 2001 didn't really mean much, but know we are in the economical problems that we are looking back at began is interesting.

please follow this link ENRON

Global recession claims 67,000 jobs in a day

The depth of the global recession was glimpsed today when almost 80,000 jobs were lost or put under threat in the UK, Europe and US, making it one of the bleakest days in recent memory.

Household names, including electronics retailer Philips, construction equipment maker Caterpillar and drug group Pfizer announced thousands of job losses, with many posts expected to be lost in the UK. Steel company Corus, for instance, is axing 2,500 British workers as it dumps 3,500 worldwide.

Even upper-crust London retailer Fortnum & Mason, which can trace its roots back to 1705, is suffering. It emerged yesterday that the Piccadilly-based department store is looking to cut about 100 of its 530 staff as shoppers seek out cheaper alternatives to products such as its £500 picnic hampers stuffed with champagne, vintage marmalade and smoked salmon.

The scale of the challenge faced by world leaders as they grapple with the worst economic downturn since the second world war was underlined yesterday as Gordon Brown issued a stark warning that the global economy will be undermined unless countries work together to tackle the crisis. The prime minister said the world needed to "ensure that we do not experience a new form of financial protectionism, of mercantilism, of retreat into domestic financial markets".

In the US, where General Motors cut 2,000 jobs, President Barack Obama warned it was imperative that Congress pass his $825bn (£590bn) package of spending and tax cuts as soon as possible. "We cannot afford distractions," he said. "We cannot afford delays in getting legislation to boost the economy through Congress."

New research from the Institute of Directors showed British business leaders are not only pessimistic about their companies' prospects but have recently seen a marked deterioration in performance.

"In previous IoD surveys, companies were saying it's going to be hell out there in the future but we're not doing too badly at present. Now they're saying the problem is much closer to home," said the IoD chief economist and director of policy, Graeme Leach."We're a long way into the financial crisis but the economic crisis is only just beginning."

Managers across the UK, meanwhile, have accepted their own redundancy as "inevitable", according to the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), which has examined recent calls to its helpline. "Quite clearly, any suggestion that there is already light at the end of the tunnel is misplaced," said Ruth Spellman, chief executive of the CMI.

The job losses announced yesterday fell mainly across industry. Europe's largest consumer electronics company Philips is shedding 6,000 jobs after announcing its first loss for half a decade. US mobile phone company Spring Nextel is axing 8,000 and Pfizer is shedding 19,000.

But the biggest losses announced yesterday were from Caterpillar. The Illinois-based manufacturer of heavy-duty earth-moving equipment is cutting almost 20% of its workforce – or 20,000 people. The news has raised fears for the company's 10,000 employees in the UK, which is Caterpillar's largest operation outside the US, and Ireland. It has factories dotted across the UK from Teesside, Leicester and Peterborough to Shrewsbury and Slough. In Ireland its electricity generator business FG Wilson is Europe's largest assembler of generators.

sourced from The Guardian

Global recession claims 67,000 jobs in a day

The depth of the global recession was glimpsed today when almost 80,000 jobs were lost or put under threat in the UK, Europe and US, making it one of the bleakest days in recent memory.

Household names, including electronics retailer Philips, construction equipment maker Caterpillar and drug group Pfizer announced thousands of job losses, with many posts expected to be lost in the UK. Steel company Corus, for instance, is axing 2,500 British workers as it dumps 3,500 worldwide.

Even upper-crust London retailer Fortnum & Mason, which can trace its roots back to 1705, is suffering. It emerged yesterday that the Piccadilly-based department store is looking to cut about 100 of its 530 staff as shoppers seek out cheaper alternatives to products such as its £500 picnic hampers stuffed with champagne, vintage marmalade and smoked salmon.

The scale of the challenge faced by world leaders as they grapple with the worst economic downturn since the second world war was underlined yesterday as Gordon Brown issued a stark warning that the global economy will be undermined unless countries work together to tackle the crisis. The prime minister said the world needed to "ensure that we do not experience a new form of financial protectionism, of mercantilism, of retreat into domestic financial markets".

In the US, where General Motors cut 2,000 jobs, President Barack Obama warned it was imperative that Congress pass his $825bn (£590bn) package of spending and tax cuts as soon as possible. "We cannot afford distractions," he said. "We cannot afford delays in getting legislation to boost the economy through Congress."

New research from the Institute of Directors showed British business leaders are not only pessimistic about their companies' prospects but have recently seen a marked deterioration in performance.

"In previous IoD surveys, companies were saying it's going to be hell out there in the future but we're not doing too badly at present. Now they're saying the problem is much closer to home," said the IoD chief economist and director of policy, Graeme Leach."We're a long way into the financial crisis but the economic crisis is only just beginning."

Managers across the UK, meanwhile, have accepted their own redundancy as "inevitable", according to the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), which has examined recent calls to its helpline. "Quite clearly, any suggestion that there is already light at the end of the tunnel is misplaced," said Ruth Spellman, chief executive of the CMI.

The job losses announced yesterday fell mainly across industry. Europe's largest consumer electronics company Philips is shedding 6,000 jobs after announcing its first loss for half a decade. US mobile phone company Spring Nextel is axing 8,000 and Pfizer is shedding 19,000.

But the biggest losses announced yesterday were from Caterpillar. The Illinois-based manufacturer of heavy-duty earth-moving equipment is cutting almost 20% of its workforce – or 20,000 people. The news has raised fears for the company's 10,000 employees in the UK, which is Caterpillar's largest operation outside the US, and Ireland. It has factories dotted across the UK from Teesside, Leicester and Peterborough to Shrewsbury and Slough. In Ireland its electricity generator business FG Wilson is Europe's largest assembler of generators.

sourced from The Guardian