Broke

I have just been reading the BBC Business section. I expect bodies will be littering the City and Canary Wharf and environs as financiers hurl themselves off buildings, desperate to escape this mortal coil and its problems. I still feel that this is a financial mess that we have entered as much through people 'talking it up' as any other cause. From what I have read, a possible 'starting point' was the collapse of trust in the US subprime market. 'Lack of trust' - but the banks etc. were making billions, the billions were secured on the porperties and , initially at any rate, the so-called losses were unrealised in that the debts hadn;t been called and the properties hadn't been sold. It was all about confidence.

Here, the Banks and Building Societies are telling us about the terrible plight, the flat/falling housing market, while at the same time reducing the number of mortgages, putting up the cost( leading to defaulting, property coming on the market, being sold cheaply to repay the mortgage debt...). Hmmm.

I bet some people are making a FORTUNE out of this. Whether it is ssomthing way beyond my cmprehension in the Derivatives market or something I will read about in 2 years time wishing, "why didn;t I think of that?", time will tell.

Meanwhile, guess who bought a house at the top of the market? Guess who has a house he can't sell. And guess who has a fixed rate mortage that is about to zoom up to unaffordable levels?

Anyone got a 5th floor office with an opening window?