Customer Reviews
Very useful account of the crisis - By: William Podmore, 13 Nov 2008 
Alex Brummer, the Daily Mail's City Editor, has produced a valuable account of the origins of the crisis. He shows how finance capitalists played pass the parcel with bundles of bad debts - a form of mutually assured destruction.
The financial firms' overriding drive for personal gain meant that they advised those least able to pay to take out mortgages at the highest interest rates. As Brummer notes, "The more that was borrowed, the less equity or hard-earned cash was needed for a deal, so the greater the returns."
The banks then sold on debts that they knew to be rotten or overvalued. There is no chance that the value of these debts will rise, so banks will have to increase the level of write downs. They are guilty of fraud on a grand scale.
Northern Rock's `Together' mortgage allowed customers to borrow 125% of their home's value plus up to six times their annual income. The Rock borrowed three-quarters of its money from other banks. Its directors paid themselves £30 millionin 2002-07.
In July 2007, the Financial Services Authority approved the Rock's paying a special dividend of £59 million to shareholders, just when the company was imploding. The FSA, the Bank of England & the government all failedin their duties of supervision.
On 17 February the government nationalised the Rock, privatising the gains & nationalising its losses. Goldman Sachs lawyers & PR people got £41 millionin fees. The Rock's new CEO will get £950K a year. He & his new financial officer are `non-doms', tax evaders, while 2,000 workers get the sack.
The Office of National Statistics estimates that the Rock debacle has cost taxpayers £100 billion. Another £30 billion of the Rock's loans fall duein 2009, with a very heavy repayment schedule over the coming year, so there will be many more repossessions - & already, under government control, the Rock is repossessing homes twice as fast as other banks.
Globalisation means that a banking crisis cannot be containedin any one market. But the more a country relies on finance, the worse it suffers. As Brummer writes, "The rundownin Britain's manufacturing basein favour of an economy building on the nation's skillsin financial services, made it peculiarly sensitive to global financial events such as the credit crunch." The parasite finance will destroy the real economy of jobs & production, if we let it.
Excoriating but readable - By: G. L. Haggett, 01 Oct 2008 An often excoriating take on the current plight of the financial services industry, which takes the Northern Rock fiasco as a starting point for an examination of the wider picture.
There is definitely a right-wing slant to what is said, but this book is valuable for its readability &in particular its refusal to lose itselfin financial jargon; instead, it makes complicated matters clear to the layman.
Missing Pages - By: David, 30 Aug 2008 
Beware!
I bought this book at a local book store. When I got it home I found the first 20 pages were missing! I took it back & it was exchanged with no problems & we found a second copy with the same problem.
A Layman`s guide to the credit crunch - By: Mr. J. Chand, 16 Jul 2008 
If ever anyone wanted to know what the `credit crunch` was all about then look no further than this offering from `The Daily Mail`s`chief economic journalist- alex brummer.
The book explains how, why & who were the main protagonistsin this unfolding financial drama.
From the background of Northern Rock`s woes to the exploits of jerome kerviel at societe general, all points are candidly coveredin brummer`s typical style of writing.
There is even a glossary of financial jargon, which detail the often mysterious terms used by the professionls, expainedin every-day english.
Well worth the money!
Rock Cruncher - By: Mr. S. E. RAVEN, 16 Jul 2008 Feeling the pinch of the credit crunch? So were Northern Rock, & foolishly, they chose to deal with it by hoarding funds, with disastrous repercussions. Alex Brummer's thorough & engagingly written account blows the whistle on the scandal of the troubled British bank.
This is the book Northern Rock didn't want you to read & Brummer's tight, journalistic style makes this an expose you can't afford to miss.
