Every worker in the UK chips together to buy bank
Everybody’s decided to chuck in a couple of grand for a one thirty-one-millionth share in the moribund Northern Rock bank [story]. So far the government has surprisingly been unable to attract substantial interest from private investors, although the chancellor is set to present a case on BBC2’s Dragon’s Den next month. Personally I’m hoping he can sell on my new valueless, non dividend paying asset after the oligarchy bought it for me without prior consultation. Otherwise, I could have wiped my ass with next months pay cheque and saved on Andrex.
I’ve taken the liberty of adjusting the budget summary to reflect the recent changes and add some perspective.
In other news : “More than a dozen victims of collapsed company pension schemes have died waiting for compensation, …”
OMFG it’s gone up to £100bn
The amount taxpayers could lose over Northern Rock ballooned to a staggering £100bn today. In a surprise move the Treasury agreed to underwrite all the loans that are currently keeping the bank afloat. That quadrupled the technical liability to the public purse from the £26bn estimated to have been loaned so far to Northern Rock.
[read article]
I’ve updated the old spreadsheet (again).