Gordon Brown calls the recession the “world economic downturn,” but the IMF has just released a devastating report into Britain which puts things in a different perspective. It’s really worth downloading (here) and saving somewhere: all sorts of ammo is in there. Page 22 is devoted to the “Potential Spillovers from the UK Financial System to the Rest of the World”. It’s not just Britain that has been screwed by the collapse of the British banks. The Brown/Balls banking regulatory system meant there was no proper oversight and these banks were lending like crazy to all parts of the world (including US subprime). Now withdrawal of such credit is really affecting those countries – and the IMF gives the below colour coded map to say which parts of the world are hit. I know the key is too small to read, but Brown’s hapless regulatory system, for example, allowed British banks to lend 10% of US GDP to US households. I’m told Brown hit the roof when he “discovered” this, post nationalisation. If he hadn’t broken up the Bank of England’s powers, things might never have reached this stage:
Another interesting chart depicts the IMF’s belief that this is a far worse recession than previous ones. Note, other recessions are not so much of a V or U shaped recover, more of a Nike swoosh. Not so this time – it’s far deeper, and longer lasting. Here’s the IMF’s dismal projection:
On p18 there is a handy list of the gross cost of the bailouts – broken down. Total: £904bn or 63% of GDP. A few highlights:
Northern Rock — £14.6bn.
Bradford & Bingley — £24bn
Kaupthing Singer & Friedlaender — £3.3bn
Landsbanki — £4.5bn
Heritable — £500m
Dunfermline — £1.6bn
All bank recapitalisation — £78.1bn
Credit Guarantee Scheme — £250bn
Working Capital Scheme — £11.5bn
Asset-Backed Securities Guarantee Scheme — £50bn
Asset Protection Scheme — £466bn
TOTAL TAXPAYER EXPOSURE: £904bn or 63% of GDP.
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