Northern Rock
Posted at 10:13pm on Feb. 17, 2008 A Virgin Rebuffed; UK to Nationalize Northern Rock Plc.
Liquidity Risk
By blackhedd
According to news reports, the Labour government of Gordon Brown will nationalize Northern Rock Plc, one of Britain's largest retail banks. This is Britain's first bank nationalization in over twenty years, and the largest since the Bank of England was taken over after World War II.
A brief note by the bank to its customers is here.
What got Northern Rock into trouble? They took too much liquidity risk from mortgage-backed securities. Is it a good idea for Britain's government to be taking over a private bank? The answer is not necessarily "No."
Read on...
Posted in Bank of England | Banking crisis | Economy | moral hazard | Northern Rock — Comments (17)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:20pm on Feb. 17, 2008 I Guess They Must Miss "The Winter Of Discontent"
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
The saga of Northern Rock, a stricken mortgage lender in Great Britain, appears to have reached a shocking and appalling turn. Instead of allowing the private sector to work to rehabilitate Northern Rock by allowing the lender and its shareholders accept a favorable buyout deal and letting new management set things right, the government of Gordon Brown has decided to go ahead and nationalize Northern Rock:
[Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair] Darling said the legislation to be brought to parliament on Mondday would appoint independent arbiters to determine what the shares were worth, but the legislation would propose that the government should not be required to compensate shareholders for any value that is dependent on taxpayers' support.
The government's move stunned shareholders, who were on Sunday night considering action. Jon Wood of the SRM hedge fund, the bank's biggest shareholder, said: "This is a very sad day for the stock market, banking industry and the reputation of the UK as a financial centre."
Noting that the chancellor insisted the bank was solvent, he added: "We will pursue all avenues to protect that value for shareholders."
Robin Ashby, founder of the Northern Rock small shareholders group said he was "shocked and appalled" that shareholders "were having the bank stolen away from them".
As well they should be. This is Chavezism run amok and its consequences for the British banking industry could well be disastrous. Nationalization of industry and resources only serves to distort the market, promote inefficiencies and, as the story indicates, utterly and completely deprives shareholders of their holdings. This lack of respect for basic property rights will only serve to undermine confidence in Britain's management of the intersection between the rule of law and economic prosperity.
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne is quoted as promising to fight and defy efforts to nationalize the lender. Here's hoping that he succeeds. Nationalization is a disastrous policy, no matter how many times it is tried.
Posted in Archived | Great Britain | Nationalization | Northern Rock — Comments (3)/ Email this page » / Read More »
