Northern Rock sold for HALF what they paid for it.

[drew]

Selling the gold you don't need hindsight to know not to flood what was a depressed market driving the price to such a low. You need a brain. He sold a tangible asset, a massive lump of physical rare material not a business so it is plain stupid to compare.

Out of interest, what purpose did this tangible assett perform?

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

Thought I heard Robert Peston on the radio earlier saying this deal looks cheap but there is a further payment due and a chance that if the outstanding mortgages are paid back then the taxpayer may see a modest profit, however, lots of 'ifs' and 'buts' at work here.

I wonder if the Govt took a view on this as better to get a deal now than take the risk that in the future banks may suffer further and there may not be willing investors to take Northern Rock off the taxpayers hands?

Ditto with selling off of the Harrier fleet to the US, better to get a reasonable income rather than nothing - or worse still incur the costs of scrapping them like we have just done with the Nimrod fleet?

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Out of interest, what purpose did this tangible assett perform?

Security. An asset every country will trade in. Unlike what Brown bought with it, the bloody Euro

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Its as good a deal as could have been achieved I suspect - a shedload of liabilities that would otherwise have been to the taxpayer have also gone.

Or not; these "liabilities" are with Nothern Rock (Asset Management) which is not being sold - not that any, except the £20bn or so owed to the HM Treasury have been quantified.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

Irn Bru Gordy didn't know at the time the price of gold would double if he waited a few years , the gold was sold to pay off national debt and stop the UK's credit rating going down the shitter

 

[drew]

Security. An asset every country will trade in. Unlike what Brown bought with it, the bloody Euro

Bit economical with the truth. He bought dollars and yen as well as Euros. And exactly how often did we use this 'tangible asset to trade with then?

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Bit economical with the truth. He bought dollars and yen as well as Euros. And exactly how often did we use this 'tangible asset to trade with then?

The asset is used to back up the counties own currency, a protection. All money is worthless, a piece of paper, a figure on a screen. If that country finances collapse as the mark did post war, the gold held as assets allows the country to continue trading. Its something to be sold during drastic times not when Brown did it. Forget the yen or dollar it was to show support for the struggling euro, all sounds familiar

 

[Igor Gurinovich?]

a well known, popular brand has brought up a distressed bank, with an aim to expand it and challenge the incumbent high street banks which most universally think offer poor services. and your f***ing moaning about this?

as a tax payer who has footed the bill for future profits that others will see, yes.

 

[matthew]

Sold at $282/ounce, today it would be $1716/ounce

OUCH!

f***ing joke, biggest mistake in the last decade and probably the next!

 

[Southern Scouse]

If only it was sold for half the cost to the British tax-payer.
Any idea what a decent level of interest, backed by the government on that £700 million we lost is? Then add it up.
I also heard today that the MOD paid over £500m in consultant fees instead of military equipment, compared to £6m they spent last year..............
Would imagine our lads out there are chuffed with that one.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Irn Bru Gordy didn't know at the time the price of gold would double if he waited a few years , the gold was sold to pay off national debt and stop the UK's credit rating going down the shitter

Is your judgement & knowledge of a topic often this shameful?