Today Lloyds Banking Group ceded control to the UK government in return for UK taxpayers insuring £260 billion of toxic loans it acquired via its government-brokered merger with HBOS. The UK government’s stake has jumped from 45% to 65% under the terms. Lloyds has also agreed with its new owners that it will lend an [...]
2009
Interest rates, the economy, the stock market… everything is down. The only way (some day) is up!
A few months ago, nobody but a few U.S. Federal Reserve groupies had ever heard of quantitative easing. Yet today we’re told it’s the only thing that can save the financial system from meltdown. Indeed, the U.S. authorities have been moving towards quantitative easing for months, while the Bank of England has just got a [...]
When you invest in a stock, you become a part-owner. When you instead invest in its corporate bonds, you’re instead a creditor.