BOOM!!!! Financial Meltdown!

[Holio]

Went to Woolies tonight, just to see, reckon the place must of had a run on today, lots of empty shelves! Anyhow, bought 300 and Wall-E, a fiver and 9.90 respectively for the 2disc edition, now at those prices, I may return!

[VR46]

They have a wholesale distribution arm that is a collaboration between them, the beeb and some others. Apparently, it's still a going concern.

Not any more

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7755443.stm

[Junko]

Would this be why my local Woolies didnt have any of the new games releases today ?

[FelixofMars]

To be fair woolies have been a rotten corpse for years. I can remember when they had a massive building in Lincoln that was then turned into a shopping centre. Then they had one tiny compartment of it. Then about 3-4 years ago that even went and they could only be found in mid-sized towns.

I am not surprised they are the first casualty.

[vertigo]

So the question is: who's got the money?

I've been jobless for 3 1/2 months by the way, my contract ended at the worst time (August) so it's a really awful state of affairs and if a job I've gone for last week doesn't come through, in all likelihood I'm off back to my mum's for a few months. Which will be hell.

[charlesr]

eep vertigo. Did the job come through for you?

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/

"A (Crumbling) Wall of Money: Financial Bricolage, Derivatives and Power"
It's very lengthy but informative.

This 117-page 'work in progress' paper (902KB) explores and summarises:

how the shadow banking system was constructed and why;
the history of the derivatives, 'hedges' and speculation that underpinned this new finance;
how derivatives are being used to get around banking, accounting, trading and public finance rules;
the negative impacts on the ground even before the current crisis;
recommendations put forward in the past few months on how to fix a broken system; and
how best to seize the moment to pursue a different system that has a genuine public interest at its centre.

[merf]

good find that doc, I'll have a trudge thru it as having been in the middle of the 'shadow banking system' for the last 13 years will be interested to see if I agree with the tone and specifics.

[charlesr]

If anyone prints it out, don't bother past page 70 or something (just footnotes after that).

[merf]

I'm 44 pages in, a very well researched doc that makes some exellent points.

I am finding the language a bit irritating though and feel it lessens the impact of what is trying to be said, its the tired old attitude towards money and bankers. Its quite Michael Moore like in not trusting your readers/viewers to get the point so you have to hammer home who is evil and who is good.

Very interesting read and some useful info I plan to use in future interviews as I aim to get my stinking capitalist snout into the money trough elsewhere in the future.

[EvilBoris]

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/33422/Blockbuster-close-to-collapse

Blockbuster is about to blow

Time to start accidentally not returning discs....

[Fastware]

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/33422/Bloc...se-to-collapse

Blockbuster is about to blow

Time to start accidentally not returning discs....

Don't recomend that at all, the reason being that the records of unpaid fees will be passed to a debt collection agency. Blockbuster already do this and I'm sure the recivers will want to get back the extra cash.

[SuperDanX]

Not at all suprised to see blockbuster in trouble as there business model has been hopelessly outdated for years, anyone who rents films anymore probably does it by post nowerdays, waste of money anyway when you can buy films for peanuts. On a related note- intrests rates cut again, lol intrest rates i think?

[charlesr]

Holy ****ing crap. Is this governement retarded?

We got into this mess because of low interest rates and easy borrowing. Lowering them further isn't going to do **** apart from cock up my savings and get people further into debt: "oooo low interest rates! let's get a mortgage now!" - 1 year later: "OMG interest rates have gone up to 4%. We are paying 8 times as much on the interest for our mortgage OMG I'm bankrupt". Stick it back up to 4% now I say and ride out the storm.

There's record numbers of savings withdrawls at the moment cos there's sod all point in keeping them in a bank.

Not that I really know what I'm talking about. But it seems common sense to me. I'm sure the leaders of the country have better advisors than my tiny brain.

[VR46]

Not at all suprised to see blockbuster in trouble as there business model has been hopelessly outdated for years, anyone who rents films anymore probably does it by post nowerdays, waste of money anyway when you can buy films for peanuts. On a related note- intrests rates cut again, lol intrest rates i think?

You would think so, but go to my local BB at between 6 and 8pm on a Friday or Saturday evening and there is a queue of 20 people at the counter. Not that that covers the quiet times of the week of course. Surprised they've lasted this long really, probably only the bits they've sold off over the years that have prevented the inevitable for a bit longer.

[charlesr]

the key thing for each and every one of us is to ensure we get the economy moving to help people and to help businesses grow

Isn't that the point of a recession though? There's no room left to grow and we shot past the sustainable point a couple of years back, so now it has to shrink back down? I understand that it's somewhat based on confidence so they have to say things like this though.