Comments on: Healey blurts it out http://liberalconspiracy.org/2008/10/10/healey-blurts-it-out/ creating a new liberal-left force Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:02:12 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Mike Killingworth http://liberalconspiracy.org/2008/10/10/healey-blurts-it-out/#comment-22308 Mike Killingworth Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:03:04 +0000 http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/?p=1427#comment-22308 Indeed. My own Council, tory Westminster has a £17m exposure to the Iceland débacle. (Those notoriously irresponsible leftie north London councils, Haringey, Hackney and Islington have a nil exposure between them.) Westminster's defence is that the Government said it was all right. They seem to have forgotten that we have a Labour government - although they're usually pretty good at reminding me that I shouldn't believe a word Labour says! Indeed. My own Council, tory Westminster has a £17m exposure to the Iceland débacle. (Those notoriously irresponsible leftie north London councils, Haringey, Hackney and Islington have a nil exposure between them.)

Westminster’s defence is that the Government said it was all right. They seem to have forgotten that we have a Labour government – although they’re usually pretty good at reminding me that I shouldn’t believe a word Labour says!

]]> By: john b http://liberalconspiracy.org/2008/10/10/healey-blurts-it-out/#comment-22303 john b Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:49:19 +0000 http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/?p=1427#comment-22303 As I commented on the same post at S&M, there's a difference between informed retail investors, and people with no interest in finance at all who keep a few grand aside for retirement/rainy days. The former might be better than fund managers at stock-picking, but the latter can't be expected to read balance sheets and foreign countries' investment ratings before deciding where to put their money. Whereas local authorities' treasury departments can. <i>having met a fair number of fund managers and retail investors, I know which group I’d back in an IQ contest</i>" The ones who get paid a million quid a year to do a mediocre job, with brief periods of unemployment as the only downside risk? As I commented on the same post at S&M, there’s a difference between informed retail investors, and people with no interest in finance at all who keep a few grand aside for retirement/rainy days.

The former might be better than fund managers at stock-picking, but the latter can’t be expected to read balance sheets and foreign countries’ investment ratings before deciding where to put their money. Whereas local authorities’ treasury departments can.

having met a fair number of fund managers and retail investors, I know which group I’d back in an IQ contest”

The ones who get paid a million quid a year to do a mediocre job, with brief periods of unemployment as the only downside risk?

]]> By: Nick http://liberalconspiracy.org/2008/10/10/healey-blurts-it-out/#comment-22302 Nick Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:43:22 +0000 http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/?p=1427#comment-22302 Very interesting, Chris, and I agree completely (I think). The funny thing is that many of the problems of the current crunch could have been avoided if investors had shown some basic common sense (i.e. have SOME idea what you are investing in). This was why Warren Buffet didn't touch those mechanisms for spreading around these mortgage debts, he just didn't know what they were or what they meant so he didn't buy them: http://www.fintools.com/docs/Warren%20Buffet%20on%20Derivatives.pdf Very interesting, Chris, and I agree completely (I think). The funny thing is that many of the problems of the current crunch could have been avoided if investors had shown some basic common sense (i.e. have SOME idea what you are investing in). This was why Warren Buffet didn’t touch those mechanisms for spreading around these mortgage debts, he just didn’t know what they were or what they meant so he didn’t buy them: http://www.fintools.com/docs/Warren%20Buffet%20on%20Derivatives.pdf

]]> By: Thought for the day « UK Liberty http://liberalconspiracy.org/2008/10/10/healey-blurts-it-out/#comment-22301 Thought for the day « UK Liberty Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:41:03 +0000 http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/?p=1427#comment-22301 [...] Chris Dillow: Healey’s implication that individual savers are not intelligent or well-informed is, therefore, not based in the evidence. [...] [...] Chris Dillow: Healey’s implication that individual savers are not intelligent or well-informed is, therefore, not based in the evidence. [...]

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