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The Crunch: The Scandal of Northern Rock and the Escalating Credit Crisis | 
 enlarge | Author: Alex Brummer
Publisher: Random House Business Books
Category: Book
List Price: £11.99
Buy New: £5.53
You Save: £6.46 (54%)
New (21) Used (7) from £4.95
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 31641
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.8 x 0.9
ISBN: 1847940080
Dewey Decimal Number: 339.53
EAN: 9781847940087
ASIN: 1847940080
Publication Date: July 3, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Shipped from UK Mainland. Delivery is usually 2 - 3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail.
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| Customer Reviews:
Very useful account of the crisis November 13, 2008
William Podmore (London United Kingdom)
Alex Brummer, the Daily Mail's City Editor, has produced a valuable account of the origins of the crisis. He shows how finance capitalists played pass the parcel with bundles of bad debts - a form of mutually assured destruction.
The financial firms' overriding drive for personal gain meant that they advised those least able to pay to take out mortgages at the highest interest rates. As Brummer notes, "The more that was borrowed, the less equity or hard-earned cash was needed for a deal, so the greater the returns."
The banks then sold on debts that they knew to be rotten or overvalued. There is no chance that the value of these debts will rise, so banks will have to increase the level of write downs. They are guilty of fraud on a grand scale.
Northern Rock's `Together' mortgage allowed customers to borrow 125% of their home's value plus up to six times their annual income. The Rock borrowed three-quarters of its money from other banks. Its directors paid themselves 30 million in 2002-07.
In July 2007, the Financial Services Authority approved the Rock's paying a special dividend of 59 million to shareholders, just when the company was imploding. The FSA, the Bank of England and the government all failed in their duties of supervision.
On 17 February the government nationalised the Rock, privatising the gains and nationalising its losses. Goldman Sachs lawyers and PR people got 41 million in fees. The Rock's new CEO will get 950K a year. He and his new financial officer are `non-doms', tax evaders, while 2,000 workers get the sack.
The Office of National Statistics estimates that the Rock debacle has cost taxpayers 100 billion. Another 30 billion of the Rock's loans fall due in 2009, with a very heavy repayment schedule over the coming year, so there will be many more repossessions - and already, under government control, the Rock is repossessing homes twice as fast as other banks.
Globalisation means that a banking crisis cannot be contained in any one market. But the more a country relies on finance, the worse it suffers. As Brummer writes, "The rundown in Britain's manufacturing base in favour of an economy building on the nation's skills in financial services, made it peculiarly sensitive to global financial events such as the credit crunch." The parasite finance will destroy the real economy of jobs and production, if we let it.
Excoriating but readable October 1, 2008
G. L. Haggett (UK)
An often excoriating take on the current plight of the financial services industry, which takes the Northern Rock fiasco as a starting point for an examination of the wider picture.
There is definitely a right-wing slant to what is said, but this book is valuable for its readability and in particular its refusal to lose itself in financial jargon; instead, it makes complicated matters clear to the layman.
 Missing Pages August 30, 2008
David (Saudi Arabia)
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
Beware!
I bought this book at a local book store. When I got it home I found the first 20 pages were missing! I took it back and it was exchanged with no problems and we found a second copy with the same problem.
 A Layman`s guide to the credit crunch July 16, 2008
Mr. J. Chand
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
If ever anyone wanted to know what the `credit crunch` was all about then look no further than this offering from `The Daily Mail`s`chief economic journalist- alex brummer.
The book explains how, why and who were the main protagonists in this unfolding financial drama.
From the background of Northern Rock`s woes to the exploits of jerome kerviel at societe general, all points are candidly covered in brummer`s typical style of writing.
There is even a glossary of financial jargon, which detail the often mysterious terms used by the professionls, expained in every-day english.
Well worth the money!
Rock Cruncher July 16, 2008
Mr. S. E. RAVEN (London, England)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Feeling the pinch of the credit crunch? So were Northern Rock, and foolishly, they chose to deal with it by hoarding funds, with disastrous repercussions. Alex Brummer's thorough and engagingly written account blows the whistle on the scandal of the troubled British bank.
This is the book Northern Rock didn't want you to read and Brummer's tight, journalistic style makes this an expose you can't afford to miss.
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