Author Archives: liamvictor

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/7652091.stm

WWII tunnel digger ‘Mole’ dies – The World War Two tunnel digger John Fancy, whose actions inspired the film the Great Escape, has died aged 95.

Warrant officer Fancy helped dozens of his fellow inmates escape from prisoner-of-war camps in Poland, Lithuania and Germany.

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/john-cochrane-on-why-the-bailout-plan-would-be-a-disaster/

From the page: “Like a monster from an old horror movie, the Treasury plan keeps coming back from the dead. Yes, we are in a financial crisis that needs urgent, determined, and clear-eyed help from the government. But this plan is fundamentally flawed. It wont even work if we leave aside its horrendous cost and long-lasting damage to the financial system. The additions and sweeteners in the Senate version, and those on the table in the house, make it even less likely to work.”

BBC – Pestons Picks: Nationalisation by stealth

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2008/10/nationalisation_by_stealth.html

“The big vulnerability of British banks does not come from the danger that retail depositors, the likes of you and I, might shift our money around.

In the end, it’s not practical for most of us to move our funds abroad – although we can and do move our money from banks we deem to be weak to those we see as strong, which obviously undermines the weak banks.

No, the big flaw in the British banking system is the way it became massively dependent on the money markets and wholesale funds.”