A trillion pounds?

[Boris3098]

Just saw Nick Clegg being questioned on the news.
He claimed it had cost a Trillion pounds to bail out the Banks.
Is this true?
Surely not?

 

[llech]

Sounds about right, however it would've cost a lot more if they'd gone to 'Big Verne' for a loan!

 

[Boris3098]

I'd heard 20 billion but a trillion. Christ.

 

[Micawber]

So, trying to put that into some sort of perspective... a million is the roughly the number of seconds in 11 days, a billion is the number of seconds in 32 years, and a trillion is the number of seconds since neanderthals last walked the earth.

Crikey!

 

[Boris3098]

Or another way of poking at it.
A trillion pounds is:
A stack (one LAID on top of another) of ONE THOUSAND POUND NOTES; (Each note £1,000)
67.9 miles high!

 

[Iolis]

Interestly, the banks will not come to the aid of the economy by lending again unless the government agree to underwrite the risk of doing so with taxpayers money. Its win-win for the banks whose first duty is to their shareholders rather than the public.

 

[BuckFelize]

Or the entire population of Leicester on £103 Jobseekers Allowance.

 

[stinker]

Don't know exactly how much the bank bailout cost us but if you want you want to see something scary when it comes to UK money;

UK National Debt Clock - No-nonsense Guide to Britain's Debt Crisis

 

[Micawber]

I don't really understand what exactly is the National Debt?

Is this all as a result of government simply spending more than it had coming in, or does it include what we had to pay to dig the banks out of their hole?

I presume it doesn't, because as I understand it the cash was swapped for shares but the banks all seem to be doing OK at the moment so that money has not really gone away.

Does it include personal debt, which is not quite what it seems, in that high personal debt is an indicator of financial success and only becomes a problem when it cannot be repaid?

I dunno.

 

[jimmys_best_mate]

The entire UK National Debt isn't a trillion pounds yet. I think the bank bailout ended up being a couple of hundred billion didn't it?

 

[jimmys_best_mate]

I don't really understand what exactly is the National Debt?

Money that the UK Government has borrowed to cover expenditure that taxation won't cover. Nothing to do with personal debt.

 

[big_mac4824]

but surely the money loaned to the banks is being repaid with interest? surel Labour could not have been that stupid,as to not make a gain from this? Once the banks right themselves and return to full status, will the goverment sell shares to the public or will the banks simply hand back what they owe to the national coffers?

 

[Micawber]

Money that the UK Government has borrowed to cover expenditure that taxation won't cover. Nothing to do with personal debt.

Well that is a bit of a miss and no mistake. Should it be in profit? Has that ever happened, or should there still be a debt, but just not that big?

 

[omegahunter]

Rather good map, from Wikipedia, Showing public debt as a percentage of GDP.

 

[beardyProf]

Well that is a bit of a miss and no mistake. Should it be in profit? Has that ever happened, or should there still be a debt, but just not that big?

UK National Debt As Percent Of GDP for United Kingdom 1900-2010 - Central Government Local Authorities

See above, short answer we're always in debt only the amount varies.

 

[jimmys_best_mate]

Well that is a bit of a miss and no mistake. Should it be in profit? Has that ever happened, or should there still be a debt, but just not that big?

I'd have thought a small 'profit' for the Government would be ideal, I don't think it's happened since the National Debt was created to fight Napoleon though.

I'm no great financial expert though.