Ahead of Sunday's announcement that Northern Rock would be nationalised, Philip Richards of the hedge fund RAB, one of the funds that have been hoovering up the stock in the last few months, pronounced thusly: "You really would think that the government would want to take responsibility for a company that has got into financial difficulties and to recapitalise and rebuild it for the benefit of all stakeholders".
Wow, would you really? Some of us might think that those things were the responsibility of the shareholders. Then again, RAB and its ilk are not real shareholders, unless your definition of shareholding is being obstructive and litigious in the hope of making a quick profit by shaking down the taxpayer. It's a shame, now that it's come down to nationalisation, that the decision has taken so long, because this has allowed these vultures to get their claws in pretty deep.
It's still Lent, so I'm sticking to my vow of not slagging off Anatole Kaletsky, but it would be remiss not to draw attention to some awesome work by one of the Times sub editors. Anatole's rant in response to the nationalisation decision, both in the print version and on the Times website, is introduced with the words "Kaletsky: Absolutely, incredibly, utterly wrong!". See, it's not just me that thinks that.
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