In fact the NR Foundation has quite an interesting position in any solution, because although they "only" got 5% of the profits, they are entitled upon a takeover to 15% of the votes (I think that's how it works).
Uncanny echoes here of the Barings fiasco and the resulting demise of much of the Baring Foundation's "wealth". "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
Banks, except investment banks, should have pretty much zero exposure to all this subprime crap.
Still, the bank stock just keep falling. Trading at p/e around 8-9 last time I checked.
This would all have been academic to me if I hadn't inherited a small amount of SE-bank shares, bought by my grandmother somewhere back in the mists of time.
Selling is out of the question due to the accumulated capital gains tax and the bureacracy of selling shares bought before 1990, so I shouldn't really care about the stock losing about 30 % of its value since the peak. It can never be more than a little dividend printing press.
Still, it's a bit irritating. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
A good thing for us up here is that that transformation hasn't really happened in Scandinavia. Banks, except investment banks, should have pretty much zero exposure to all this subprime crap. Still, the bank stock just keep falling. Trading at p/e around 8-9 last time I checked.
