Word: britishers
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Amid the chaos and confusion that has accompanied the credit crisis at British bank Northern Rock, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has remained tight-lipped. There was barely a word from him when the Bank, as Britain's lender of last resort, made emergency cash available to Northern Rock last week. When that triggered a run on the High Street lender, with customers lining up for days to take back their savings, King still failed to utter a word. And when the government finally stepped in Monday to offer a gilt-edge guarantee for spooked depositors in the form...
...Until late this week. Appearing before a committee of British M.P.s Thursday to explain the Bank's handling of the crisis - the first run on a U.K. lender in living memory - King finally opened up. The Governor, the bank's former chief economist and an academic who's taught at Cambridge, Harvard and MIT, first got wind of problems at Northern Rock on Aug. 14. The Newcastle-based bank - Britain's fifth-largest mortgage provider - leaned heavily on wholesale money markets to fund its own mortgage loans. When those inter-bank markets started to freeze up in recent weeks amid...
...savings were safe amid the bedlam. They didn't. Many were aware the U.K.'s industry-funded Financial Services Compensation Scheme only guaranteed deposits up to around $63,000; in the U.S., savers can expect to get back as much as $100,000 should their bank go under. The British scheme, King said, was in desperate need of an overhaul...
...Much of the British press took a different line, accusing King of a clumsy flip-flop; some even suggested he should ponder his future. Both suggestions seem unfair. The cash made available to the banks is being put up at a punitive rate, meaning those that access the funds will be charged interest well above the central bank's base rate of 5.75%. And it's hardly a jackpot; banks are limited in how much they can draw on. The cash boost, says David Buik at BGC Partners in London, is "purely symbolic." Besides, Buik says, how much help...
Then again, model Agyness Deyn was spotted recently in a leather ruff and farthingale by British designer Gareth Pugh. Silhouettes aside, designers this fall are offering a king's ransom of silk, satin, fur and jewel-like ornamentation that alone evoke the Tudor spirit. Oscar de la Renta showed ermine and chinchilla shrugs atop embroidered tulle. For Burberry Prorsum, Christopher Bailey referenced armor with a collection of austere leather coats, metal-studded dresses and black gauntlets that would not seem out of place in the Tower of London. Rodarte featured shimmering gold dresses fit for a nascent Queen...