WI worst 2008 recession

Fortunately, the subprime warheads they had acquired are just bomb casings full of old pinball-machine parts.
Given the level of due diligence Lehmans, and others*, undertook when purchasing assets, especially ABS, that is highly probable.

* in the UK RBS and Lloyds TSB come to mind re acquisition of ABN-Amro and HBOS respectively
 
Might actually end up better.

Iceland probably had it the worst OTL, to the point their entire banking system collapsed, they jailed those responsible and reworked things.

In the UK, we poured hundreds of billions into sticking plasters, the same issues are largely still there, RBS is still a creaking behemoth that’s barely turned a profit since.

Would greater pain in the short term have led any of the major economies to go Iceland on their bankers?
 
Given the level of due diligence Lehmans, and others*, undertook when purchasing assets, especially ABS, that is highly probable.

* in the UK RBS and Lloyds TSB come to mind re acquisition of ABN-Amro and HBOS respectively

To be fair, Lloyds were basically asked / told by the government to rescue HBOS.

ABN-Amro was entirely RBS’ fault though!
 
To be fair, Lloyds were basically asked / told by the government to rescue HBOS.

ABN-Amro was entirely RBS’ fault though!
True about Lloyds but they could have said no or got a better deal. I heard from someone senior at HSBC that it had been asked also by Brown to rescue HBOs.

Allegedly the response from its CEO or Chairman was a slightly politer version of NFW !!
 

Wimble Toot

Banned
To be fair, Lloyds were basically asked / told by the government to rescue HBOS.

Tethering one sinking ship to another, in the hope they both float.

If you want a better/worse 2008 Crash, have the British banks refuse to be bailed out as they did IOTL, and have Alastair Darling agree with them.

Then nationalize them without compensation when their share prices hits 10 pence, which would take about a week.

Square it with the European Court of Justice, and partially privatise the solvent parts of the banks later.

Once all the PFI contracts have been legally annulled, of course.
 
What if, instead of the Pentagon, the 2008 cyberattackers had targetted financial systems, ala "Mr. Robot" ? Say on October 1st, most ATMs and POS and ACH systems keep clearing transactions but stop debiting the purchasers accounts.

This would trigger a brief spree on stores and cash machines until the flaw was noticed and electronic transactions halted; followed by bank runs to get cash and panic buying by people who suddenly can't use cards. Spending will be sharply depressed for weeks or months until the systems are fixed.

Whether or not they can reverse the bad transactions, this will lead to huge losses: since most of the offending consumers are judgement-proof, leaving the merchants or banks unpaid.
 
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