Timber? The Royal Bank of Scotland's stock is down 82%. CEO Fred Goodwin, who got the bank into this disaster, is on his way out:
``His credibility is shot to bits,'' said Ken Murray, CEO of Blue Planet Investment Management in Edinburgh, where RBS also is based. He has no holdings in any U.K. banks. ``Acquisitions are a risky business and they cost a lot of chief executives their jobs. If you get it wrong, you've got to go.''But what's going to happen with RBS's still uncompleted, 600,000 square foot headquarters in Stamford? The state piled a lot of our money into this deal in anticipation of 3,000 new jobs, $204 million in tax revenue over ten years and $1-2 million per year in City property taxes. Sure hope neither budget, state or municipal, was counting on that because if the stock's worth nothing, I doubt the headquarters will be all that busy.
Update: It was a bit more than "a lot of our money" diverted to RBS. Connecticut gave them $100 million in tax credits . I hope they appreciate it.
Update (10/11/08): Britain to take control of RBS Monday. I wonder if the Queen will want an office building in Stamford?
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I am surprised that you have not made the connection between RBS and Greenwich Capital Markets.
(From Hoovers, Inc: Greenwich Capital Markets (doing business as RBS Greenwich Capital) is a leading underwriter, trader, and distributor of fixed-income investment products. The company specializes in US dollar derivatives, asset-based securities, corporate debt, and prime and subprime mortgage-backed securities.
Subprime and esoteric derrivatives are a core part of GCM's business.
So not all of the "culprits of the collapse" headed to Wall Street every day. Some had a short commute to Steamboat Road.
Wanna bet that $100 million in future tax credits was long ago shoveled into the system, 35 times over . . . and is now just another three and a half billion down the drain.
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