Latest news with #2008
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Young people are taking out loans to buy pizzas
The film of Michael Lewis's book The Big Short is a magnificent piece of storytelling that made the 2008 financial crash comprehensible. In the movie, a renegade hedge fund boss discovers that the financial system contains an unexploded bomb. Huge amounts of poorly secured credit are floating around that are far riskier than the holders realise, or want to admit. It's a collective hallucination of trust, and he bets that it must eventually collapse. It introduced a mass audience to collateralised debt obligations (CDOs), one of the sophisticated creations used to hide the dodgy debt. Loans had been chopped up and blended with other loans into new tradable financial products like CDOs, in a process called securitisation. Sometimes, these new securities were chopped up and blended again, obscuring the risk even more. The credit ratings agencies insisted these new products were safe investments – but the hedge fund contrarian had discovered they were very high risk. Much of the debt had been advanced as mortgages to low-income families who were vulnerable to a rise in interest rates, and so the value of the securities would collapse when lending rates went up. Surely it couldn't happen again? However, today, unsecured credit is being advanced to allow consumers to buy not houses, but pizzas, burritos and burgers. Companies including Deliveroo and DoorDash have formed partnerships with Klarna, the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) lender. And those instant gratification debts are now being securitised. Last October, Klarna offloaded most of its UK debt – worth some £30bn – to Elliott Investments, a hedge fund. Private equity group KKR has agreed to buy up €40bn (£34bn) of PayPal loans. Consumer credit has come a long way from mortgages to munchies. When financial social media caught wind of the developments a couple of months ago, it turned it into a meme: the 'collateralised burrito obligation'. "You have no intention of paying off your collateralized burrito obligations, do you?" — litquidity (@litcapital) May 20, 2025 Families who couldn't pay their mortgages in 2008 left the keys on the kitchen table, the door unlocked, and simply disappeared. But good luck repossessing a burger once it has been eaten. So do we need to get ready for the sequel, The Big Mac Short? The number of people seeking help to repay BNPL debt has increased 68pc, The Telegraph reported in May. The amounts are still dwarfed by mortgages, but it's significant, and the unsecured portion is increasing. In a cost of living crisis, household bills are now being paid on BNPL. The New York Times reports how increasingly even groceries are being paid for with it. Supporters argue that families can avoid punitive credit card fees if they pay their BNPL loans on time. In one sense, it's nothing new: an informal credit system has always been with us, but in the shadows. 'The fundamentals haven't changed,' explains Ralph Jainz, a fund manager. 'A debt is a debt, and one day a bloke with a baseball bat turns up at your doorstep, demanding money. 'It's always been a nasty business, just as it was in the slums of Paris during Les Misérables,' he adds, referring to Victor Hugo's novel in which the Thénardiers are the exploitative and ingenious community credit brokers, who immiserate and enslave the honest. Pawn shops and doorstep lenders are not new. What we are seeing is something that was once in the shadows emerge and meet the regulated financial system. Klarna is in good nick, with a robust credit rating and plenty of capital – it can always raise fees to retailers. But what about the holders of the burrito securities? In theory, securitisation should make things more legible, not more obscure. As one pundit explained when the collateralised burrito obligation meme was bouncing around the socials, 'as a financial engineering and market completion enjoyer, I think this is great. A complete market is one where every risk can be priced, traded or hedged, ie: every risk has a price, every future has a counterparty'. Ratings agencies who were so complacent in 2008, giving CDOs a clean bill of health, have been more cautious this time. S&P and Moody's do not rate burrito debt or BNPL. But just as with the subprime mortgages, S&P notes that 'BNPL asset performance may also be particularly vulnerable to a turn in the credit cycle'. BNPL debt is really part of a bigger story: the emergence of a shadow banking sector, with an increase in lending by non-regulated institutions like hedge funds and private equity, firms who are taking on the burrito loans today. Hedge fund lenders don't have to issue monthly risk reports or make deposit guarantees. One of the most remarkable stories of the year, as Reuters has reported, is that hedge funds loaded up with burrito debt are placing bets against Rachel Reeves. Sixty per cent of bond trading volumes in January and February were from hedge funds. 'The real scandal is that the world has massively got into private credit,' says Jainz. 'But one day a CEO will wake up and have debt he or she doesn't understand.'
The Review Geek
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Good Boy – K-drama Episode 4 Recap & Review
Monkey See, Monkey Do After the tense meeting with Ju-yeong at the office, where Dong-ju punched that window and shattered it, episode 4 of Good Boy begins with the battle lines drawn between these two formidable foes. This broken glass though sees Man-sik reprimand his junior, especially when they get an expensive repair invoice through for 3.3 million won. There's inevitably still bad blood between Jong-hyeon and Dong-ju here, who bicker over the best way of handling the their case (and who's trying to win over Han-na's affection). As a result, the group are split in half to cover more ground. Dong-ju gets jealous when Han-na is paired with Jong-hyeon though so he decides to jump in her place instead. They don't get far in their search, mostly due to the pair clashing, but Jong-hyeon continues searching into the night, checking over the CCTV cameras in the area and noticing a lot of cigarette butts on the ground. Han-na and Jae-hong track down the slippery Oh Jong-gu, the man who was given the bloodied watch by Ju-yeong last episode. They ask outright whether he's involved in Gyeong-il's death but he keeps a cool head and doesn't slip. On the way back, Han-na is picked up by Hwang Kyung-chul, who has some info for her. He brings up how, back in 2008, a Russian mafia member was shot dead and her father was in charge of the crime scene. He has files for her about the whole endeavour, and hands them over for her here. Now, the suspected cause of death for her father stems from a gunshot to the head, suspected to be a mafia member, but it was closed as unsolved, despite the obvious links. Man-sik does his own digging into the watch with the pawnshop and this links to Gwang-se, a man sporting a bald eagle tattoo. He used to be well-known for smuggling cars and has ties to the Golden Bunny gang as well. He eventually reveals that there's someone called Monkey, who's the best in the country at smuggling cars. There's a guy at Insung Customs that covers for him too, which directly links in to Ju-yeong. Monkey still has the car, and the team need to tread carefully here. If they talk too loud or make it known at the station what they're doing, Ju-yeong could very easily hide everything before they bust the operation. As a result, the group decide to use a bait car to lure Monkey in. Unfortunately, the one he's likely to go for is the Commissioner's. With Gwang-se's help, they manage to get the car and the plan is set to go ahead. On the way, Dong-ju and Han-na end up in a rather compromising position during their stake-out but it doesn't take long for them to re-join the others, much to Jong-hyun's annoyance. The operation goes ahead, and they race into the warehouse. Unfortunately the team are undermined by Dae-yong and his group, who sweep in and try to take all the credit for busting Monkey and his smuggling gig. Despite a big skirmish, Monkey manages to get away. However, he's found by the side of the road not long after, having been stabbed in the neck with a screw-like knife from the perp. It seems to indicate that this guy is a professional killer and covering his tracks. Forensics also uncover cigarette butts, not dissimilar to the ones found on the dock with the CCTV cameras, but it leaves them at another dead-end. Meanwhile, Man-sik also has the unenviable task of facing the Commissioner's wrath, especially when he finds out about the trashed car. Despite all of this though, the operation exposes the scam, and a fair few goons are arrested. Naturally, Commissioner Cho takes all the credit for this! Jong-hyyun theorizes with the group afterwards that this entire ordeal is connected to both the Russian mafia and a drug operation run by an armed Filipino group. Unfortunately, they didn't find Ju-yeong's car at the warehouse. However, they do realize that Monkey needed an insider to fudge the paperwork, explaining why Lee Jin-su was killed. He came across Ju-yeong's scheme and was killed for it. All the documents he uncovered were also burned too, which we saw earlier on with Ju-yeong . Ju-yeong is pissed and he takes his anger out on the Section Chief when he confronts him in the bathroom. Time is very much of the essence here, and in order to find the goods, the group head to the dock and look through the shipping containers one by one. They only have until 7pm to find the car though and while Dong-ju confronts Ju-yeong as a way of giving the team some time, they actually track down the car. A chase inevitably ensues, and the team work together to catch Ju-yeong at the intersection as he twists and turns his way through the streets. Han-na stands right in the middle of the road to try and stop him. Ju-young sees this and decides to stop him before he hits her, jumping off the roof and slamming into the windshield. Ju-yeong is captured, and very likely going to miss his flight, but Dong=ju has at least stopped him for the time being. The Episode Review So Good Boy returns with another good episode, tis time tightening the screw around capturing Ju-young, all whilst building the team comradeship. The show has done well to make each of the team members unique in their own way, and the previous episodes have, of course, dived into their backstories to explain why they're part of this group. This works well to give them all a unique reason for being here, along with their ties to the Olympic games, and this chapter enhances that by having the group split up on their individual investigations. I'd still like to see a bit more of Jae-hong though, who feels like he's a bit of an oddball, but the investigation into Ju-Yeong and his ties to Gyeong-il's death have certainly been intriguing and overshadow any blemishes with this one. Now that we know there are ties to both the Russian mafia and the Filipino gangs, it raises the stakes dramatically. We do get confirmation here though that the Section Chief isn't involved but I have a feeling there could be another official aligned with Ju-yeong to make things run a bit smoother with this operation. It's clear Ju-yeong is not going to be detained for long though, and it sets everything up for a dramatic double bill to come next week. Previous Episode Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
The Citizen
10-06-2025
- The Citizen
12-year-old in court after killing 14-year-old in Brakpan collision
For children aged between 12 and 14 years, the law introduces a presumption that they lack criminal capacity, unless proven otherwise by the state. A 12-year-old child has appeared before the Brakpan Magistrates Court on charges of culpable homicide and driving without a license after allegedly causing the death of a 14-year-old boy. According to reports, the younger child was driving his parents' vehicle when the fatal collision took place in Brakpan, Gauteng, on Saturday. Details of the fatal collision According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the 12-year-old was behind the wheel when he ran a stop sign and struck the teenage victim. 'It is alleged that on 7 June 2025, the minor was driving his parents' vehicle at the corner of Madeley and Northdeene Street when he drove over a 14-year-old boy and bumped into a wall. 'The 14-year-old boy sustained injuries and was declared dead on the scene,' said NPA Regional spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana. Following the collision, the younger child was arrested. 'The 12-year-old was then taken to the Brakpan charge office and later released into the care of his parents by police,' Mahanjana added. He was only released into his parents' custody on Sunday, 8 June 2025. ALSO READ: Four taken to hospital after collision on R328 Court proceedings and legal considerations During Monday's court appearance, the minor was accompanied by his guardian, as required by law. The matter has been postponed until 28 August 2025 to allow for a comprehensive assessment of the child's criminal capacity. The law introduces a presumption that children aged between 12 and 14 lack criminal capacity unless the state proves otherwise. 'A child falling in this age group can only be arrested as a last resort,' LegalWise stated. Current legislation directs that 14-year-olds and above can typically stand trial in South African courts. The Constitutional Court firmly established the principle that child offenders must be treated differently from adults, a view that was solidified when the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008 came into effect on 1 April 2010. This Act introduced a separate criminal justice system tailored specifically for children, aiming to address their unique needs and circumstances within the legal framework. LegalWise explains that 'under the Child Justice Act, a child under the age of 12 years has no criminal capacity and cannot be prosecuted or arrested for an offence. It does not mean that there will be no consequences if the child is found guilty.' The Act instead 'offers alternatives for rehabilitation by diverting a child offender from a prison sentence to community service, counselling and therapy.' This reflects a significant shift in focus—from punishment to rehabilitation, acknowledging that children are still developing and should be given the opportunity to reform. NOW READ: Trio convicted for brutal farm attack in Eastern Cape
Time of India
08-06-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
Tampa Bay Rays honor Evan Longoria with a win that rewrites MLB record books
Image Source: Getty June 7, 2025, was a special day for the Tampa Bay Rays as they honoured their legendary player Evan Longoria while winning a big game. They beat the Miami Marlins 5-4, their 5th in a row, a new record in Major League Baseball history. It was a day of mixing the past with the present at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Rays celebrate Longoria's legacy with a historic victory On June 7, 2025, the Tampa Bay Rays bid farewell to their all-time 3B Evan Longoria with a one-day contract before their game vs the Miami Marlins. Longoria played 10 years with the Rays, threw out the first pitch to end his 16-year baseball career. He led the Rays to their first World Series in 2008, 3 All-Star appearances, 3 Gold Gloves, and the 2008 AL Rookie of the Year. That day, they won 5-4 and set a new team record for 5 in a row. This victory showed the team's strength and matched the winning spirit Longoria brought during his time. The game was a perfect way to honour him and proved the Rays are a strong team aiming for the playoffs, sitting second in the AL East. Longoria's impact shapes Rays' future ambitions Evan Longoria changed the Tampa Bay Rays forever, turning them from the Devil Rays into a winning team. Picked third in the 2006 draft, he holds team records for most games (1,435), home runs (261), RBIs (892), and runs (780). by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Mix 4 Kitchen Ingredients, Wake Up Thinner Every Morning Health Now Undo The famous walk-off home run he hit against the Yankees in 2011 gave the Rays a spot in the playoffs and is now remembered with a statue at Tropicana Field. Derek Jeter is supposed to be inducted into the Rays Hall of Fame in 2026, and his jersey might be retired. Also Read: Tension boils over as Yankees and Red Sox collide in series finale at Yankee Stadium Off the field, Longoria and his wife, Jaime, helped the community, setting an example for players today. As the Rays return to Tropicana Field next season, his impact will push new players to work hard. This special day showed the Rays can honour their past while aiming for big wins in the future, with their record-setting victory proving they are ready for more success.
Chicago Tribune
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
New Trier seniors graduate in traditional black and white attire
In keeping with tradition, New Trier High School seniors eschewed graduation gowns and mortarboards in favor of white dresses for the girls and white jackets and black trousers for the boys at their June 1, 2025 graduation at NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates. There were 869 Trevians launching into the world beyond high school at the 125th annual commencement. Handheld long-stemmed red roses stood out against the girls' white dresses, on a mild, sunny spring day. 'They've done an amazing job, an incredibly resilient class and they've accomplished so much over their four years and it's been great to see,' Paul Sally, superintendent of New Trier Township High School District 203, said to Pioneer Press. Graduating senior Olivia Kim of Wilmette said, 'The pandemic was mostly in middle school for us but freshman year, we were still wearing masks and second semester is when we got rid of the masks. 'And that was weird at first, but then I got used to it. 'It was like the new normal, I guess,' said Kim, who added that the pandemic taught, 'definitely flexibility, learning to adapt and change, going with the flow.' The program included the presentation of diploma cases after speeches, including by alumni speaker Cody Fry, raised in Northfield and of the New Trier Class of 2008. Fry is a singer-songwriter and received global attention by being on the hit show, 'American Idol.' 'Be yourself,' Fry told the graduating students. The student speaker was Neil Sanderson from Winnetka. 'As the Class of 2025, collectively, we accomplished a lot,' Sanderson said. 'I can confidently say, we made the most of it.'
