Have a look at this graph from the Bank of England. It shows how much people started using their houses as an ATM machine as more and more people borrowed against the value of their properties, and how quickly this borrowing has fallen back
While it will come back to be positive again in time, I suspect that the days of your property being your personal ATM machine are long gone
http://boards.fool.co.uk/Message.asp?mid=11603132
class, posted on The Motley Fool early this morning.
Does anyone think this is a good bit of business ? I am starting to doubt Fergie’s judgement, I can’t see this one working out at all.
And can you imagine the media circus that will go with it when he’s not in the starting line up. He’d be more suited to going to Hull.
The banks run the place ….
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jun/30/congress-financial-reform-banks
But that’s the story in the US, it couldn’t possibly be the same here could it ?
Mervyn King is talking about investment banks needing to be broken up and the sector regulated by the Bank of England. But the government is moving away from regulation again.
Is there a common thread here between this one and mingey’s last post ? Am seeing some kind of pattern
In the good times, I can just about live with greedy multinationals (a necessary evil?) and stupid politicians / civil servants.
In a recession however, the fact that the latter seem to be handing taxpayers’ money over to the former in wheelbarrows makes my blood boil.
In this case, I think Robert Peston is spot on.
and set to launch a £60m offer for Newcastle with Shearer lined up as manager
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/8125576.stm
Saviour of Newcastle or the final kick in the nuts ????
Bonkers but true - welfare payments will exceed income tax receipts by almost £25bn in 2009/10
2009/10 Gross income tax receipts projected £140.5bn
2009/10 Social security benefits projected £164.7bn
And interest paid out bon government debt is now exceeding all the amount collected in fuel duties,and growing rapidly.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5651825/Benefit-payouts-will-exceed-income-tax-revenue.html
How can we run a country in this way ? This is the real issue, not MPs expenses, not Michael Jackson. This is what the next election should be all about. And how much worse could it get if we lose our AAA rating and international money starts to haemmorage out of the UK ?
Recession over ? Technically it may be, but brace yourselves. It’s going to be a painful next 5 years.
… of the race to be the first out of the traps with a sick Michael Jackson joke is … <opens envelope> …
Something different. Top 20 most played on my ipod includes :
Three tracks from The Jam
Three tracks from The Lightning Seeds
One track from the Rolling Stones
One track from REM
Two tracks from Duran Duran
One track from The Smiths
One track from Take That
One track from Ultravox
And one track from Travis
Care to take a guess at what they are ? CLUE : It was third auntie’s ipod first and she used to listen to theme music from Bridget Jones and Love Actually quite a lot
Talking of defecits, have a look at what is happening in California. Having run out of money, the State of California is going to start issuing IOUs to state employees and taxpayers (really !)