Posted 8th June 2010 by Double Bubble
Tips for world cup 2010 betting please?
I need to make a quick £15k (don’t ask) from a minimal stake, so I’m looking for good outside bets to stick in an accumulator. So no Spain to win or England to go out at the quarters, thanks.
Posted in Betting | 8 Comments »
Posted 8th June 2010 by Ming The Merciless
Here’s an interesting piece from George Monbiot about the ongoing BP fiasco.
Don’t get me wrong, I think George is nutty as a fruitcake and as off the mark with this as he is with just about everything else, especially as he seems to conveniently ignore the fact that we all effectively “own” a bit of BP through our pension portfolios, but overall he’s encapsulated a lot of the public feeling on this issue.
This piece from The Onion is much funnier though.
Posted in Green Issues, Idiots | 1 Comment »
Posted 6th June 2010 by Double Bubble
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Posted 30th May 2010 by Third Uncle
http://www.citywire.co.uk/personal/-/news/markets-companies-and-funds/content.aspx?ID=402980&re=9579&ea=148984&Page=1
Government debt has been soaring.
At £156.1 billion the gap between income and what the UK government spent this year is higher than in almost any other country in the world – including the southern European countries that sparked recent market worries.
Total government debt – at £893.4bn is around 62% of GDP and is widely expected to climb – possibly close to 100%.
More government money is spent on interest payments each year than is paid on the NHS or on the police.
With tax receipts falling and the cost of welfare rising, the recession has made it increasingly difficult for the UK to balance its books.
Anyone in debt knows there is a level at which the cost of borrowing rises so high that it becomes almost impossible to bring borrowing back down.
So that’s the backdrop and that’s the state we are in.
George Osbourne is worried that the markets will go out on the attack on us in the same way that they went out on the attack on Greece. It is still possible. But we’ve got some key advantages over Greece, namely a more flexible labour market, an exchange rate that can be devalued, and debt that is due further out.
Osbourne is going to want to show the markets that he is being decisive. He will be terrified of a downgrade. That’s why I expect some major cuts in the forthcoming budget. Some of it will be in no brainer areas (eg benefits and public sector), other parts will be in areas that will affect the middle classes. Expect to be squeezed. Austerity, we’ve not even seen the start of it yet ……
Posted in Economics, State of the Nation | 3 Comments »
Posted 28th May 2010 by Third Uncle
Last recession it was the withdrawal of MIRAS that triggerred a housing downturn. This time around it could be increases in CGT.
The new government are publishing a spending review in June. They are commited to equalising income tax and capital gains tax.
So let’s take an example and imagine you have a nice little buy to let empire, you are sitting on gains of £200k and the current rate of CGT is a flat 18%. You know you can sell up and you will be liable to £36K in capital gains tax and keep the rest as your own personal profit.
There’s a lot of uncertainty around what is going to happen to CGT. But say the government announce that from April next year that will change to 40 or 50%. Potentially your tax liability on your gains in the example I’ve given will increase to £80k or £90k. Then you have a choice. What would you do in the interim ?
I always thought it would be interest rate increases or unemployment that pricked our housing bubble - but this certainly won’t help.
Can you fault my logic ?
Posted in Housing Market, Money | 8 Comments »
Posted 27th May 2010 by Third Uncle
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10168684.stm
<i> Apple has pushed past arch-rival Microsoft to become the world’s biggest technology company. Changes in the share price values of the two in Wednesday’s choppy trading left the total value of Apple at $222bn (£154bn). Microsoft is now valued by investors at $219bn.
However, Microsoft still enjoys higher profits than Apple. Its most recent annual net profit was $14.6bn (£10bn), compared with $5.7bn for Apple. </i>
So even though Microsoft is making almost three times as much profit as Apple, Apple has a higher market capitalisation. Doesn’t make any sense to me.
Posted in Money, Technology | 11 Comments »
Posted 25th May 2010 by Third Uncle
So there we have it, the first set of cuts in government spending. George Osbourne has saved £6bn by cutting child trust funds, saving on IT projects, quangos, lower grants to local councils, back office efficiencies and some training programs.
The Independent has a very nice visual today which compares the amount that will be saved against the mountain of UK debt. The conclusion is that these cuts are relatively trifling.
Things are going to get a lot more austere than this. The first emergency budget is 4 weeks away, and then there’s the autumn spending review which will set the pattern for spending over the course of the parliament. And the government wants to be seen to be taking decisive action to avoid being attacked by the markets in the same way that Greece has been.
But how did we get to this point ? I can point to 4 key things that have pushed our finances to this point and for which ordinary people are going to have to pay the cost
1. Iraq
2. Afghanistan
3. Bank bailouts
4. Gordon Brown’s largesse in support for his voter base in Labour regions
Having been chancellor before he was PM, Brown’s responsibility is very clear. Don’t the public at least deserve an independent review of how we got here ?
Posted in Economics, State of the Nation | 1 Comment »