Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Hays your running scared.

gf
You are desperate to find some bad news.

monthly repayments soak up at least one third of their disposable income by 2018.
what's wrong with that?
memory tells me that that is about what would expect

Problem is c, they don't have any disposable income.

chuckle chuckle
never mind; i'm sure you and i (the taxpayer) will bail them out with housing benefits

really couldn't be bothered to read all that junk, but the above phrase caught my eye as i quickly skimmed down

at what level are mortgage rates generally now?
i think the historic norm is around 5%, though there have certainly been times when a certain party created terrifying inflation in mid/late 70s when they were around 10/12%

It was the late 80s. Peak was 89 when BoE rate was 14.87% and some mortgages were almost 20%. I bought a property in 89 and was in negative equity for years. In the end it went up four times in price before I sold it.

that must have been a second phase as the hyper-inflation was much earlier ... i know from when i was running my little bistro from 1978 to 1985

You are right. The bank rate was 17% in 1979.

The Great Inflation Of The 1970s

By Gregory Bresiger on July 08, 2009 AAA


It's the 1970s, and the stock market is a mess. It loses 40% in an 18-month period, and for close to a decade few people want anything to do with stocks. Economic growth is weak, which results in rising unemployment that eventually reaches double-digits. The easy-money policies of the American central bank, which were designed to generate full employment, by the early 1970s, also caused high inflation. The central bank, under different leadership, would later reverse its policies, raising interest rates to some 20%, a number once considered usurious. For interest-sensitive industries, such as housing and cars, rising interest rates cause a calamity. With interest rates skyrocketing, many people are priced out of new cars and homes. (Learn more in A Review Of Past Recessions.)
2517

Here are the figures

http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics/rates/baserate.xls

..

ABU HAMZA - why try in USA?
i heard a chap on the tv this morning saying that AH should have been tried in UK as much of the strong evidence and actions were carried out here.

in my opinion, extraditing the bastard to USA was a great move and the americans, whatever their many faults, hold no truck with terrorists and a life sentence means exactly that with no recourse of bleating to bleeding heart brigade courts in europe

Official Bank Rate hasn't changed from 0.5% since 5 March 2009. That's over 5 years now and there looks like being at least yet another one.

I wonder if there isn't something wrong with this policy? How does it make people feel? What is really the intention behind the doing of it?

Is it, that 'Cash earns you next to nothing and so you just have to find a slightly riskier thing to do with it than just leave it in the bank' and this involvement creates growth?

Property is now a bit of dodgy investment in most areas. Correction ahead?
Stocks are very volatile and are looking a fair bit overbought. Correction ahead?

Anyone got any ideas?

Good to see AH in prison for the rest of his life. We used to see him preaching in street when we took the kids to school on the school run. When he was thrown out of the Finsbury Park Mosque, they found guns and bomb making equipment in the basement.

long term - bricks and mortar but location is everything

shares - depends what you're looking for; there's still value and if you have a high risk-tolerance, then there's plenty of garbage to excite that just may come right

interest rates - raising interest rates too early would (have) kipper(ed) any economic revival

Ed Miliband calls politicians out of touch in TV interview - then has no idea how much he spends on his own weekly shop



Tory secret weapon




Good Morning Britain presenter Susannah Reid says Miliband himself appeared 'out of touch with reality'




Adam Withnall Author Biography




Tuesday 20 May 2014



The Labour leader Ed Miliband has been accused of being “out of touch with reality” after he appeared not to know what he – or indeed the average British family – pays for their weekly shop.


Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Mr Miliband described how disconnected the country’s leadership is from ordinary people who, he said, feel Britain is run “for a few people at the top and not for them”.

He said that Labour would make it a priority to tackle the cost-of-living crisis – yet appeared to struggle when pressed on how much he personally knows about “the actual cost of living for people”.

Asked if he knew what the average household grocery bill per week was for a family in the UK, Mr Miliband said: “Well, it depends how much you’re spending.”



More: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/ed-miliband-calls-politicians-out-of-touch-in-tv-interview--then-has-no-idea-how-much-he-spends-on-his-own-weekly-shop-9402068.html

There is a new Populus online poll out today which shows the Conservatives taking a 1% lead over Labour:

Conservative 35% (up 3%)

Labour 34% (down 2%)

Lib Dem 8% (down 2%)

UKIP 14% (up 1%)

i wonder if lib/dems will end up with less mps than would fit in a phone box

Even with a low percentage of the vote in the GE, the Libs will get a lot of MPs. It doesn't matter what their support is across the country, just in the constituencies where they have MPs. Their machinery in those areas works very well to get the voters out on the day,