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.

For his fellow sleep walkers or sheep DC.

LOL Max, brilliant. That isn't nasty just very funny. :0)

Interesting article for some:

https://www.henderson.com/ukpi/post/9822/divergent-paths-qe-around-the-world?o_cc=c3905

an extract from sky news on the net

Greece Agreement 'Old Deal In New Clothing'
........... It was said that behind-the-scenes, the Germans were refusing to talk to Mr Varoufakis - that some Greek finance officials had been urged to get rid of their boss.
That would be a terrific mistake: their new finance minister is one of the biggest assets Greece has, particularly when it comes to explaining to an international audience why austerity has not worked, and why future deals might have to be different.
And there will almost certainly need to be another deal once these four months have elapsed.
In the meantime, Mr Varoufakis and his colleagues have a tough job on their hands explaining why what was agreed in Brussels was a triumph rather than a defeat.
Their previous feat - overturning decades of two-party domination in Greece - may end up looking easy in comparison.

fred - i read the article, and unless i missed something as is so often the case, it really didn't have much to say at all, other than that we'ld all like to have our household debt written off

No some would like sufficient cash to repair the van in order to make the deliveries and earn some money, postpone repayment for a short period and then make repayments at a reasonable rate of interest over a period of time.

A bit like a farmer looking at his crop and insufficient cash to pay for the fuel to take it to market. Lend him the money and both of you might prosper.

When you started your restaurant did you buy some of the equipment on "tick" I know the bank manager took a risk with me when I opened my store, but he got his money back with interest.

I would think the majority of businesses are built on "borrowed" money.

Austerity is not the way out of the mess like we had in 2007-8, as Osborne took years to realise but not admit.

I am not sure directionless QE is entirely the right path either. There are other ways of doing similar.

Restricting waste, being more economical with expenditure is. Stimulating the "base" economy is.

Enough!

Am I allowed a glass of 50 plus old port or not!

ah fred, back in the mid 70s things were very different :-)

you may not have noticed, but despite some gaping holes, banks for better or worse now work under very different and tighter rules
long gone are the days when if the bank manager liked the colour of your tie and knew your parents etc, he could and would lend you at least a reasonable amount of splosh

actually, those same rules applied certainly until the very end of the 90s

anyway, i see you are hoping that some magic wand could be waved and all would suddenly be right with the world .... all a total delusion of course

Not delusional.

With a will, thought, application, effort and time, the majority of problems can be resolved, if the wish is there.

People were written off with cancer 30 years, but are still alive to-day. Treatment success rates are continually improving where many thought there would never be acceptable solutions.

Economics is simpler, it is the will which is missing and is often impeded by greed personal self advantage. The pack leader needs the pack more than the pack need the leader.

Greece will still be in the EU in 10 years time, as will the UK be.

What will be the shape of Ukraine and Eastern Europe will be in 10 years time, I don't know, but if Russia gets a united response from Europe, USA and others then the area may simmer down and Putin may have been "eventually" removed.

It is a crazy situation.

Actually thinking back once again.

What seems a driving force for Germany and its use or expectancy of austerity route out of recession is based on their experiences in the 20s and 30s with massive devaluation etc..

I think they and some in Europe should review that period again and the post WW1 settlements which provokes the "recession" and "economic crisis".

Many would say that Hitler grew out of the "victors'" abuse by France, and Britain, (Russia who has its own problems), USA, Italy, British Empire, Belgium etc. taking more than their pound of flesh.

Perhaps, Germany and some of Europe are attempting the same!

Don't know.


Some saw the settlements as "just", but the effects were crippling.

There's two sides to that argument Fred.

There were more than two sides!

Probably.

Here's something for you to avoid Fred....read, or more likely avoid the bit about the fatherland repaying money.....bet you duck it :-)


https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2015/02/21/the-morning-after-athens-gains-more-trust-and-is-no-longer-trussed-up/

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/17/david-camerons-convictions

Max.

Just listen to Rory Stewart on Sky News Murnaghan intervie on Putin and Ukraine.

Interesting summary.

I have always found him as very thoughtful and sensible.

Worth a look.

Just to remind some of the Black Tulip.

Sorry Black Wednesday and their Norm.

In politics and economics, Black Wednesday refers to 16 September 1992 when the British Conservative government was forced to withdraw the pound sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) after it was unable to keep the pound above its agreed lower limit in the ERM. George Soros, the most high profile of the currency market investors, made over 1 billion GBP[1] profit by short selling sterling.

In 1997 the UK Treasury estimated the cost of Black Wednesday at £3.4 billion,[citation needed] with other sources giving estimates as high as £27 billion. In 2005 documents released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that the actual cost may have been £3.3 billion.[2]

The trading losses in August and September were estimated at £800 million, but the main loss to taxpayers arose because the devaluation could have made them a profit. The papers show that if the government had maintained $24 billion foreign currency reserves and the pound had fallen by the same amount, the UK would have made a £2.4 billion profit on sterling's devaluation.[3][need quotation to verify] Newspapers also revealed that the Treasury spent £27 billion of reserves in propping up the pound.