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.

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.

Straw and Rifkind in 'cash for access' TV storm: Two former Foreign Secretaries secretly filmed discussing how they could use contacts to benefit foreign private firm - and boasting how they charge £5,000 a DAY
Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind were filmed by undercover journalists
The pair are both claimed to have been willing to represent a private firm
Sir Malcolm said he charged between £5,000 and £8,000 for a half-day
Mr Straw is reported to have said he would expect £5,000 per day
The Labour Party has suspended Mr Straw following the allegations
They have referred themselves to MPs' standards watchdog over claims

back home to more stinking corruption get these 3 main parties out out vote ukip

has he said we have loads of spare time we only work for private clients .
they should be investigated for fraud from tax payers

It's ok Tanks, the fix is in...


"They have referred themselves to MPs' standards watchdog over claims"

yes a bloody joke it should be the sfo under the public view

I don`tknow where MAM get their FTSE daily tips from but itcertainly works- in reverse.

IO get 75% returns going the opposite way to the tip.

Heres todays-----

FTSE100 tipped to open higher this morning

straw and fifkind it was not illegal to use their gov positions to make money .
yes it is .
rifkind it is not true . well rifkind was that not you speaking then charge them with impersonating you . you have been caught with your hands in corruption

how can voters vote for these parties get them out .

T they are all the same.
2517

MPs are lower than murderers they are low life scum worse than any other form
do not vote for the 3 main parties ditch them

Manuel and Max.

Interesting and reasoned summation of Greek problem:

The Greek deal is fair and democratic.


http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/22/observer-view-on-greece-bailouts-and-the-euro

Thanks Fred, good article...up to a point (s)

With €34k debt per head of population and rising, the money will never be repaid.

It might make the banks books look better for now, but it is simply lending them more money to pay interest on existing loans, not for investment.


Can kicking, no more or less.

UK debt

"Mainstream media headlines today are focused on Britain's record national debt, which just surpassed £1 trillion, a figure that can only exponentially increase unless the entire mechanism of Government finance is overhauled. The truth however is much worse, factoring in all liabilities including state and public sector pensions, the real national debt is closer to £4.8 trillion, some £78,000 for every person in the UK".


One of the many things Cameron and Osborne and cronies are avoiding or lying about!

Wrongly in my opinion the pensions liability has never been taken into account when assessing our National Debt, this is true for both Tory AND Labour governments.
2517

rifkind . what a dam disgraceful person get these crooks out of gov they are low life scum lower than a snakes belly

I thought he was a smooth operator...fancy getting caught with your fingers in the till.


http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/23/conservatives-suspend-sir-malcolm-rifkind-over-cash-for-access-claims