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.

Jeremy Corbyn hints at Russia ties as he surges to 53pc in Labour leadership poll

New polling gives Jeremy Corbyn the support of more than half of those with a vote, while the leftwinger hints at closer ties with Russia






By Michael Wilkinson, Political Correspondent

7:45AM BST 11 Aug 2015


Britain should create closer ties with Russia, Jeremy Corbyn has hinted as he surged ahead in the latest Labour leadership poll.


Mr Corbyn, who takes 53% of support in the latest YouGov polling, told Russia Today that Britain should treat international opponents with more respect.


Mr Corbyn told the channel: "What is security? Is security the ability to bomb, maim, kill, destroy, or is security the ability to get on with other people and have some kind of respectful existence with them?"



The leftwinger now has the support of more than half of those with a vote in the Labour leadership contest, the new opinion poll suggested.


Stark warnings from a string of senior party figures that choosing the veteran left-winger would be catastrophic for its chances of returning to power appeared to have had little effect.





More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11795420/Jeremy-Corbyn-surges-ahead-in-Labour-leadership.html

Max,

Have a look at business ties with supporting Russia and the Russian money being laundered through the City financial services.

But again you may prefer this:

What as that to do with Jeremy making overtures to Russia Fred?

Think and compare!

I know of several people who have joined the Labour party recently with the specific intention of voting for Corbyn.

Unfortunately, a few have been rumbled and blacklisted as a result, but about half have slipped through the net. :o)

C'mon Jezzer!!!

An interesting read is just in from 'Money Morning' (you get this by subscribing to 'Money Week').

Since there are links on it for sharing with Facebook, Twitter and a massive pile of other social media sites (* see below) I'll post it up here:

China has just launched another salvo in the global currency wars.

The country has devalued its currency – the yuan renminbi – by nearly 2%. That’s the biggest such devaluation under the current currency regime, which started in 1994.

The era of yuan appreciation is over, said one former adviser to China’s central bank.

So what does the shift mean for the rest of us?

Why has China weakened the yuan?

Until now, China’s yuan has been one of the world’s stronger currencies. Indeed, judging by the real effective exchange rate – which compares currencies adjusted for inflation and trade – the yuan was one of the strongest currencies in the world, according to the Bank for International Settlements, notes Bloomberg.

China had been willing to maintain the relatively high yuan. That’s partly to protect companies who have borrowed money in foreign currencies (a weaker yuan will make it harder for them to repay their debts). However, it looks as though something has cracked.

It’s possible that the 8.3% slide in exports last month has rattled the authorities. The People’s Bank of China (the Chinese central bank) noted that the strong yuan is putting pressure on exports.

Also, China would like the yuan to be made an official reserve currency by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF delayed a decision on whether to do so or not earlier this month. Basically, the IMF wants the yuan to have a more flexible exchange rate. Now it seems to be getting what it wants.

Until now, China’s central bank has managed the currency tightly, setting the exchange rate each morning and then allowing it to trade within a 2% band of that point.

But today, the currency was devalued by nearly 2%. And now the new exchange rate regime will have to take account of supply and demand, the previous day’s spot price, and various other factors that were not considered before. In short, it’s “a new currency regime”, noted one analyst on Bloomberg.

Given that the market pressure is now for the yuan to fall rather than rise, this looks like a good way to kill two birds with one stone. Keeping the IMF happy provides political cover for the move, which allows China to get a weaker currency to help boost growth and imports.

Why we’re likely to see more yuan weakness

It seems unlikely that this is the last such move we’ll see. Ex-Morgan Stanley man Stephen Roach, now at Yale University, said that if China really wants to jumpstart its exports, the yuan will have to get a lot weaker. But other countries in the region aren’t just going to sit back and take that.

Already this morning, currencies throughout Asia slid as markets bet on rival exporters – such as South Korea – looking to weaken their own exchange rates.

“That raises the distinct possibility of a new and increasingly destabilising skirmish in the ever-widening global currency war. The race to the bottom just became a good deal more treacherous,” notes Roach.

Charles Dumas of Lombard Street Research notes that a devaluation of the yuan will make China’s internal rebalancing less painful. But it will “export the deflationary impact to its trade competitors in the rest of the world.” If China starts to export deflation, then competition from cheap imports could hurt US corporate profits.

However, that doesn’t mean a crash would come right away. Because at the same time, says Dumas, if money leaves China looking for a home elsewhere, then “real foreign assets, no doubt concentrated in North America” could be the beneficiaries. As a result, “Chinese capital inflows and a buoyant US economy could lift the stockmarket substantially before the erosion of profits kicked in.”

Meanwhile, in the short term, it’s bad news for commodities in that China won’t be able to afford to import as much. But given that Chinese demand has clearly already dropped off, I suspect this isn’t especially significant in the context of a sector that has already crashed badly. Moreover, if a weaker currency helps to boost Chinese growth, then overall, that would boost demand for commodities.

For now, no one can really complain about China devaluing – the yuan has been one of the stronger currencies for a long time, and China’s economy is clearly suffering. But an ongoing slide in the yuan could well result in retaliation from other countries aiming to keep their own export share high.

For now, we’d stick with China. A weaker currency is generally good news for a country’s stockmarket as we’ve seen elsewhere in the world. We looked at some of the best ways to invest in China in a recent issue of MoneyWeek magazine.

Got a comment on this article? Leave a comment on the MoneyWeek website.

Until tomorrow,

John Stepek
Editor, MoneyWeek

(*) Other Social Media Web Sites (Cor Blimey! There ain't half a lot of them!

Also:

How much is the Calais Immigrant Crisis Costing?

There's more -but here we are with some of it just for starters:

One major distributor of pharmaceuticals carrying drugs for NHS hospitals had to write off stock worth £2.5m after migrants broke into one of its lorries, according to the FTA. Figures from the Fresh Produce Consortium suggest at least £10m of food imports had to be thrown away in the first six months of the year due to the “contamination risk” posed by stowaways.

The Road Haulage Association estimates that 90% of road freight between Britain and mainland Europe travels through Kent, accounting for goods worth about £200bn, with as many as 10,000 loads crossing the Channel each day. They say that even if only 1% of stock is tampered with, that’s an average loss of £30,000 a trailer, amounting to £3m a day or about £1bn a year.

Be careful for what you cheer for.

It may come back to haunt you!

Doc,

I said on this thread several weeks ago that China was a bigger market influence than Greece.

Now here's a clue. Which developed country rich in coal and other minerals exports most of their mined produce to China?

Thousands of British workers aged under 22 could lose their tax credits so ministers can axe benefits for migrants

Ministers want to ban migrants receiving benefits for first four years in UK
But under EU rules the proposal is illegal because it is 'discriminatory'
Ministers considering applying the four year ban to British workers as well
It would mean 50,000 under 22s losing tax credits or housing benefit

By Tom McTague, Deputy Political Editor for MailOnline

Published: 08:47, 11 August 2015 | Updated: 09:23, 11 August 2015


Tens of thousands of young British workers could lose their tax credits and housing benefit under controversial government plans.

Ministers are considering stopping anyone receiving the benefits for the first four years of their working lives after turning 18.

The move is designed to stop EU chiefs claiming it is 'discriminatory' to ban migrants from receiving tax credits for four years after moving to the UK.

The proposal to ban migrants receiving benefits for four years is a key plank of David Cameron's planned Brussels renegotiation but is currently illegal under EU law.

A government document, seen by the BBC, says: 'Imposing additional requirements on EU workers that do not apply to a member state's own workers constitutes direct discrimination which is prohibited under current EU law.'

Ministers have therefore drawn up plans for everyone - including British citizens - to have to pay into the system for four years before being able to receive tax credits and housing benefit.

The test would apply from the age of 18, meaning that anyone aged under 22 who had lived here all their life would not be eligible for tax credits.

Currently, about 50,000 UK citizens under the age of 22 receive tax credits, and most of them have children.



More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3193381/Thousands-British-workers-aged-22-lose-tax-credits-housing-benefit-radical-new-government-plan.html

Re: #61982 ..... Australia?

Corbyn may well be in the lead in the polls for leadership. I haven't yet seen a poll across the country of voters and what they think of him.

Max,

Yep. I challenge you to get a quote on the renminbi, but GBP/AUD is very tradeable and it has been on a tear for a couple of years now - particularly so this year. Its trends are so, so easily defined and 300 pips in a day is not uncommon at the moment.

Thanks for the trading tip, Hils.

On Donald Trump, who is doing well in the USA's Republican Presidential polls....

I think Trump is a potential political disaster waiting to happen and is someone who has the capability to maybe start a 'nuclear' WWIII.

However, Trump does speak his mind and you get it straight from the heart

A lot of people might care what Gene Simmons has to say about Trump. I'm a fan of his (Gene's) and he certainly does have his head screwed on the right way round, so here's what it is (By the way, like Gene, I'm a Hilary voter):

Wan`t Gene Simmons married to Stewart Grainger, must have been one of the earliest of such?

Spoiled Son Sets Fire To Gifted Ferrari In Order To Upgrade To New Model

In a bizarre case out of Europe, a 20-year-old Swiss man reportedly set fire to a Ferrari 458 Italia given to him by his father in a half-baked scheme to use the insurance money to upgrade to a new model. Incredibly, the spoiled brat is said to have had 14 other cars (including a Lamborghini) at his disposal in addition to a property portfolio worth close to $30 million and a monthly allowance that fluctuated between $5,000 and $10,000.

As Swiss publication 20 Minutes first reported, the 20-year-old in March of 2014 visited a dealership to get his car valued so that he could trade it in for a new model, possibly the 458 Speciale which went on sale about then. The quote he received was $193,500, which wasn’t enough to cover the cost of the new model.

It’s alleged the man was short of funds at the time so one of the dealers suggested he destroy his car in order to claim the insurance value, which presumably was higher than the quoted value. Three accomplices were recruited, including a person working at the dealership, and to avoid suspicion the group crossed the border into Germany to do the dirty deed.

Once they found a quiet area, the 20-year-old and one of the accomplices visited a massage parlor while the other two set fire to the car. However, security camera footage and telephone recordings led to a prompt arrest of those involved.

The information surrounding the case was divulged in court proceedings that took place last week in Augsburg, Germany, close to where the car was destroyed. The 20-year-old was sentenced to 22 months of probation and was given a fine of $33,000. The accomplices received probations of between 14 and 16 months each. In court, the 20-year-old said he didn’t have the courage to tell his father that he no longer liked his gifted Ferrari.

Julian Assange will be cleared of his sex assault charges next week as they expire after 5 years under Swedish law.

ICM have released their August poll for the Guardian. Topline voting intention figures are

CON 40%, LAB 31%, LDEM 7%, UKIP 10%, GRN 4%

So 60% don't want the torrid party!