Oh what a surprise!

[gwh200]

I opened this thread expecting B/S media driven, scapegoat hunting ranting, and quite pleasantly surprised to find some real thinking going on.



Well done.

Well I'm here now...

Goran is spot on with his frankness. The politico's constantly reminded us, at the start of the credit crunch, that the real problem was with some Mexican defaulting on his mortgage. Notwithstanding the banks had sold them a financial product designed to end in misery,the housing Market worldwide was/is perpeptuated by greed. Personal debt is a massive issue in the uk. A chap a few doors up was very frank with me. He lost his (good) job and couldnt make his card payment(s). He owed over £40k on credit!
Until we as a nation face up to the awkward fact, that as we as a nation went on a credit card frenzy(along with the last administration), we are just as responsible as some guy called tarquil in a pinstripe suit, for the financial mire we are in.

( not me though, I don't owe anything now...thank god).

[Calos]

I wrote a two page post, and then thought.. bugger it.

Someone had beat me to it many years ago.


"Money is root of all evil"


peace
cal

[Pelicanbill]

Double dip? .. as in W .... ankers?

God forbid! I read the other day that to kerb inflation there will have to be an interest rise ..... if they do that it really will be beneath contempt!

[Surfer Ross]

Double dip? .. as in W .... ankers?

God forbid! I read the other day that to kerb inflation there will have to be an interest rise ..... if they do that it really will be beneath contempt!

We need a rise in the Bank of England base rate. It should be somewhere around 4-5%. Sure it'll cause some pain now but it'll slow down the runaway train of inflation which is inevitable for a country that is now utterly reliant on foreign nations for food, gas, oil, transport and consumer goods.

Low interest rates reward fiscal irresponsibility on the part of the consumer. If somebody has mortgaged themselves to the hilt in the days of low interest rates, they are either unbelievably stupid or they are materialistic and trying to keep up with the Jones(es).

We also need a law to stop property speculation and development. A house is bricks and mortar, shelter for your family. Not a status symbol. It is buying by developers that has priced a huge number of young people out of buying a house in their local area. Developers should be just as the name suggests, only allowed to buy derelict houses for development into something habitable.

A rise in the interest rate and a stop to "buy to let" is exactly what is needed to bring prices to a realistic level.

[flounderbout]

I'm talking until early hours of the morning quite often. It is not uncommon to regularly do 80 hour weeks. However, the only reason they get away with this is because the staff expect a large bonus and the prestige of GS on the CV. Permanent cars are laid on to drive you home at night. If GS didn't pay vast bonuses, they would not get this kind of commitment.

Hang on a minute! I regularly work until the early hours, and on occasion through the night. And most weekends. No-oone sends me a car to pick me up, and I don't get any f ing bonus...!




Though I suppose I would get to go home a bit earlier if I didn't spend so much time reading crap about Surfs...

[gwh200]

I'm working right now...well I'm at work...where's my bonus...pay me now or the brake lines get it!

[Apache]

Low interest rates reward fiscal irresponsibility on the part of the consumer. If somebody has mortgaged themselves to the hilt in the days of low interest rates, they are either unbelievably stupid or they are materialistic and trying to keep up with the Jones(es).

We also need a law to stop property speculation and development. A house is bricks and mortar, shelter for your family. Not a status symbol. It is buying by developers that has priced a huge number of young people out of buying a house in their local area. Developers should be just as the name suggests, only allowed to buy derelict houses for development into something habitable.

A rise in the interest rate and a stop to "buy to let" is exactly what is needed to bring prices to a realistic level.

Couldn't agree more!

To suggest that a small town like Malvern 'needs 3000 more houses' is total rot and suggests to me that local government is taking a bung from developers. Where are the families who need the 3000 houses right now? If they're in rented accomodation LOCALLY, what happens to that accomodation when they leave?

No, they are importing the terminally unemployable from cities like Birmingham and the housing associations / renting businesses are raking it in from the DSS / taxpayer. (The Mrs works for a housing association who have recently bought up most of the cheap housing on an ex-MOD site where I work so I get 1st hand info)

The amount of pointless and ugly 'cardboard' housing going up in an area of outstanding beauty and historical importance really REALLY boils my p1ss, and the more developers I see going to the wall through blatant greed, the better IMO.

[Surfer Ross]

Couldn't agree more!

To suggest that a small town like Malvern 'needs 3000 more houses' is total rot and suggests to me that local government is taking a bung from developers. Where are the families who need the 3000 houses right now? If they're in rented accomodation LOCALLY, what happens to that accomodation when they leave?

No, they are importing the terminally unemployable from cities like Birmingham and the housing associations / renting businesses are raking it in from the DSS / taxpayer. (The Mrs works for a housing association who have recently bought up most of the cheap housing on an ex-MOD site where I work so I get 1st hand info)

The amount of pointless and ugly 'cardboard' housing going up in an area of outstanding beauty and historical importance really REALLY boils my p1ss, and the more developers I see going to the wall through blatant greed, the better IMO.

[Sancho]

After reading all your points ..... the way I see it then !!
Bankers get bonus's for good results ..
So bad results n were all in line for a windfall rebate eh .. yea right n we could all be millyanaires

Sort of. Bear in mind that the banks that were bailed out were nationalised (i.e. bought by us) when they were worth bugger all. Getting them back on their feet and making profit is good for the country, both in terms of dividends and selling them back on to the private market when the time is right. I think bailing them out was one of the best investments the country ever made.

We need a rise in the Bank of England base rate.

That's the last thing we need....I have a tracker mortgage and am currently living the high life.

Couldn't agree more!

To suggest that a small town like Malvern 'needs 3000 more houses' is total rot and suggests to me that local government is taking a bung from developers. Where are the families who need the 3000 houses right now?

I think Cher Lloyd off the X-factor's family needed about 3000 houses to move out of their caravans. She was from Malvern. Sorry.....

You're sort of right though Andy. We have got enough housing here already. The problem is, it's all in the wrong places and everyone's living in the wrong size house (grannies in 4 bed houses on their own and familes in one bed flats...). Ideally, we all need to go on holiday for a year and come back to different houses (once they've all been done up so everyone gets a good deal).

[Apache]

I think Cher Lloyd off the X-factor's family needed about 3000 houses to move out of their caravans. She was from Malvern. Sorry.....

Yeah, feckin weird looking tiny-faced chav.

Her old man was flogging off her dolls and stuff in ads in the local shops, and expecting a bomb for them! Cheeky bleedin pikeys!

[Albannach]

Banking, Oil, Defence etc. are all global markets, they all attract global salaries and bonuses. Anyone who thinks we can get the best-of-the-best, to pull us out of this sh1te that we're in, for basic pay, needs psychiatric help. It doesn't matter a toss who got us here, we need 'them' to get us out of it.

Even at grass roots level, developing nations will happily pay 3 or 4 times as much as can be earned in the UK, just to get experienced people; their track record is irrelevant. I've seen it many times in my chosen industry, so it will happen in the others.

The flip side, of that particular coin, is that if you have someone worth keeping, you have to pay them a shed load of dosh (either salary or bonus) to keep them. The problem is when they bugger up, you still have to pay them; because you agreed to do so when you hired them.

In the UK, we don't pay the best salaries, so don't get the best people. In Luxembourg, Switzerland and Malta, for example, they do pay top dollar, so do get the best. Look at where the banks (as an example) didn't fail and look at their salary profile; they get paid much, much, more than our's do.

[Surfer Ross]

That's the last thing we need....I have a tracker mortgage and am currently living the high life

I think it's coming, like it or not I'd place a fair wager that we'll have a base rate of at least 2.5% before the year is out and 4%+ in 2012.

Not before time if you ask me.

[Sancho]

I think it's coming, like it or not I'd place a fair wager that we'll have a base rate of at least 2.5% before the year is out and 4%+ in 2012.

Not before time if you ask me.

Booooo!

Edit; I agree, I've been expecting it to go up for a couple of months now. The problem is they're going to put everyone off spending soon, especially now inflation's been artificially increased by the bizarre VAT increase. Then the only money left in the economy will be banker's bonuses....

[Surfer Ross]

Booooo!

Edit; I agree, I've been expecting it to go up for a couple of months now. The problem is they're going to put everyone off spending soon, especially now inflation's been artificially increased by the bizarre VAT increase. Then the only money left in the economy will be banker's bonuses....

It's a poor situation. The problem being that the rate has been far too low for far too long, achieving nothing in the process. It has lulled the gullible into a false sense of security where they assume that their variable rate/tracker mortgage is always going to cost the same. Any base rate rise, coupled with the VAT rise, budget cuts and public sector job losses, is going to result in quite a lot of repossessions. It has to happen though.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...k-2182108.html

[Sancho]

It's a poor situation. The problem being that the rate has been far too low for far too long, achieving nothing in the process. It has lulled the gullible into a false sense of security where they assume that their variable rate/tracker mortgage is always going to cost the same. Any base rate rise, coupled with the VAT rise, budget cuts and public sector job losses, is going to result in quite a lot of repossessions. It has to happen though.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...k-2182108.html

I got mine when the base was about 4% and have been overpaying (at the same amount it was initially) since they put the rate down. Soon I'll be rich, rich I tell you.

What we really need (which everyone seems to agree with in a way) is more wealth overall i.e. more manufacturing, more oil drilling, possibly more mining even. The whole sorry state is a by-product of our economy being driven largely by commerce and services, which die out when there's a recession, leaving us with nothing to do.

In my case, I build social housing and we're sure as shit going to have a lot of people needing some to live in, so things could be OK for me