Fed Up

Agreed, although people living in the Eurozone may think that they are immune from currency speculators, they are not.

Article from the Grauniad: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/dec/3...nt-rates-equity Sounds like Mr & Mrs MEW have realised that the excrement has hit their expensive home air conditioning unit.

I'm not saying that they are better. Yes you are correct it is marketing, media spin and a bit of snobbery. Owning a Beamer is a status symbol. The point is that German, French and Italian car manufacturers are going to have to price their products on the basis of a euro/dollar exchange rate of 1:1, otherwise they will achieve very little sales in the US.

So it's time for go-ahead sweatshops to start manufacturing clothes in this country. About the only EU-manufactured clothing I have come across is made in Portugal, so clothing manufacturers are going to have to undercut these even if they can't yet undercut the cost of Bangladeshi made goods.

But if you want to buy a car, you don't have pay a premium to buy a German one, even if they are better quality, hence why Audi, BMW and VW will suffer a sharp downturn in sales, leading for pressure on the ECB to cuts its base rate.

so it means that the government has to print £245 per month for every man, woman and child in the country to avoid deflation, which economists are sh*t scared of. Thinking about all the state benefits that are going to have to be created to pay the newly unemployed, that £245 per month will easily be achieved.

The denial phase is not yet over as lots of people, particularly middle-class professionals, think it won't affect where they live. I have noticed this among work colleagues who live in south Warwickshire. As they live in more affluent areas than I do, then there will be no price crash there, so they believe. This attitude is most prevalent among those who have MEWed to pay for a house extension.

Just listened to the article. Schiff talks a lot of sense, but his views and similar need to be more mainstream than Radio 4. Gradually I sense that things are changing. More people are now saving rather than spending, hence their mentality has altered somewhat away from endless consumption. Because they have become savers they want better savings rates.

I was in Debenhams yesterday and its price tags are in euros, for RoI shoppers, as well as pounds. (I think that Top Shop / Top Man does the same). I couldn't believe the disparities on the labels though, where a pair of jeans was both £40 and €62. Other products had similar pound / euro price ratios. No wonder about half the Republic's population has headed across the border to shop!

Yes, but El Gordo is stupid and even the average highly-MEWed Sun reader realises that taking on more debt does not pay help pay off existing debt.

It can be done and has been discussed here before. I have noticed that building societies are targeting pensioners with 'high' savings rates (relatively speaking), this being an example: http://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/s.../sixtyplus.aspx as they realise that this is a secure form of funding amongst a demographic group which is unlikely to move its money into another currency, but may move it between banks and building societies to get the best deal.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/busi...icle5408903.ece Of course anyone foolish enough to buy next year will be costing in a minimum 12% fall, hence prices will fall further (a lot further IMO).

The bank bailout is primarily to try and save 'the City' and hence the status of London as a major international finance centre, the international finance centre possibly. The reality is that Frankfurt has taken over from London in that regard. With its financial status diminished, London will be no more and no less important than Paris, the heart of another deceased empire.

Yes, but ZanuLabour are too thick to realise that poor savings rates are leading to a flight of currency from the country, hence making it more difficult for the banks to recapitalise.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/columnists...sbad-times.html OK so a lot of his other points are cr@p, but at least the two above ram the message home to Mr & Mrs MEW. Yes, stay at home chavs!

I visited Napoli 15 months ago and it is no worse than any major British city of similar size. Some parts by the coast are quite pleasant.

Agreed. The British media need a reality check. Basically Britain has been bankrupt since 1945 and the various cycles of boom and bust have been driven by borrowing, usually by begging the Yanks to prop up our not-so-Sterling currency. As for Italy, rail services are more efficient and many of the staff speak English and French. It also has a strong manufacturing base, in the north at any rate.

The Daily Mail is trying to kill two birds with one stone by equating immigrants with benefit claimants and vice versa. Better quality journalism would look into immigrants who come here to work, many illegally and for less than the legal minimum wage and the gangmasters who employ them. It would also concentrate on the tens of thousands of native white Britons, who are not merely unemployed but unemployable and happy to remain as such.

Maybe they'll migrate to the top shelf with embarrased would-be purchasers stretching up to find them, then furtively shuffling through the pages, hoping that the shop assistant doesn't catch them lusting after those assets.

Don't thank anyone here, thank Gordo, for borrowing and spending beyond this country's means for the past decade; not to mention so many individuals following his great example. Let's not forget also a certain government minister, recently returned to the fold, who lied on his mortgage application, setting another wonderful example. Sorry Sibley, but neither a government nor an individual can borrow its (his/her) way out of debt. It is now payback time.

Yep, with the British peso decreasing in value both the British government and British banks are going to be unable to pay off their euro / dollar / yen denominated debt. I predict also that new mortgage lending will dry up completely as banks will be unable to lend.

Roughly agree with most of the OP except that I cannot see real price inflation going negative. Additionally: Interest Rates cut to Zero. Pounds falls below parity with the Euro. Sterling no longer accepted as an interational trading currency. Gordo unable to borrow more money. Darling sent begging to the IMF.

My trainers were made in Cumbria: http://www.newbalance.co.uk/ And my shoes - both pairs of which I have had re-soled in Timpson's, frugal soul that I am - in Northamptonshire: http://www.georgecox.co.uk/ Granted that the materials will have been imported and it is well nigh impossible to buy any British-made clothing nowadays. That is a constrast I notice when I have been on holiday elsewhere. I have a few t-shirts purchased in Canada that were made in Canada (or so it says bilingually on the label). Try buying a souvenir of Britain that was made in Britain! I would like an Aston Martin if they'd drop the price by about 80% and I had somewhere safe to store it

Agree entirely and only a fool would think otherwise. In income-related terms the overcorrection will push prices right back down to 1995 levels (ie 2.5 times average salary), which would approimate now as about 1999 prices. Added to that for next 2 to 3 years average salaries will remain more of less frozen while food, electricity and gas prices continue to rise (in spite of the energy companies recent announcement of price cuts as these will be reversed next winter), hence disposable incomes will fall. There is no rational reason whatsoever to expect house prices to rise between now and about 2015. Higher inflation devalues our currency but in doing so also lowers disposable incomes when inflationary price rises are not awarded.

I went out on the bike for a few hours yesterday as the roads were quiet and the weather good for cycling. On my way back through Kenilworth I cycled past this development: La Reine Mews with a sign saying only £99 deposit to buy.