Redcellar

Sounds like dealers and used cars. In that case you can usually negotiate a discount on the new car and sell your old one more yourself too. The convenience of getting an offer from the dealer is the easy but more expensive choice. How will this be any different. They aren't going to give away the new builds and be left with junk FTBer overpriced properties.

Don't panic people. I heard the Andrew Marr show too and they suggestion was that the lump sum payment you can choose when you first draw your pension, is what is used. So seems like little to no change. Instead of blowing it on a cruise and car you give it to your grandchildren. Anyway, how many people can afford to take that lumpsum from their pension and then give it to the grandkids? Not that many with the low annuity rates, and only the already wealthy I would suggest. No real changes and even if there were, no real chance of the majority ever seeing any benefit from it. Cheap words to try and win favour.

A contractor under IR35 rules. EDIT: I claim my prize

Lower as its a business loan and you can go after the owners assets if they default presumably. Also next to no protection for the owner unlike if it's their residence. You hear the stories about how the nasty bank foreclosed and sold at below market price and they still had to foot the difference.

Pretty sure it would be seen as tax avoidance. Unless you made your residential property into a business asset. Very risky thing to do as you risk losing your home. And then you would also need to rent your home from yourself. Does anybody actually do this?

Not glum 0.7% is still a decrease in real terms. My savings increased more than that. And we all knows it's only increasing in London. So double lovely jubilee

Admin charges for mortgage deals have gone through the roof. £1500 - £2000 for a deal is not uncommon. So once you take into account the lower rate there isn't as much in it as you might think. And we've been promised falling mortgage rates for the last year but it aint happening. Not unless you only want a 40% loan and that isn't going to help the majority out there. The banks still need to shore up their balance sheets and aren't even close to achieving that yet.

We're in a strange position with unemployment declining and production increasing whilst the figures say we are in a recession. That was his argument as to why we are out of it. Unemployment is down because desperate people have taken temporary jobs and even trying to be self employed (start-ups have increased). I sometimes think the people who run and used to run this country are completely retarded.

Person at work reckons this is the case (just rent it without asking). I wondered and said have you actually read the T&C's of the mortgage. Never heard any more though.

If this is the 10 year treasury then it's still well below the average of 6.67%. Not sure I would read too much into the chart for now as it just infers a slight nudge towards normalisation.

With the rest just being fraudsters and risking losing it all for a breach of contract. Someone told me you don't have to ask if you've lived in the property for more than X years. I don't have a mortgage but like to know. Anyone?

Brutally honestly ... I'm not. I haven't really bothered to see why samsung are doing so well. But clearly they must offer stuff that's leading the pack by a country mile. I shall have to get interested

And you can see that from Q3 2011 onwards Samsung grew massively over Apple. So that can't be attributed solely to people waiting for the new launch IMPO. Wait a year? Not likely. Here

He wasn't comparing the two, just challenging what was said. The person he replied to inferred most people on the train were using i Products. I've got to agree that the worlds stats say android is far and away the leader with apples iOS second but not even in the same ball park. And Samsung alone are outselling Apple which makes it even more impressive given youve got a plethora or Androids to chose from. I'd also suggest most people on trains I see are using Windows laptops and not Apple laptops. Apple may well make good laptops but they aren't the majority player for laptops and OS in the laptop market. And neither are they in the phone market.

But in a truck you don't have passengers who refuse to travel if theres no person thought to be in control. In a truck you have a cargo that doesn't give a sh1t who steers the thing. Cheaper, faster, more reliable and ultimately it will be safer. Its inevitable.

More like a placenta effect. Pretty much the same IQ and gullibility of these people. Someone tells me it's new so it must be better. Absolutely priceless little on the street test. I loved the comments it was lighter and faster. I've still got an early generation ipod. It plays the same music as the latest one so why would I upgrade?

Or you just recognise that hardware faults will occur, build cheap systems and double or treble them up for resiliency. That would be much easier and cheaper than trying to make hardware 100% as you state. Cars are already drive by wire. Just see what happens if you suddenly lose the electrics on one. Brakes go weak and steering non responsive. Throttle is electronic controlled and stop start automatic engines are common place. The 'leap' to removing the driver is just one of vision and decision making. And already we have cars that can spot hazards, road signs and even auto brake. There are an infinite number of solutions to any one problem. To deny this technology will make it into production is to deny the inevitable.

You'd have to be nuts to setup a business in China. The companies I worked for decided it was cheaper and safer to just licence and bankroll a Chinese company to trade on their behalf. Whatever happens the Chinese can just rewrite the rules overnight and hey presto problem solved. Shame we can't do it that quickly here. Death by 1,000 cuts instead.

Shades of Comical Ali going on there.

Paper may lose ground on gold, but it's still positive. Property on the other hand is negative. I can't see how this will help average USA Joe feel wealthier.

Yes. So the games back on! EAs are one of the only few protected businesses left anyway. Insurance used to be through a broker then people decided they wanted to save money and so the Insurers went direct. Fair enough that property goes the same way. Sellers set the prices anyway, Solicitors draw up the contract. All EAs seem to do is be glorified advertisers or more accurately middlemen for rightmove. Can't see they would be missed. Perhaps the EAs of the future would work for the buyer, seeking the right place and negotiating the price down. Happens in the USA.

I have to add that I have learnt something new. Apparently EAs have to ... "Traditional estate agents must, for example, ensure information about properties is accurate, no pressure is put on customers, and an effective consumer complaints procedure is in place." .....

No laughing at the back please. Article here

World war? Not likely. The youngsters you'd need to fight the war simply wouldn't fight. What's in it for them? In the last war they believed in opportunity and wanted to fight to keep it rather than be dictated to. Now you ask them to fight to be dictated to? Perhaps a WW3 where the 50+'s go off and all fight to the death. Solve a bunch of problems in one hit.

You can't beat the media with its fanciful headlines. Shame they aren't backed up by fact.