athom

£5 for a bunch of twigs? Please tell me you're joking please

I think politicians vastly over fear the power of tabloids, all this resigning when a tabloid claims "outrage" etc. Nobody trusts what they read in tabloids any more than they trust the politicians in the first place. Seems to cancel each other out. These days we know we are universally lied to and are approaching peak cynicism.

This is class stuff, i said you're wrong, and you argued your case like a proper man

depends if the interest rate on the current loan is less than it would be if you had to get a new loan later on. If there is not much difference it would probably be better to pay them off though not to the point of zero cashflow

Yes +1 look how much is being spent this christmas, people can tighten their belts much more than they currently are before we see mass defaulting, especially if we consider that to harm banks it would have to be on a scale that can't be baled out, and lets not forget that individually the bankers themselves are unlikely to care as they will know the gravy train will be coming to an end at some point and they have their golden parachutes ready.

So you agree that we are facing inflation and the bankers hate it more than some measly defaults with will be covered by the tax payer anyway. So you agree that your first post - which said the bankers wouldn't raise interest rates because they were scared of defaults - was wrong? Hey, it was early, maybe you hadn't had your coffee yet? I'm safely in the black thanks

Were you living under a rock when it was decided that the banks are too big to fail? If what you said is true the banks would already be dead

Not to worry though - most read stories on Telegraph 1. Alien with size 440 shoe among New Zealand UFO sightings 2. BAA 'refused offers of help clearing snow' 3. Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall will do it their way 4. Cameron and Osborne... you can't trust them, say Lib Dems 5. Armageddon in 2012? The truth behind the doomsday theories Carry on spending

So desperately do the indebted cling to this theory. If rampant inflation takes hold ALL the banks debts will vanish more quickly in real terms, not just the % that fail to scrape together every last penny to pay their most important debt. Strange to release this a few days before Christmas though, is this to halt some last minute credit card use? To try and stem some unwise spending? Or maybe they just wanted to spoil peoples festive cheer?

This constantly repeated mantra that house prices falling is "bad news" just shows the sheer number of people tied into the housing boom, they're not lying, they are going to get burned.

I'm pretty phobic about it myself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VAnIepBxDQ&has_verified=1

It is not "small beer". i hate this rationale and am starting to get suspicious of people repeatedly putting it forward. On benefits yourself by any chance? How many thousands of people living like this on workers tax will you need to be shown for you to realise this is a serious problem. The workshy breeding like rabbits culture in this country is a cancer eating away at our economy. Obviously it is not the only problem, but it is very much a problem. Until that is recognised nothing will be done about it and it will get worse.

Moscow airport knocked these up from some old Mig-15s they had sitting around: 0.00 RUB Heathrow got one of these bad boys for $129.95 Sorry! serious replies will be along shortly

didn't really do anything on that subject though, seemed like they very quickly ran out of economy/debt plot and fell back on some standby Eastenders plots of infidelity / black man involved in knife / gang crime / old man has heart attack / ET comes back from the dead ending. The 50k lost seemed to be forgotten about over a laugh after throwing a stone at the wrong mans house?? Nah. Thinking about it the play was totally rubbish. Only nods to the main theme were moving back with parents / going from jet set shopping trips to New York to stacking shelves.

no but i can't think of a more bearish way to put it than "6 fold rise". The Telegraph is always on the bearish side but that's really stressing the point. only problem though is the flood of other distracting stories and peoples ability to see just what is comfortable to see and nothing more

loving the juxtaposition with the interwoven wickes adverts for £200 kitchen taps and soft touch draws. At least tonight every twig jar lifestyle they're still using for all the ads seem more obviously 2007 than usual. Some bubble pricking potential in that at least.

not so absorbing that half my mind can't be posting here. (40 mins behind on the program as well) Naturally it deals with extremes for dramatic effect. A more subtle typical situation might have had more impact on the masses. Ken Loach needed on this one. edit: oh but then of course the masses wouldn't watch it

Plenty to make all the overstretched and under threat sweaty palmed. Festive cheer then for those that have just loaded up their credit cards for the pagan tree festival

+1

A bit drastic but go for it. Nice to see someone taking their debts seriously.

Plenty of reason to believe that along with fixing inflation figures, holding down interest rates, massive forbearance by lenders to prevent a repo fire sale and this (i believe feasible) possibility - "A Banking Conspiracy To Stop "below Market Value" Sales?" might account for it. This has been a credit fuelled retail economy. You cannot force people to borrow or spend.

Classic stuff. If they are willing to pay £115m in bribes how much profit are we talking about in the related deals? (a $7.5bn USD project) No doubt they could afford to increase the bribes by another £372m to allow the "authorities" in on the action. same same but different.

i like the way the link right next to the article is for a 219k 2 bed terrace. http://www.findaproperty.com/displayprop.aspx?edid=00&salerent=0&pid=7866345 It would certainly take the pressure off everything else if we didn't have to pay so much for our houses

I had to verify my income just to rent the house i'm living in, demanded by the bank holding the BTL mortgage. According to the letting agent this was now a universal requirement. Baffling why it wouldn't be for all mortgages.

yes this would be an interesting situation to find yourself in. To the tax man "no it's ok i was only obtaining money by deception!" to the banks "no it's ok i was only committing tax evasion!" Surely this there is a man somewhere in government with a glint in his eye sharpening this axe and waiting to swing it