SNACR

Unsurprisingly a lot of retail in that property fund. I see even the revised valuation works off a very optimistic yield.

The whole PPI thing always struck me as another bailout strategy for the over indebted as if low interest rates weren't enough.

There's a few interesting knock-on scenarios like companies with money, to pay suppliers or payroll, on deposit, will this mean suppliers and employees having to accept 10% less in the short-term if there's no contingency funds? It looks like this could be shaping up to be the most interesting rolling news week since Moaty or the riots.

No they didn't really, what they're effectively saying is every citizen of Cyprus must do their own personal bit to help the country pay its way. Unless you've recklessly borrowed and spent all your money over the last few years in which case you're a special case and are exempt. At least with inflation even borrowers feel the pain through higher living costs to some extent even though they're still a special case again. I guess the problem is that option doesn't exist for one small part of a single currency bloc, The solution proffered will still eventually be further enmeshing of the EU nations' economies not less.

This finer point I feel maybe lost on the majority of the Heart FM listenership. There seems to already be an intent to conflate this with the NR run in the media here.

I wonder what sort of attention-seeking media-whores might be affected adversely by this??

I well imagine The Kabin and The Vic still going strong long after every pub and independent corner shop in the UK have closed. They will have to come up with a new updated social-conditioning vehicle, masquerading as entertainment, for the sheeple as they're looking past their sell by date.

Don't know if this has been done already on this thread but one of the comments at the DM is saying all British forces have to open a Cypriot bank account on arrival and they are affected by this.

I notice in the Daily Mail article it talks about Cyprus and Iceland as 'island nations with an outsized financial services sector' bereft of any sense of self-awareness. Bit like when the BBC newsreader says 'Chinese state media is reporting' with a disapproving tone.

Wondered what the relevance of all the FSA radio adverts recently about the deposit guarantee have been for.

If this is public sector don't assume nepotism doesn't exist there.

Said this many times on here. I paid significantly more per hour than the NMW prior to its introduction. Now the majority of the workforce are on, or around, the NMW maybe with a few pence premiums added on. It does cost jobs particularly in manufacturing as if you can only make 10 of something an hour that puts a 60p+ cost on each item, that would translate to at least £2.50 of retail price for the finished product. Therefore the jobs go abroad. I believe the whole concept of an NMW is completely flawed and just cruelly tricks the least economically valued part of the workforce into temporarily thinking they're better off than they are but even NMW supporters must accept that a significant chunk of any benefit of NMW has been sucked up into higher housing costs,

Yes, in fairness property isn't the only thing there's capital gains on.

I think the tipping point will come when some break ranks and start offering basic services cheap online. I think Tescos and various other big companies have made noises about doing cheap legal services but it's not really built momentum yet. Solicitors themselves were printing off standard leases from CD-ROMs 20 odd years ago and charging a fortune for it. You don't find many that can answer very specific questions without consulting a legal text either.

Certainly has a massive VI reek to it.

There is no point providing customer service it has diminishing value now. Where selling physical goods online typically, in many cases, customer service is a euphemism for a retailer buying back now unsaleable goods from a customer (sometimes faulty, in the majority damaged from misuse by the customer). This is an additional cost burden on the business that retail prices have to be loaded accordingly to tolerate. Previously it was worth cultivating long-term trusting relationships with customers but, in an online world, it's pointless because all the evidence shows every time a customer wants to buy something they'll just search for the cheapest or be off to the latest groupon deal so now it's not worth bothering. Realistically customers will just need to adapt to it and will probably ultimately accept that in return for access to a gigantic dutch auction that greatly lowers their purchase costs they have to bear the risk of product failure. Customers always *say* they value customer service but reality suggests they don't value it in terms of spending additional money to receive it.

Sadly, still likely to end in debt jubilee for those that borrowed more than they can afford, even if we see the day of double digit interest rates: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9888042/Spanish-firemen-and-locksmiths-refuse-to-evict-homeowners.html

I thought it was good of Richard Hammond to do his own bit too.

Don't forget to factor in the availability of cheap parts on ebay, this must enable the practically minded to keep cars going on a shoestring much longer. For the competent enthusiast car mechanic I would guess the point of scrapping comes now when more welding needs doing for the MOT than you can be arsed to do, and that point is a long, long time coming now. _______________ On a related note I think I read somewhere that truck and van sales are still down really heavily on pre-crash figures, like a third or so for some classes. I think this shows what drivel the statistics pumped out by the MSM and goverment are regarding the economy. Truck sales down a third yet the economy allegedly has only contracted by a few percent. The history books will talk about a depression of the ealy 21st century where a government conspiracy led to those on low incomes being fed horse meat through a government conspiracy.

Nah, women in general want some shelves putting up and are prepared to offer a half-hearted blow job as reward. This arrangement is commonly referred to as marriage.

I think they're grossly underestimating the rate of decline. In late 2007 and early 2008 although you could say it was becoming very obvious that downloads and online were having a significant effect on high st music sales even the most doom laden prognosis wasn't forecasting that every dedicated and variety music retailer would have gone out if business completely in less than five years. At about the same time stock market analysts were swooning over the record sales results Game were posting, no-one was even mentioning as a footnote their business model could struggle let alone fail altogether within four years.

No*, if I looked through the list of our landlords it will all be insurance funds or pension funds in the majority. So many, many people's investments, that they considered and would have been marketed as low risk, that contain a large element of exposure to commercial property are going to get wiped out on a scale they can't even imagine. Some very well known pension funds are almost entirely invested in, not just commercial property but exclusively shopping centres. *Although some will be leveraged, if that's what you mean.

Gimmick for the commerce unworldy, I can't ever recall taking a shop with less than a quarter's rent free and usually six months is standard. Not a bad play from a marketing point of view for the landlord but a bit of a problem is they'd need to give a lot more rent-free to give start-ups a chance and that simultaneously makes the competition prize seem less sought after and shows the landlords true hand and just how desperate they are. Interestingly from a bit of googling it looks like Prupim (Prudential Investment) gobsmackingly managed to offload this shopping centre with a big portfolio of other properties right before the crash in 2008 so I'm guessing there were alarm bells ringing with rent arrears at a lot of the properties. On the face of it the 'win a shop' scheme ticks the corporate social responsibility boxes but has resulted in a devastating critique of the health of Britain's high street if even in, what looks like, a fairly decent, modern shopping scheme, with Waitrose anchoring a decent-ish tenant mix, making what a few short years ago was considered a prime retail property investment look like some obscure sickly liqueur gifted to the raffle at the Church Christmas Bazaar only for it to be unwanted by the 'winner' and promptly reappear in the next Church raffle. Edit to add: This tells you all you need to know about what level of financial chicanery and private equity funny money is required to maintain a semblance of normality at so many of Britain's well known retail chains.

Doesn't really need any changes anyone that thinks it's an easy path is free to take it. I also think there's more honesty really in failing to pay tax in this manner in comparison to how Jimmy Carr, for example. structured his financial affairs.

They'll have a load of other debts (these creditors will usually know instrigating insolvency proceedings will only add to their costs and losses) but it's just usually that HMRC pull the trigger on bankruptcy as they can't be seen to be letting people get away with non-payment even though it probably results in further costs for them. Also I think there's a big incentive for HMRC with celebrities (who are really no worse with their tax affairs than many other self-employed groups) to pursue insolvency as it creates headlines that will encourage the sheeple to keep their tax affairs in order. They seem to have gone off show trials though since they got a bloody nose with Ken Dodd.