indirectapproach

Be cool everyone, this dude knows exactly where he is, http://www.france24.com/en/20130607-france-japan-hollande-faux-pas-translator-chinese-twitter

I'm pretty much a long term bear and I'm coming around to the view that now is the time to sell.

Was he pissed?

My understanding is Ken thinks rents should be a maximum of 1/3 of one's salary. Generally speaking I wouldn't rent any of my stuff to anyone who was looking to pay more than 1/3 of their salary to me. It's a bad idea that stores up problems for everyone.

It seems the they decided to agree to this text by March (year not specified) if not before, http://consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/126658.pdf And the text says the European Commission get the final say on the economic policy of any nation with a budget deficit of more than 3% or a national debt of more than 60%, which is about everyone except Slovakia, who can't persuade anyone to lend them more than 35% of their GDP. The relevant text is at the top of page 4 of the link and reads. "As soon as a Member State is recognised to be in breach of the 3% ceiling by the Commission, there will be automatic consequences unless a qualified majority of euro area Member States is opposed. Steps and sanctions proposed or recommended by the Commission will be adopted unless a qualified majority of the euro area Member States is opposed. The specification of the debt criterion in terms of a numerical benchmark for debt reduction (1/20 rule) for Member States with a government debt in excess of 60% needs to be enshrined in the new provisions."

So, it is "better than 80 per cent certain," according to you, Goldman Sachs has "alerted our Eastern friends" The Chinese? "to the joys of laying off at least some the currency risk on long Gilts?" To buy UK debt? Lol Is that what you're saying?

Nein, You asked the question (rhetorical) "What odds would you give on the likes of the Squid not having ...." As if you knew what the odds should be. So tell us what odds you would give. Or go fly a kite (offensive).

The Austro-Hungarians did produce probably the best ever large tile stoves. Izzard's ignorance of this reflects ill upon him and shows that he has spent insufficient time in central European castles in winter. It's even in the DM, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1041812/The-medieval-marvel-14th-century-Hungarian-stove-cuts-monthly-gas-just-5.html

Well why don't you share the odds then, instead of blowing off like a wet fart?

That might just explain why Merkel isn't looking like the happiest fat slag in Deutschland these days.

Wasn't the Russian inflation rate +2000% (two thousand per cent) briefly in 1992? http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/inflation-cpi

There may be some plan, even a German one but it won't work, like most well laid plans. The guys in the South just will not do what the Germans want.

Because it all starts just nice and dandy like that but then before you know where you are, it's Smoot Hawley all over again ....? Maybe?

Since the guys in the South can't reform to achieve convergence, the Germans won't pay. It will collapse. I wouldn't want to say by "which" Christmas. I reckon 2012 rather than 2011. But it will collapse, messily.

FTSE down 2% ..... What? Again?!

"They need a deux ex machina. (yes, I know that's Latin)." How nice to see that I'm not the only one around here who misspells his Latin. (edited for apostrophe)

Not only are the Brits a major net contributor, maybe the second biggest behind the Boche, depending on how you measure it, the Brits also buy shed loads of stuff from Europe. The Brits really do have a powerful hand to play when it comes to negotiating with our European buddies. Lets hope that just because we don't seem to show it too often, we do still know it's there.

Idiots guide, where else? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Budget

And surgical instruments and 4 wheel drive cars.

My ozzer half spent three years living in Berlin in the 1990's. She speaks fluent Jerman. Her best Jerman friend works in PR advising Jerman government ministries and unions how to be loved by their enduring constituencies. The husband of said friend is a proper paid up and recognised professor of electrical and optical engineering at a "Hochschule?", a technical university in booming southern Jermany. She rents a pukka penthouse gaff in Berlin and he rents out his bachelor pad where he grew up and rents a bachelor pad near to where he works. They cannot afford to run a car. So, if you look at the hard assets these Jermans possess, it seems to come up rather on the light side. And they also spend a lot of time complaining about ze Jermans.

I am sure someone else has pointed this out on this thread before but just in case anyone can't bring themselves to read through it all, I'll say it (again). GDP per capita on a PPP basis is apparently lower in Jermany than the UK. That would seem to suggest that Jermany isn't the land of milk and honey that all the bewailing Brit haters (i'm sure you're out there) seem to suggest it is. If Jermany does less well that soggy old Blighty, which apparently is about to slide into the sea, zose zossidge munchers must have some pretty serious issues. And I would like to add, I like and respect ze Jermans. I was hoping to visit Berlin again before Christmas but that seems too much ag' but almost certainly off to Stuttgart way in May. I just don't care for kissing Jerman arsch-loch.

For what it's worth, the rent I'm getting on my gaff in London is considerably more than the mortgage would be. I've got about 10% of valuation on an variable interest only mortgage (cash flow issues from 10 years ago) and the rent I'm getting is about 30% more than a full mortgage would be depending the valuation range. However, this is an interest only mortgage. And even if London rents are nuts and I think they are, acquisition costs in London are even nuttier. Sure, if you bought yourself a portfolio of stuff in London in the early 1990s and kept it you'll be making a mint now. I don't know that anyone else is and my information is the London auction scene is far too buoyant for me to feel confident that UK property is a good buy at this time.

A thing I find worthy of comment in all this it that generally speaking most of ze Jerman loving posters around here seem really kind of sad, depressed and miserable where as those who have a more ambivalent attitude to Teutonic rectitude seem less so. I suppose one chooses one's camp and pitches one's tent but it strikes me as worthy of comment.