dothemaths

No because he's lost 10 grand.

Apparently he's not a 'real trader' just an 'attention seeker' living off his girlfriend - and he's broke !!! So he really knows what he's talking about BBC financial expert Alessio Rastani: 'I'm an attention seeker not a trader'

He's really having his 5 minutes of fame. He was on Radio 4 early this morning too.

The issue is not sovereign defaults - it is saving the banks that bought the dodgy government bonds. The point is - it is bank shareholders and creditors who should pay and not taxpayers. The conditions for recapitalising the banks should be significant liabilities for their creditors and shareholders. I'm not holding my breath that this will happen. The essence of the financial sectors scam is making out that the problem is financially incompetent states and not financially incontinent banks. Now that is a confidence trick !

Yes, immigrants are always more skilled on average than the typical indigene doing the same job. They must be to overcome disadvantanges like language and lack of knowledge about the local society. Plus they are hungrier

It's tin foil hat time .... :P

Will the IMF save the world? Don't think so

+1

What do you expect. It's self-interest all the way.

They weren't the only ones to predict the situation, many other more mainstream figures e.g. Nouriel Roubini, Robert Schiller also did. They also sound more reasonable on TV. So it is natural that the mainstream opinion will look to them at this point. Peter Schiff in particular has a tendency to rant which puts people off.

hilarious

I very much doubt that. I believe we are only just returning to the sort of income gaps one had in Victorian times. You don't have to go that far back to see much more inequality than we currently have in the UK.

It's been rotten since the beginning of time. I don't see why this time it's going to be different. Plus ca change ...

because you couldn't add

What do you think about HSBC ?

I think you are missing the point. All the banks were in serious difficulty (even the ones which didn't get taken over). If you recall credit froze. Hence many profitable companies in the real economy which regularly use a credit line to keep going in the delay between selling and being paid for goods would have gone bust. It would have been carnage. Pretty much the majority of small businesses in this country would have gone bust leading to massive unemployment probably multiples of the current number. Most sensible people agree that governments had to step in - but they could have saved the 'real' economy and still made the bank shareholders and creditors take most of the downside - they didn't and now we (citizens) have been saddled with the bill (sovereign debt). This was the biggest shakedown in human history ....

Interesting point, at the moment the banks, for a number of reasons are showing forbearance - this will rapidly change when there is a reasonably prolonged period of falls. Then there will be a new flood of properties onto the market.

What is nice is the fact that we are back to the transaction levels we saw in the middle of the crisis when everyone was in panic. This tells you how difficult things are in the current market. The small number of cash rich / brain poor BOMAD FTB's has pretty much dried up. Reality has started to sink in.

Providing a sustainable education and health system is seen by many as one of the functions of the modern state. I don't think that is too difficult to do if you face the truth about what your money provides but most people aren't willing to do that. What you are saying boils down to the fact that people want something for nothing - twas ever thus for human kind. Then we are also behaving in exactly the same manner with regards to the next generation as the boomers behaved to their offspring.

Primary schools and secondary schools are still free at the point of use, hence your comment only makes sense if you meant University which no longer is. I assumed you where an intelligent chap and so assumed that is what you meant. The overwhelming majority (including me) are still very happy paying taxes to have free mandatory education up to 18. We are just not just willing to pay for Tarquin to have 4 years of media studies to 'discover himself'.

Not sure I buy that - you would have to look at the deficits in the years that they were at University (and only small percentage of them went to University in any case so the contribution to the deficits were probably small). I think you'd have to find bits of government funding that were accessible to a wider part of the population for that.

love it ....

That is what they must do if they can - it's the only way they'll build up a decent deposit ...

Coming soon to a Local Authority near you .... Have kids? Better start saving ....

So what about Fiat, Renault, VW, GM - all here today as Independent national companies in their respective countries because of government subsidies