nice tuna sandwich

We just had a cracking sunny hot weekend, to which this screwed up thread is the perfect antidote. In all probability none of this sh!t will happen, best not to spend your lives thinking about it. What a waste. Yet it sums up the crappy HPC vibe. I'm falling out of love, may come back here from time to time in the future, or I may not in which case: adieu guys, please think about the positives in life too.

Has to be a fail.

can't help thinking the best strategy is to buy (modestly and advantageously), live in, and hold anyone disagree?

We kill cows, we put a bolt in their head because we can make them into a hamburger and eat them. And yet, someone might have more affection for a cow than for a fellow human (think Daily Mail reader v Tottenham rioter). Give them rioterburger and you can keep your human rights.

Just had a quick look at the prospectus http://www.nationalgrid.com/NR/rdonlyres/C7555550-52CD-4CDD-9833-7023554AEE80/49009/10199_1_NG_retailbond_brochure_v6_Final_Singles.pdf and I think the telegraph article may be misleading. Way I read it, coupon (initial rate of interest) appears to be simply 1.25%, NOT RPI+1.25% . On an investment of £2000 that is £12.80 every 6 months. The coupon rate will rise with inflation. In the example given, if RPI was 5% then on an investment of £2000 the 6 monthly interest payment would rise from £12.80 to £13.20 next year etc etc. Then in October 2021, assuming NG does not default, you get back a minimum of the original £2000 plus an adjustment for inflation. Maybe you can add these things together and come up with an overall interest rate of RPI+1.25% over the life of the bond but that doesn't sound hugely attractive to me edit: 2021 not 2011

Yes it can: if the average house gets better; or if the intrinsic value of a unit of housing rises because population growth and hence demand outstrips supply. The last 100 years have proved this, surely

I'm wondering is 100% the ceiling - or could the bond drop to 25% of par for a yield of 300%? Has this ever happened?

thanks

Does this mean that the price of the bonds has dropped so low that the yield in one year, would be 98%? If so, presumably this is because investors think it is extremely unlikely they will ever get paid or get any of their capital back? Sorry to sound thick, just trying to understand

Chris, I would like to understand this but i don't understand exactly what it means. Could you please explain in simple terms what this means?

re: One in three households has never worked in Liverpool That's nothing: Here in the South West, more like nine in ten households has never worked in Liverpool

I think this guy has it right in the third paragraph. He can and should borrow more to buy (smartly this time) another place, rent out the original place, and sell in a few years when the market more favourable. Why would you sell any hard asset at a loss if you didn't need to?

I'd spend it all on shrubs of blackthorn, cherry, hawthorne and hazel. I'd plant them in a line, and that would be my hedge against inflation.

Hamish: competition, hurdle and companies. Just for your info, not trying to be smart or anything, but maybe it would look bad if you made those slips at work. Good luck with the growing family.

mightytharg, I think you have come across very well in this interesting thread However here is the point in "The Green Book" where I stopped reading: THE LAW OF SOCIETY Law represents the other problem, parallel to that of the instrument of government, which has not been resolved. Although it was dealt with in different periods of history, the problem still persists today. For a committee or an assembly to be empowered to draft the law of society is both invalid and undemocratic. It is also invalid and undemocratic for the law of society to be abrogated or amended by individual, a committee, or an assembly. What then is the law of society? Who drafts it and what is its relevance to democracy? The natural law of any society is grounded in either tradition (custom) or religion. Any other attempt to draft law outside these two sources is invalid and illogical. Constitutions cannot be considered the law of society. A constitution is fundamentally a (man-made) positive law, and lacks the natural source from which it must derive its justification. If in the UK we followed that path, we might still be stoning adulterers or burning witches. Very interesting point to debate though about the ownership of multiple houses being an immoral, in that it is a way of controlling others, limiting their freedom. My counterargument would be that a person with capital can acquire two houses, and offer for one rent- allowing a person who has not yet accumulated capital to share in good housing. Which in principle is good.

Sure, I would if I held any. Shorting takes more cojones though - what was your obvious signal to short silver, and could you apply this to gold?

Painful is when you short at $1400 and it goes up to $1600. So you short some more and it goes up to $1700. So you short some more and it goes up to $1900. While the concept is obvious, the entry point isn't... unless you can educate us? edit: short not buy

Does anyone have a sensible strategy for shorting gold? Did OK shorting cotton earlier this year when it reached a real multiyear high and then some. Difference of course with cotton more fields get planted when price is high so a correction is likely the following season. Gold, not sure. But it smells overpriced to me

Skipton BS now doing BTL mortgages fixed 3yrs at 3.6%, 70% LTV Aviva preference shares yielding 7%+ If I was brave/ had nothing to lose/ had no social conscience- I'd arbitrage! Unfortunately I am not very brave, and have quite a bit to lose.

Extreme example: The maximum issue of NS&I bonds is £15k. £30k for a couple. They are currently paying 6% as in the example of the poster above. You can buy a house in South Wales for £50k. If you and your partner had £50k, you could use £20k + a 60% mortgage to buy that house in wales &you could invest the other £30k in NS&I bonds. In a year you could pay only £600 mortgage interest but earn £2000 return on NS&I investment tax free. You would be paid £1400 to own the house. That would cover your council tax, buildings and contents insurance & you would live rent free for a year. Edit = a return of 7p on every pound of capital employed PLUS you'd get somewhere to live free. This seems weird

I'd like to see you have a go, Milton. You and your crew. For I am armed with one of these: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=peashooter&hl=en&client=safari&sa=X&rls=en&biw=1398&bih=960&tbm=isch&prmd=ivns&tbnid=_GEysfKdRed4qM:&imgrefurl=http://www.lastnightoffreedom.co.uk/stag-night-shop/novelties-%2526-accessories/pea-shooter-with-pellets/&docid=u9IWmHFLC-PW4M&w=260&h=195&ei=4uROTqixE5DR4QTCnNitBw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=573&vpy=295&dur=30&hovh=156&hovw=208&tx=89&ty=77&page=1&tbnh=156&tbnw=208&start=0&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:0 Now who's the daddy, eh?

Wasn't paying down debt what scuppered Japanese recovery for 20 years? Maybe discouraging this is growth policy??

I'm don't undertstand how it will induce inflation. But am very grateful that for me, for the first time, it makes more sense to build savings than to pay down debt. How strange this feels.

By helicoptering, do you mean rescuing us over-indebted homeowners? Maybe, I think.

Mortgage 2.69% 2 yr fix Cash ISA 3.09% guaranteed for first year