Time to raise petrol prices

Relax....stop foaming at the mouth. Freestyle is the generic brand name for Standard Life Bank's mortgage range, not some new product. Are you certain about the 10% deposit? I always thought it was 15% for SLB, and that's completely in line with the industry.

Er, no actually. Remember the annual limits for ISA's? It'd take a lifetime to put that much cash into an ISA.

Yes, because as sh1t as this is, they are more affected personally by the former than the latter.

Surely you must have been expecting some volatility from a new IPO?

Finspreads? Aaaagh, they really are sperm of the devil, those guys. The number of rejected trades and requotes is insane, to say nothing of the very suspicious downtime on the system around significant announcements (interest rates, etc). Opened an account with Capital Spreads and never looked back!

Erm, regardless of GMT or BST, it always has, and always will be FIVE hours between east coast America and UK time. Bloomberg says the data is out at 08:30 ET in the US, which means that it will be out here at 13:30......simple maths......

But where will he buy? I once heard it said that if the Earth's resources were truly distributed fairly (ie perfect Marxist state), it could support a population of 144 billion! There is no shortage of resources to build houses (though there may be a water shortage and transport glut in some places), just greed and fear holding the market up. Your son may have to wait a long time, perhaps a decade, if he really wants to time this monstrous market right.

The man has a point - it's virtually dead centre of England & Wales.

And as a result, the sheeple will sh!t themselves when their fixed rate ends and their repayments double! This is going to be the biggest economic bust in history. To look at it another way, the great depression began with a stock market crash, but there was far less cash swilling about then, and much less direct speculation. Could a property crash have the same effect, in conjunction with equally global credit-fueeled booms? They also had a decent manufacturing sector to fall back on back then, which we don't even have now. This crash will be legendary - your grandkids will get bored of hearing of it when you retell it 40 years from now!

What about doing like others have done, and go by night to the houses of parliament. Project the HPC url on the side of the building with a spotlight - that would soon get us noticed!

Relax - they raised the rates for new potential customers, not existing ones!!!

So what you're saying is that property prices will never dip again, ever? Forget for a moment the emotional infuriating consequences of this ridiculous bubble. Why on earth should the last hundred years of economic data be turned on its ear, and suddenly the housing market (and the wider economy) stop moving the way it always has done? Even the mass head-burying-in-the-sand of an entire nation can't stop the market crashing if it really wants to - that's the beauty of markets - pure herd mentality. Edited for spelling.

So, what exactly would happen if US interest rates actually did go as high as 5.5%, as some analysts expect, while sterling sits at 4.5%, while the government, like the emperor's new clothes, stubbornly refuses to even acknowledge that inflation is getting ever more rampant?

I'mn afraid that's nonsense. Cheap greenbelt land that will never, ever get planning permission can be had for as little as £10,000. Land that you can actually build on is very pricey indeed, much like houses currently. If you don't believe me, look at www.rightmove.co.uk and search for land on their site. But yes, the construction is bloody expensive too.

The same monkeys, no doubt who bleat to the Revenue that 'they didn't know' when they're caught for not paying Capital Gains Tax on BTL sale profits. Goons.....

Not sure. A Homebuyer's report is pretty comprehensive, and will cost you £500 at least. You and the lender will both get a copy of the report. You could get a full structural survey done, but all it'll do is identify problems that the HBR probably would've turned up anyway, it won't do anything about them, and you'll have spent a packet on it

You underline the point nicely. With so little being sure about company schemes, all the more reason to get an inexpensive stakeholder. Respectfully, you are talking nonsense. A private pension pot goes to buy an annuity for YOU only, and has no relationship to how many other people are claiming, like in big public sector schemes. The fund buys fixed interest securities when you retire. Your income is very very safe. That's it. There's no question of a private pension co being unable to fund its pension liabilities (Equitable Life aside), because the only person who will be claiming on your pension fund is YOU! (from money you saved personally, for your personal benefit only - simple, see?)

And then (presumably), you screw yourself as you have no personal provision for your old age. Forget property for a pension - it won't happen. Unit trusts are fine, but without ISA's you're going to foot an insane CGT bill when you liquidate, so be careful. And again, pensions may be inflexible, but what other investment can give you up to an instant 40% profit? What were you planning on doing, investing in cash? If you want to get any kind of real return on capital over time, you have to invest in some real assets, which mostly means stocks, period. Unit trusts, ISAs, pensions, investment bonds, the lot, all have some equity component. If you refuse to invest in shares to some extent, a retirement full of cold baked beans and daytime TV beckons.....

Who cares about Brown's stupid means-testing policy if you're going to retire in twenty or even thirty years? This daft bit of policy will be ancient history by then, as will the government that made it. Get saving and look after your own interests! As for putting money into commodities, I was looking at JPMF's Natural resources fund recently - it's done more than 250% in the last 5 years!

There are people making a living off selling krugerrands on ebay....not kidding. Take a look.

Keep your eye on that Iranian Oil Bourse plan. Come March next year, if it opens and genuinely trades in euros, the dollar is fvcked.

Too late for this time round, but you just wait and see. US and UK IR's can't get too close, or unpleasant things start happening to UK plc. Edited for spelling (D'oh!)

I know many on here have made this before, but I am amused at the fact that so many people on here appear to be FSA-authorised to give financial advice! Like the recommendation about buying bonds - what if he did buy a sh!tload of bonds and then interest rates changed dramatically? Where would his comeback be? Nowhere, and whoever told him to do it would be legally culpable of misselling a regulated investment. 5 years in clink plus unlimited fine, hmmmmmm.........

The parents of my best mate's fiance won £4 million on the lottery a few months back ( I know it sounds urban-mythy, but its true). The probabilities are miniscule, but just enough fun to keep me playing - only £1 after all.

Four years! Even if Branson could put up the money to build a refinery (and they are NOT cheap - £2bn a piece according to the BBC article, which even he would have trouble paying), he's already screwed by that point. If price inflation carries on unchecked, oil will be at $250 a barrel plus in four years, and Virgin (along with virtually every other carrier) will be bankrupt. The days of shipbuilding and coal-fired liners crossing the Atlantic might one day return if this charade goes unchecked.