Allez_L'OM

£20 says you're wrong. Up for it ?

Sorry, rural or in town is what I meant ..

Rural or local please ? The INSEE are issuing press releases saying enquiries at estate agents are thru the roof is why I ask ..

@OP You are right to be puzzled, since it is not only the political class which talks past the subject but also their familiars in the media.

ATEP is a mansion tax and the Tories have brought that in, so clearly Osborne has had the Treasury working on property taxes for some time. Seems like the easiest way to fill the hole in the public finances would be via a property tax or three, so the hope that the 'conservatives' would refrain from taxing property as the UK sinks further into the swamp is looking less like denial and more like delusion.

It's fairly easy to see where he (or rather Crosby) is coming from. After having encouraged people to splurge on a renewed housing boom (that looks to have petered out already) the people who have recently bought (native and foreign) need their hands holding to make sure they don't all sell up before the a) election and the cgt on foreigners uk property comes into effect. Many tories remember that Bojo was elected in a reaction to the plunging forecasts for london house prices in early 2008 and don't want Miliband to benefit from 'middle-class discontent'.

It would seem as if Axelrod has found his feet and is starting to move the pieces around the board. He knows Labour are not going to romp home in the charisma dept. He also knows there is a good chance of the economy improving as the election draws nearer. He is therefore left with punching below the gut (personal smears / attacks / gimmicks) or abandoning the 'political' (i.e. ideological) high gound to shamelessly buy votes. Clearly he has chosen to start with the latter since coffin-dodgers all over the country will applaud this measure and it will draw back some of the reactionaries from UKIP, who have now blown it by publicising their aim of cutting the top rate of tax. Say what you like about the tactics, Axelrod's clearly very good at his job

These will be larger than the space allocated in hostels to those new to the benefits system (single mothers, etc.), and has better facilities than the one-room (with bathroom - down the hall / on the ground floor / outside )that is the limit of what is available through the benefits system since the recent reforms.

Sooner or later, someone in politics will wake up to this issue and say that there shouldn't be benefits of any description for those that can afford to live in London, if only because the rest of the country is subsidising them.

I think the average price will go down (as in the top end, i.e.Knightsbridge / Mayfair, will have fewer new massive deals due to recent global stability, so therefore fewer high numbers dragging up the average), but the median price will go up very slightly as HtB kicks in. An interest rate change would negate the above though, obv.

"The school board in Anchorage, Alaska, for example, is counting on inflation to keep a lid on teachers’ wages. Retailers including Costco and Walmart are hoping for higher inflation to increase profits." Everyone wants to put their prices up, but nobody wants to pay higher wages. How is inflation going to be stoked without giving people more money ? Oh yeah, easy credit.

It is quite likely that the previous upward trend in property prices may well have come about because of demographics (children of baby boomers (Gen.X) entering relationships, having children and thereby buying property (i.e. a secure roof over their heads relative to renting)) en masse, and likely will be responsible for a marked downtrend as well (fewer number of children per couple (on average) leading to a lower demand for houses with 4 or more bedrooms combined with the general winding down of Gen.X fertility ). Unfortunately these demographics (as well as elevated prices) may also impact on transaction numbers since increased cost and fewer children per couple also means fewer people changing property as often as previously. Help to buy should bring transaction numbers up somewhat as those outside the south-east are likely to be able to get out of negative equity and anyone (who has held on to an asset with negative equity for any noticeable period of time) will be able to understand the desire to get shot of said asset as soon as it 'goes green'. Interesting times, but I see anywhere that isn't within cycling distance of a London underground station (due to the wages available ) declining in value for at least 5 years.

Stop paying rent for a start.

The economic collapses you are referring to generally didn't result in a flocking to gold as a currency, but dollars or the currency of a neighbouring country that still had some semblance of normality. The average human in our modern-day hyper-connected world only becomes aware of the price of precious metals when they are buying jewellery and whilst it will always have some residual 'emotional attachment' value the thinking behind the ramping of this asset class is generally that of those that have experienced war (and the need to smuggle large amounts of wealth out of a country in easily portable form). If the dollar implodes (and their monetary policy does seem somewhat self-destructive when looked at thru a historians' eyes), the euro or the yuan will take over, not gold or silver.

Growth, in my humble opinion, comes from either productivity increases or innovation. Govt. spending should not be counted in these equations (GDP, etc.) and the real inflation rate needs to be discounted (not the fantasy one based on the prices of health insurance, ipads and Bentleys).

People are still in risk-off mode I think, with property still being seen as hedge against inflation and school catchment areas seem to be a middle-class nightmare as it might well be cheaper in the long-run to supplement a comprehensive education with tutoring, although the 'who you know' benefit doesn't get included with that option. Also, education is a business nowadays and selling it is easy, as I recently pointed out to the nigerian security guard doing a £10k law MBA on top of his degree and masters.

A lot of the demand has been among the boomer section of society for whom it represented a historical asset class, but nowadays there are so many alternatives in what people would consider to be 'money', and which don't have commissions of 10%ish when converting it to or from cash. If the s*it hit the fan, gold would be the least of our worries and those holding cold hard cash / nappies / chickens and anything that had to be imported or couldn't be stolen easily, would be the (short term) winners.

Sure, it is high and given the pain felt by ordinary people it seems only to be reflective of another world, but that's exactly what it is, another world. The owners of equities are generally among the richest 10-20% of any society and reflects their hopes / view of the future, but who's to say that section of society has the best vantage point from which to gauge the future ? The bottom 60% has stagnant or declining wages so it's not hard to understand their view that we're going to hell in a handbasket given the rampant inflation in anything that one doesn't need credit to buy. In my opinion the market will struggle to march upwards from previous highs and will probably hover 2-10% from them until real lasting signs of 'growth' based on expanding company profits instead of expanding govt. spending. If it goes crazily high from here, then you'll know it is in a bubble. Please do not take this as financial advice though, it is just my 2p worth.

Turner really said that? Time to get the f*ck out of sterling or what ?

Brilliant ! If, on the other hand, you're serious then my response would be something along the lines of 'the cognitive dissonance is strong in this one'. What part of an economy that relies on ZIRP and QE just to give us 0.6% annual growth (although admittedly with a slightly trimmed gov. spend) is bullish ? The UK stock market follows it's american brethren, much like our politicians, because that is what is required of them. That said, if everyone's buying then everything is fine until it isn't but hey, it's your money so make yourself happy.

Hate to say it, but while the investment may have some value in the case of societal / financial breakdown, it doesn't have any utility. Shoot me for coming down on the side of bricks and mortar, but perhaps an underground bunker or solar panels may be a better investment ?

Most people have less than £1000 in savings so it only really matters where the 1% have their money stashed (wealthy russians and other tax avoiders - cyprus has the lowest corporation tax in the EU - in this instance). Storm in a teacup provoked by typical media over-reaction to a situation that has been in negotiation for over six months.

My guess would be that this is the way we are going until a game-changing technology advance comes along - wages going down (in real terms) and house prices declining (in real terms as well), but not as fast as wages. Something to do with global wage arbitrage and extra people arriving to do more hours for the same, or less, money as a Brit. Rents will probably have to decline in line with wages as well or the service sector is going to be in a bad way

Don't forget that VAT (19.6% .. or has it gone up again ?) is charged on food in France, unlike the UK.

Money is money. Joining a currency union is all about timing and the rate one joins at. As the country with the most 'flexible' labour laws the UK could take a lot of jobs (albeit less secure jobs) from other EZ countries, although not from Romania and other countries where the minimum wage is half, or less, that of the UK.