Si1

tories aren't great, but not as hair raisingly stupid and passive-aggresively self-interested as Labour - they're overtly self interested instead, and the better ones are enlightened with it, which is the best you're gonna get from human beings to paraphrase your wishful and foolish view - Labour (Kinnock Brown Scargil Prentice etc) were not in power, oh no sireee, Tory Blair was in power and he's a tory so it's the tories mess and Gordon Brown was mightily unlucky to lose power and saved us all, in fact his Mini Me Ed will do just that in 2015 by nationalising everything

had a similar epiphany myself 10 years ago! normal part of growing up...

they will keep blaming the tory bankers forever on this one, same way they blamed the tory accountants who miscounted the nation's debt (apparently) in the late 1970s even when labour are in power, it's always the tories' fault

incorrect old boy, the capacity for a company's (and implicitly an economy too) returns is the underlying capacity for long term sustainable dividend growth - this is where growth and value investing are joined at the hip, and where naive value investors make a mistake, the underlying management is immensely important, check any serious professional value investing blog, starting with Warren Buffett's

I'm not that far from you - this depends heavily on whether the republicans can put up an effective (reagan-esque/business minded) candidate (and win) at next US GE and not a Palin/Bush pork-barrel socialist with a twinbore that could turn things around, but otherwise, like Japan, without serious fiscal reform, the US seems relatively more f*cked than many other western nations

but the domestic company management and political structures are cronyists

the public are already backstopped by taxpayers anyway

tyhis is not introducing no consequences borrowing - it is simply transferring the consequences away from private people TO banks

yep introduces US jinglemail? forces more responsibility onto mortgage lenders, increases liquidity, lowers long term house prices question - does this retrospectively affect existing mortgages, or will they be subject to existing rules on this instead?

so a frugal renter in the same scenario saves roughly 50+20+50+10+25+12+10 = £177 per month

there are only 5 big banks left, after mergers etc Barclays, HSBC - I'd a thought they were well capitalised Lloyds-HBOS, RBS - I get a sick feeling every time HBOS come out with a bullish property foprecast these last 6 months, what are they playing at? then the big building societies - Nationwide, and the Yorkshire, the latter which is expanding at a high rate, buying up flailing com[petitors and usiong the account balances to push hard (apparently) into BTL lending So i make Lloyds-HBOS and YBS prime contenders for stupid prize of the year - you'd have thought they all would have learned after B&B went down...

numiddle class is in debt to its eyeballs, supps cheap Aussie chardonnay, says it's corked if there's a bit of cork in it, cooks sweet and sour chicken in a non-stick wok, and thinks they can predict the lottery numbers

quite possibly i think it is a more gradual phenomenon than that infers, so partly agree with your sarcasm

the 2nd segment is also the smallest owing to low numbers of FTBs over past decade divide and rule - you wish

2-3 years, national savings index linked bonds, if you mean that for all of the sum, put it all in there

ooh that's satisfying. cheers!

the under 40s ARE a massive electoral vested interest

ther indistrial revolution saw the development of metropolises and population distributions that just weren't there before - like across the whole of Northern England which was largely a desolate hilly mire until they built Leeds Manchester Sheffield etc on it by the same account, there is still plenty of empty space left to expand into - but i agree our population growth is likely to peter out over coming centuries

he he

the story achieves 2 things: (1) it achieves moral weight behind the need to build housing mainly in the south, says development is Good (2) it placates nimby's fears that their house price will fall in value simply media manipulation by the govt

excellent and very true!

baked beans and toast **together**

interest rate risk, plus have you considered maintenance costs? if it is very complicated then this should be a warning sign

LMAO Leeds seems similar in this respect to Manc

not all UK banks are among the main mortgage lenders