unraveller

The Catcher in the Rye - by J.D. Salinger.

I thought that was a great explanation. Hell I may even buy another domain name for my webspace and with your permission (And slight rewording), put it on the web for all to see. With links to HPC of course. Domain name suggestions please... www.notamiracleeconomy.co.uk www.ukpropertyscam.co.uk :angry: www.mewdanger.co.uk My favorite, www.anotherfinemess.co.uk has been taken (The others are available tho) edit: typo

You lot should come to sunny Wales (or not so sunny these days). I just walk out the door and literally in 10 mins I'm up the mountain and away from all the busy-ness of the town, surrounded by forests, fields and sheep. Ahhh bliss . Hey, Bugged Bunny, I love your signature... TMBG fan here too ... Sings "Because everyone's your friend, in New York city, Everyone is beautiful, when your young and pretty..."

Get a punchbag mate. I did. It gets all your anger out. Just pretend its GB

I was talking to a local estate agent a year ago, and he spent thousands on the training necessary to do the 'home condition report' part of HIPS. He's not very amused, because thats the part that has been left out. There is still the searches etc, left in the current HIPS, which is a good thing for buyers and sellers alike because it reduces delays and the buyer can get on with financing etc. I don't see how HIPS could cause a HPC however. Sales may drop, and prices may drop, but will this be enough to cause a change in sentiment? People don't want to believe that their MEWed cash machine is losing value. It goes against everything they are being told about houses on the property porn shows. They will feel duped and in denial. Since it was the media that helped the sheeple become 'property experts' and pump the bubble, I believe the media will be responsible for a HPC. Bearish news in easily digestible sheeple soundbites. I fear that this will come very slowly because of all the back handers and VI the media get. edit: And no apologies for the patronising word sheeple either

Its the debtbuster loans company that gets me. :angry: (And they nicked Tesco's colour scheme) debtbusterloans.com Since when is a loan not a debt? I've said this before, but I'm sure that people think that the word 'debt', only applies to borrowed money when its got out of control and they can't pay it back. Hence, if you can afford the monthly payments its not debt, merely a loan. Bush said recently that america is addicted to oil. Well I think we are addicted to credit. It only took a generation to go from shrewdness to I-want-it-now greed. I wonder if the relaxation of the financial services in the 80's is to blame? Reminds me of the 80's yuppie culture we had back in my speccy days. It will be interesting to read about these times in about 30 years, to see what the history books make of all this. I'm looking forward to that .

I like Hammond, he seems like a tidy bloke with a balanced common-sense viewpoint. In fact, I think all of Top Gear is great. The right kind of 'silly bloke humour' and a love of all things fast. And the good thing is that its not all Halfords boy racer fodder, more of a celebration of engineering excellence, like the Bugatti Veyron for example.

Taking up your point on the climate... Maybe we are into property big time because we live indoors and there doesn't seem to be much available land to build on. In other warmer countries where outdoor living and land is available, they don't seem to be so property obsessed. Then again, it could be because people are so easily influenced by the media, so now its fashionable to talk about property and espouse the virtues of BTL.

I like your style man, that kind of lifestyle really appeals to me too. I'm curious to know what land you have the caravan on. Is it yours or a caravan park? Does the council bother you at all? I am asking because one of my plans is to buy a piece of land and live in a caravan on it, whilst self bulding a straw bale house on the site. I thought that if I plonked a caravan on a piece of land the locals would be calling me 'pikey' and the council would start getting upset!

I know what you mean fella. Although I do get concerned by the amount of time I spend here... I have to restrain myself! The thing is, watching and understanding the series and events that are unfolding, is very addictive. Its does feel like superior knowledge but anyone can come here and learn it really. The trouble is, you'll most likely only find this information if you specifically look for it. Thats the trouble with websites. Unless you have your site name in the peoples concious, or you advertise like hell, or have high search engine listings, you will never be found. Unlike a newspaper, people don't usually come across website articles unless its linked, its not like browsing a newspaper. I gave up trying to educate people about things a while ago... pointless. (edit: Typos)

I've never been too keen on Dell stuff. There's a reason why they are cheap, and its usually crappy motherboard bridge chips or slow hard drives. A PC is only as fast as its slowest link. I build my own PC's, and I look at reviews and find the best value for money parts and assemble it all together. OMG! I just realised, I've gone into geek mode! Aarrrgghhh!

A friend of mine has 'done well' if you can call it that. He started with a mortgage of £34000, and now has a mortgage of £75000. He MEW'ed the equity out and spent it on a new kitchen (Which now looks crap), and two cars both of which the engines blew up, plus loads of other 'essential' crap. He is not richer, he is in more debt. All this equity is only good if you are selling a second home and creaming it off (minus CGT of course), selling to rent or downsizing. There is no gain if you use your HPI inflated house to buy another because thats inflated too. Another friend bought a house in 2000, saw the value go up, then moved to a nicer house thinking she had been a clever property investor, when in fact the house she moved to was twice as expensive than its 2000 price. The masses of sheeple really don't have a clue about the most basic of economics, and to be honest, a few years ago, neither did I. Amazing what power a little bit of knowledge can give you eh? God bless HPC.co.uk, and all who post in her.

Some snippets from todays working lunch... A quarter of people in property are using it as their entire pension, with no other investments or pension schemes! Since 1960 the birth rate has dropped, so when the baby boomers of the 1960's retire there will be less young people to buy so property prices should go down. The people in the best position are the over 45's, child free, and people with properties in a good location. Doh! And apparently downsizing to release the equity from your house when you retire will only make up 30% of your required pension. All interesting stuff. What they didn't mention is the possibility of a full scale crash, but nobody wants to say that do they.

I stuck £15 on .25%+ on betfair, such is my conviction! Seriously, my reasoning is the Jan rate rise, just after xmas when everyone is spent out, sounds like they simply had to raise them even though they really didn't want to. Their hand was forced. Everyone was expecting a rise early this year because of CPI at 2.9%, and the Jan rise was a knee jerk reaction to that. The reason that I think there will be another rise in Feb is because the economy is in such a state, with artificially low IR's and massive debt problems, the BOE has to start clamping down hard. The question is, will Flash Gordon intervene and keep the property house of cards up a little longer, just enough to get him into office.

Ditto mate. And I like the Ray Mears vibe. I shall be building a steam engine, a 1 Million Volt tesla coil and a iron smelting furnace in my shed when I retire. Just three of the many things I have to do before I die!

Funny, I always thought that landlords rent out houses for the rental income. Seems not to be the case these days. You can see why we have had such a bubble this time, because the general thinking is, to buy and rent a property for the capital growth. This draws in more investors, inflates the bubble further etc. Of couse we all know that the last investors in will be the ones who will get burnt. Greater fool theory in action. Well at least 8% bought for long term. I have been saying for a while now, amongst friends, that a lot of these newbie BTLers are not really landlords at all, just people who follow the property porn and think that makes them an expert. Also with half of LL being 20 at the last crash, no wonder they see it as a low risk investment, they were still picking their uni degrees at that time. I think these new investors are going to learn some old economic lessons. I am truly amazed how the media have jumped on the bandwagon this time around. A decade ago, I spotted the opportunities in the property market. I thought about buying tired old properties for cash and renovating them then renting them out. I took a different path eventually, but at least the idea was there and I did do a few reno's. Then, lo and behold, the BBC nicks my idea and makes loads of TV programmes about it! I think thats when it all went wrong, because you can't have everyones fingers in the pie. We can't all become LL's and still make a profit, the market won't allow too many players. The streets of Cardiff are lined with 'For rent' signs due to the over milked BTL market. I'm out of the reno game until things realign. There is still money to be made in renovations, but I don't like selling the finished property at barely affordable prices, because that makes for a very slow sale. And you have to sell at top dollar (You would anyway of course), because the price of tired old properties has shot up too, therfore increasing the initial cost.

Electronics engineer here The 20 year old engineering apprentances of the 1960's will be retiring around now. I wonder what they think of the changes that have occurred in the last 40 years. We used to be world leaders in manufacturing. I think britains own citizens killed off british manufacturing by not buying our own goods. Stands to reason doesn't it? I don't really understand the economics of it, but take a look at these two scenarios... A. UK manufacturing is strong, so even though we are paying more for our goods than the chinese cheaper price, at least it is keeping british manufacturing alive and keeping us in skilled jobs. Skilled fulfulling jobs keeps us happy right? B. UK manufacturing is weak, so even though we have lost lots of manufacturing jobs, we can get our goods cheaper from china, so we don't have to have skilled jobs to earn the money to pay for the goods. (Low skilled = low pay) Since scenario B seems to be the current situation, it appears we are dumbing down our workforce with lower wages which buys these low cost goods, instead of skilled higher paid workers buying more expensive british goods. Am I talking sense here? It is 1:30am

Living in the welsh valleys I can confirm firsthand, that it is indeed the case. Only yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine and his girlfriend who have recently had a baby. They were telling me that they don't like where they are renting but cannot afford a house. The average wage locally around here is, £15,000, (after tax) and the cheapest ready-to-move-in valleys terraced house is around £85,000. So thats 5.5 times for starters, and we are talking about ex coal board miners houses here that were selling for about £23,000 a decade ago. There was a lot of renovation around here in recent years as the last affordable properties were gobbled up by developers and BTLers. There is about 3 houses in the valley that I know, that still need lots of work. All the rest have been renovated and sold. Its true about the labour thing. I don't think that people will ever forgive the tories for the closing the mines. When they closed, the community changed dramatically. Imagine being able to walk to work, drink beer with all the people you work with, hold carnivals every year in celebration of the community and have duck races. (racing plastic ducks down the river). Thats long gone. I don't see much hope for the liberals either. People around here will always vote labour. I can't see that changing at all.

To generalise all English people as annoying loudmouths is a bit wrong, and I say that as a Welshman. I do sense that the Welsh, Irish and Scots teld to stick together though, like its a celtic thing. Incidently, my mate recently wanted me to go to Prague with him, because of the drugs, women and beer. Not my kind of thing to be honest, and I'd much rather go there for the art, people and culture. Maybe its all this FHM and lads mags attitude to holidays and bloke-ism? Does anyone think that the fact that we label ourselves as Welsh, English, Indian etc is the very problem itself? Its like people branding, using your place or birth as a label. People have country and culture traits for sure, but you can't get all assuming and dogmatic about it. FWIW, indian woman are really hot though!

My 2 cents... I don't ever intend to give up working. I loves it! But I only love it because I am self employed and I am in control of my own destiny. When I have been employed in the past I always hated it, hated being slapped on the wrist for being late, having to lie to customers to cover the f**kups that the company did. I especially hated having a boss. Leaving my job was an easy choice, because I couldn't stand the world of employment one second longer. You know... I think that there are two kinds of people you meet in life, followers and leaders. Most people are followers and blindly do what others and society tells them is right, without really questioning it. Uni, job, marriage, kids, mortgage, HP car, HP sofa.. etc. Conversely, there are very few leaders, people who can have a positive influence and be a role model for other people, and achieve great things. I think its good to have role models. Take old Fred Dibnah. Do you think he would have given up his 'job' if he won the lottery? Of course not! He would still be down that shed of his meddling with steam engines and furnaces. And thats exactly what I intend to do. Make good money from work that I really enjoy, because when your work is your hobby, is it really work? I don't think so. All under the umbrella of self-employment of course. As for hedonism, I don't think it could ever work, because your natural evolutionary self is to spend your life hunting every day with bit of hut building and games throw in. That's the caveman instinct we have in all of us. It seems natural to spend your life working everyday. How bored would you be if you didn't have to do anything and was pampered everyday. Eventually you would become lethargic and unhealthy. Just like some mates I know who don't work and have let themselves and their ambitions go. Very sad. Work is good. Unfortunately most people will spend their lives doing work thats unfulfilling, boring, repetitive, or even dangerous. Its a shame. But what can you do to escape the rat race? Maybe learn about business. Save up some capital. Think of a good business idea. Take a risk. Work hard at it. But as I said at the beginning, most people won't do this, because most people are followers and not leaders. Such is life. But it doesn't have to be this way.

You said it. I bought two strawbale housebuilding books on amazon after seeing this house. Simply stunning, like a Hobbit house.

Its great to see, there's still people left in this world with common sense. I salute you! Head testing! Brilliant! One of the reasons I come to this site, is not because its a HPC cult or anything, its because we all seem to be well-rounded, coherent thinking individuals. Its good to come here when you have spent time (And argued) the the sheeple and their financially unsound/nieve arguments. I don't really care if there will be a crash or not, I'd prefer to educate myself and be ready for any scenario than wait in hope for a HPC or whatever. Take care all.

Exactly, people like the fact that you can pull into a petrol station and just 'fill her up'. They won't tolerate an hour wait to recharge the batteries. With regard to transmitting the power via the road, do you mean some kind of half-transformer winding in the road, with the other 'half' underneath the car? I don't know how road speed would affect the magnetic field transfer, but its a good idea. Why capacitors though? I would have thought that the amount of energy you would have to pass to the vehicle in one second to enable you to drive 30km would be enormous! The roads would be melting with the magnetic energy and pigeons flying overhead would be serverly geographically challenged! Other than that, Mr Fusion, wahay!! Mr Fusion

I thought of this idea years ago! :angry: The concept of using motors as generators is called regenerative braking. Its a well used system in industry, where you brake the motion of a machine by loading the driving motor with an electrical load across its windings. In the case of a car, when you press the brakes the motors kick in and regen, slowing down the car and recharging the batteries. Apply more pressure and the motors and friction brakes both come into action. Why friction brakes? Well you still would like to have real brakes in case the motor drive failed, and you freewheel into oblivion! A lot of the energy you would use to get up a big hill for instance, would be returned to the batteries when you go down it, instead of turning into brake dust. IMO the problem with electric cars lies in the batteries. What we need is cheap, lightweight batteries, with a huge storage capacity, something like Li-ion batts but lighter. If you want to see the potential of Li-ion batteries, check out this video of an X1 electric car. Its an Ariel Atom, which has had the Honda civic Type-R engine replaced with an electric motor, drive, and Li-ion battery pack. It was costly, but look at the potential if the batteries were cheaper and lighter, (Mass production etc). I forgot to add... The batteries should be quick to recharge and small in size too.