Sinking Feeling

2005 or 2006? Yeah it's always funny what slips out by accident. EAs must be thinking, 'the markets actually been going down for the last few months, but if we average it out over the year it actually was up on 2005- note to self don't mention the slumps- oh bugger I just did. Oh well, maybe nobody noticed in which case tell them that everybody is mad keen on buying and if they don't want to buy there are another 79 people willing to take their place and then they'll miss out - suckers!!'

There's a video about ownership of BoE and Fed reseve over at iTulip in topl left hand corner.

Looks like they will have to come up with a new measure of inflation- one that removes all those items that are going up in price.

I think this might be the answer. Remember those extra 20,000 troops being sent to Iraq- what do you think they are for? http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2010086,00.html

The main thing that will stop the government is its total inability to manage even the simplist of IT projects. As far as I'm aware they have still not managed to set up a simple database of all gun owners in the UK- something they set out to do about 9 years ago. They have also wasted hundreds of millions of pounds on a sytem for the NHS and a logistics system for the MOD, neither of which has come to fruition. Getting such a system up and running for 20 million cars is no easy task.

It depends, if everything is booming then anyone talking about a crash will largely be ignored. If confidence begins to drop then mention negative words can accelerate any downturn. I'm not sure really whether crash is the right word as markets often tend to deflate rather than crash. Like for example the stock market in 2000 which deflated from 6700 to 3300 (FTSE 100) over a 3 year period. Likewise the housing market will simply deflate over a period of time also, although I wish it would crash and the sooner the better. Getting back to your original point, in the early 90s the use of the word "recession" was thought in part to be responsible for its depth and so the media don't like using it. I declare February national "House Price Crash" and "Recession" month. Add them into every conversation you can!

I think PFI was actually an idea of the last government that New Labour liked.

I'm not surprised Hammond is scared of a crash!

Maybe they could learn a thing or two from Calsberg and charge apremium for the product!

It may well be true- a similar advert started playing on the radio a couple of weeks ago in Manchester, although it doesn't mention a crash it mentions how hard people might be finding it to cover their bills etc. Clearly this lad doesn't actually see a crash coming in the next 3 years. I hope he loses everything and has to sell back at a market value that is lower than he paid!

I would have thought that raising interest rates fractionally might actually be a good thing as it would bring more money into Japan. It wouldn't affect most home owners- I remember reading a few years ago, that Japan had started lending multiple of 5x and 6x salary in the late 90s as they believed it was sutainable- the market crashed and lending practices tightened- sound familiar?

And endless repeats of Band of Gold!

Well that's overseas. it could never happen here because that's just one huge, completely different market that's not connected in any way!

I remember in the late 80s early 90s the balance of trade deficit was a figure that was reported on frequently in the nightly news, now you hardly hear about it at all.

If you keep saying it at some point you may be right- then you can say to everyone else "see I told you it was coming, you mug!"

That's a woman's opinion. Women as a rule don't take as many risks as men. For a bloke, add 3 or 4 years!

Yes, but that's a cost paid by the tax payer now. What I'm saying is that with nuclear power you have much higher costs that that to set up, to run and to close down. The £2.9 Billion pounds is the cost for the 300 years after it has closed down and then on top of that cost you have the costs of monitoring the wastes. It's not about the cost that we will pay in 2007-2012 or whatever the schedule is, its about the costs to our grandchildren, great -granchildren and onwards in perpetuity. So I stand by what I said- not sustainable.

Nuclear power is in no way a sustainable or cheap form of power production The cost isn't just the cost of the uranium, but the external costs of contamination in the local areas and the ongoing cost of decomission and monitoring waste. The schedule for decomissioning the Dounreay site runs up to 2336, when it is hoped that it can then be classed as a brownfield site. The cost- some £2.9 Billion and then there's the waste on top of that. And that's just one nuclear power station.....

When the world and dog owes you money there's a decent amount of money to be made by simply moving them even a quarter of a percent. Or they may do that due to inflationary pressures.

All it will take to f*** the world economy is for the Bank of Japan to aggressively raise interest rates and it'll be the 1930s all over again!

I don't honestly see how nuclear power can be anything but an extemely expensive and potentially hazardous way of generating energy. By the time you calculate the cost of building and decommissioning and cleaning up an area you're already taking 100s of Billions of pounds. Then you have wast that remains dangerous for a million years- the only safe way to store the waste is to keep it above ground and constantly monitor it. Now I have to say that I don't know the exact figures for monitoring waste over a million years, but I think it could work out pretty costly. Still, it's probably cheaper than some PFI hospitables!

Am I right in saying the British Gas price cut is delayed for a couple of months (until it's warmer and people don't need so much). I wouldn't be surprised if it rises again in the autumn.

Mps have taken their fair share of the housing stock - just look at Tony!

They're in shock when the rate rises, they're in shock when the rate doesn't rise- and these are the people that manage your money!

When the Land Registry shows a quarter loss, thats when the party's over dude!