London House Prices Fall, Prompting Economic Slow

[ShirtyTheSlightlyAggresiveBear]

Bloomberg - London House Prices Fall, Prompting Economic Slowdown

he tested the rental market and was surprised to find potential tenants trying to bargain down the price.

I had an offer on rent that wouldn't even cover the mortgage,'' he says. ``I have never even heard of offers on rent before.''

Read the full story to find out what this guy does for a living...

[dog]

The bank hiked rates aggressively in late 2003 and early 2004 to cool down an economic boom fueled by an explosive rise in house prices, and clearly attained that goal,'' says Schmieding.

Aggressively?!?

An overall rise of 3% rise or a single rise of 1% might be described as moderately aggressive. A few 1/4 shifts when people might be paying 7 or 8% on their bank loans is nothing.

[MRSB]

Bloomberg - London House Prices Fall, Prompting Economic Slowdown

 

Read the full story to find out what this guy does for a living... 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

He had never heard of offers on rent before? Sorry and he would be from which planet?

[Nomadd]

He had never heard of offers on rent before? Sorry and he would be from which planet? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Planet Greed. You must cover my mortgage.

Nomadd

[MRSB]

Planet Greed. You must cover my mortgage. 

Nomadd

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think I know a number of people who hail from there...

[marko]

Planet Greed. You must cover my mortgage. 

Nomadd

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Look at the 'jobs' of the two people who they talked to about their properties:

1. Fund Manager <NOT A REAL JOB, NO VALUE ADDED TO ECONOMY

2. Credit Trader <NOT A REAL JOB, NO VALUE ADDED TO ECONOMY

I guess those sh1ts at Bloomberg just couldn't be bothered to ask anyone with a REAL job about housing...probably they just popped out of their office in The City and asked the first two people walking past! Also I guess that it is only d1cks who steal money for a living in The City that can afford houses in the first place.

I f**king hate Bloomberg, bankers and all the associated money-sh1ts that parasitically feed off the rest of us!!! :angry: These pricks should be dragged into the street, whipped and then re-employed as kitchen porters or binmen. That would be a fine day!

Get a REAL job ar5eholes!

[ShirtyTheSlightlyAggresiveBear]

It just demonstrates that even people who deal with finance at a high level have succumbed to the last few years of mania and ignored to an extent the change in sentiment that has started.

[marzipan]

1. Fund Manager <NOT A REAL JOB, NO VALUE ADDED TO ECONOMY

2. Credit Trader <NOT A REAL JOB, NO VALUE ADDED TO ECONOMY

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i think you'll find that the financial services sector is about the only economy we've got left. Manufacturing has gone to the far east and services sector is following, oil and gas is disappearing fast and we now import more than we export.

[Fancypants]

It just demonstrates that even people who deal with finance at a high level have succumbed to the last few years of mania and ignored to an extent the change in sentiment that has started.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

you might be surprised at just how sheep-like many supposedly financially sophisticated people are... working in the city surrounded by thousands of identically dressed people all crammed into a very small space only heightens the crowd (flock) mentality I would have thought. Not a lot of room for individuality or contrariness in the City in my experience

[backtoparents]

i think you'll find that the financial services sector is about the only economy we've got left.  Manufacturing has gone to the far east and services sector is following, oil and gas is disappearing fast and we now import more than we export.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's true. If it wasn't for us shuffling money around and speculating on property, shares, currency, we'd be in a real mess. Good thing these jobs can't move abroad easily as well.

/G

[Scooter]

Look at the 'jobs' of the two people who they talked to about their properties:

1. Fund Manager <NOT A REAL JOB, NO VALUE ADDED TO ECONOMY

2. Credit Trader <NOT A REAL JOB, NO VALUE ADDED TO ECONOMY

I guess those sh1ts at Bloomberg just couldn't be bothered to ask anyone with a REAL job about housing...probably they just popped out of their office in The City and asked the first two people walking past! Also I guess that it is only d1cks who steal money for a living in The City that can afford houses in the first place.

I f**king hate Bloomberg, bankers and all the associated money-sh1ts that parasitically feed off the rest of us!!! :angry: These pricks should be dragged into the street, whipped and then re-employed as kitchen porters or binmen. That would be a fine day!

Get a REAL job ar5eholes!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What do you do?

[North London Rent Girl]

Thanks shirty, best article yet.

"Agencies are either going out of business, operating at a loss, or having to cut costs dramatically,'' says Hill, 57. "Volumes are down to a level that we have only seen once or twice since World War II.''

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY!! Damn, someone on here's already taken the name Schadenfreude!!

[MRSB]

Marko,

What value do some high-paid persons like footballers, rockstars, and actresses add to the economy?

Well at least some them have a modicum of talent, which is more than can be said for some that work in the city imho.

[Scooter]

"I... hate Bloomberg, bankers and all the associated money-sh1ts that parasitically feed off the rest of us!!!"

Marko,

What value do some high-paid persons like footballers, rockstars, and actresses add to the economy?

How would you propose that capital got allocated instead, by computer? (hey, that happens all to often now).  Or worse, by government?

I think this is pure envy speaking.  And if so, it is not attractive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll echo that sentiment. Taxes on my aarnings and on the profits I make for my company are sufficient in their own right to pay for a school and hospital or two. I know of very few people whose jobs so directly contribute to the economic welfare of others.

S.

[marko]

Dear DrB,

Yes, we already had this argument!! I will freely admit, there IS a bit of envy wrapped up in my disgust at these people...but there is also some good old-fashioned righteous indignation: the money markets have genuinely become a weeping sore on the side of the real economy. Again, I will say what I said last time when you brought this up: I would not mind if those who worked in the financial economy allocated capital efficiently, but I think it is pretty obvious to most of us that this does not happen! People who work in these jobs get paid waaaay over the odds compared to the value they add....and the only reason is because they are greedy people in proximity to a lot of OTHER PEOPLES money.

The litany of examples of greed and theft perpetrated by those in the square mile stretches on and on and on...again I refer you to this website for a taster:

http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/scandals/

I UNDERSTAND THE NEED for efficient capital allocation...helping to spread consumption, lend money for small businesses etc., and in sum contribute to improving the real economy. Read some of the stories in the following link:

http://www.ibas.co.uk/UK%20Banking%20News%202005.htm

and then honestly tell me if you 'efficient capital allocation' is what is happening here. Was it 'efficient capital allocation' that I saw at the end of the dotcom boom when people were talking up shares they KNEW were shit?

Of course the wonderful new 'hot-ticket' in the financial world at the moment is Hedge funds, for example RAB Capital who managed to carve off for itself last

year 4.6% of the money entrusted to it: Wages bill of £19m - which works out at about £400,000 for each of its 48 employees and on top of this shareholder profits.

I mean, come on, is it just me, or are these numbers just SILLY? I happen to know a few people in the city, and one of them in particular who works for a syndicate at Lloyds is a prime example of everything I detest about this whole thing - never studied, never really worked, daddy got him a job as a front-man for an underwriting syndicate, and now he is being made a director: this guy is a Coke-snorting pr1ck, and nothing more.

As for fractional reserve banking, it is economic parasitism. We can all appreciate that counterfeiters (people who print money illegally) effectively embezzle money from everyone else in the economy...now tell me WHY is it different when a bank creates money from nowhere?

THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE. Result? There is a huge financial economy nowadays which dwarfs the real economy, has been created by banks, and therefore is owned by banks. This is so simple that I don't understand why more people do not get it (and are as disgusted as I am).

And in response to your final point 'it is not attractive'...I am trying to make a social comment, not pick you up!

[BoredTrainBuilder]

I f**king hate Bloomberg, bankers and all the associated money-sh1ts that parasitically feed off the rest of us!!! :angry: These pricks should be dragged into the street, whipped and then re-employed as kitchen porters or binmen. That would be a fine day!

Get a REAL job ar5eholes!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You really shouldn't. Financial sector undoubtedly keeps UK plc afloat. Whether you like it or not. While we're at it, so does London. I

Personally I'd suggest a declaration of UDI within the M25, and no more subsidies sent out to the rusting provincial hulk that is the rest of Britain. Any useful economic activity that still exists up there would be called 'sunset industries' anywhere else. In the north it's never possible to see the sun so I'm not sure what the correct term is.

You may be correct about parasitic but not the direction of give and take.

[Scooter]

Dear DrB,

Yes, we already had this argument!! I will freely admit, there IS a bit of envy wrapped up in my disgust at these people...but there is also some good old-fashioned righteous indignation: the money markets have genuinely become a weeping sore on the side of the real economy. Again, I will say what I said last time when you brought this up: I would not mind if those who worked in the financial economy allocated capital efficiently, but I think it is pretty obvious to most of us that this does not happen! People who work in these jobs get paid waaaay over the odds compared to the value they add....and the only reason is because they are greedy people in proximity to a lot of OTHER PEOPLES money.

The litany of examples of greed and theft perpetrated by those in the square mile stretches on and on and on...again I refer you to this website for a taster:

http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/scandals/

I UNDERSTAND THE NEED for efficient capital allocation...helping to spread

consumption, lend money for small businesses etc., and in sum contribute to improving the real economy. Read some of the stories in the following link:

http://www.ibas.co.uk/UK%20Banking%20News%202005.htm

and then honestly tell me if you 'efficient capital allocation' is what is happening here. Was it 'efficient capital allocation' that I saw at the end of the dotcom boom when people were talking up shares they KNEW were shit?

Of course the wonderful new 'hot-ticket' in the financial world at the moment is Hedge funds, for example RAB Capital who managed to carve off for itself last

year 4.6% of the money entrusted to it: Wages bill of £19m - which works out at about £400,000 for each of its 48 employees and on top of this shareholder profits.

I mean, come on, is it just me, or are these numbers just SILLY? I happen to know a few people in the city, and one of them in particular who works for a syndicate at Lloyds is a prime example of everything I detest about this whole thing - never studied, never really worked, daddy got him a job as a front-man for an underwriting syndicate, and now he is being made a director: this guy is a Coke-snorting pr1ck, and nothing more.

As for fractional reserve banking, it is economic parasitism. We can all appreciate that counterfeiters (people who print money illegally) effectively embezzle money from everyone else in the economy...now tell me WHY is it different when a bank creates money from nowhere?

THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE. Result? There is a huge financial economy nowadays which dwarfs the real economy, has been created by banks, and therefore is owned by banks. This is so simple that I don't understand why more people do not get it (and are as disgusted as I am).

And in response to your final point 'it is not attractive'...I am trying to make a social comment, not pick you up!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So go on, what is your contribution to society? What do you do for a living just as a comparison to those thousands unknown to you that you have been attacking?

[marko]

Dear BoredTrainBuilder,

I agree...all we export now is a little bit of energy, guns and financial products. So of course you are right that the financial industry drives UK plc and keeps us going...but is 'I keep the economy going' a good enough reason for people in the city to earn so much more than everyone else? If it is, fine, give me a massively overinflated salary and I will drive the economy with my spending. Of course it was different back in the golden days, when people who actually made stuff got paid well...

...yes Scooter, that's right, I am an engineer. I have a Doctorate in astronautical engineering, have worked at the Spaceport in French Guiana for CNES (French Space Agency) developing reliability models to help iron out problems with Ariane 5, have also worked for ESA at their technical facility in Holland (ESTEC), and I am now working for a private space industry company in the UK, on future ESA space science missions. Oh yeah, and I earn a lot less than most bankers and am lodging in a tiny boxroom as a consequence.

Yes, I do useful, hard, REAL work. Of course you may not think any of this stuff is worthwhile, seeing as it doesn't make 8-12% a year WITH capital appreciation yaddah-yaddah-yaddah.

So as you can see, I actually have integrity to back my arguments up. Like I said: GET A REAL JOB.

[BoredTrainBuilder]

Marko

I also made the foolish mistake of going into engineering/industry. Thanks, parents. What you can do (I suggest, it's worked for me) is to use your engineering skills and therefore application, logical mind and reasoning and apply them to business issues. Engineers are becoming much more fashionable as CEOs. And we've had interesting careers beyond the confines of offices.

The trouble with wage capping and the politics of envy is that it inevitably creates even more distortions than it was supposed to solve. And who is to do the capping? Was football really so much better in the 1960s?

Perhaps the best we can hope for is strict market regulation, enforcement of the law etc (to stop those lucky people in the highest paid financial jobs from exploiting their power and cheating the rest of us) plus a fair, progressive taxation system which cannot be evaded.

A geat deal of the money made by the UK financial sector comes from outside the UK - we should not forget that. We are set to benefit even more from this in the future than the past.

[doogie]

Yes, I do useful, hard, REAL work.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah but it's hardly rocket science is it?

Oh it is.

I'll get my coat.

[homeless]

londons financial industry is the envy of the world, for many a year other countries have been trying to grab a piece of this action, so far they have failed.

Any bank or company in the world of significance will have a london office, they will use london for there commercial banking needs, there share offerings, there insurances.

The significance of holding onto this cannot be said enough, every part of it has people trying to snip at its heels. we lose it and were in serious trouble.

On the other hand it is full of greedy selfish pric.ks, and they are getting paid more than they deservefrom all our pension funds and insurance premiums ect, but thats life if you cant beat em go join them.

[homeless]

im an engineer too, got a bsc degree and worked on offshore oilfield projects, pay was good but a terrible life.

I now work for myself earn less but work less, but least i have potential to progress and im my own man.

Loads of guys in my class at uni are on poor wages now for the amount of education they have.Engineering is not a 3 hours a day 4 days a week course, its a solid hard slog.(the above hours are what solictors and accountants do), it was as hard as any full time job with the same full time hours.

I wish i had done accountancy or banking instead, far easier with less hours and when you finish you earn more.

Edited August 16, 2005 by homeless

[Ignorant Steve]

im an engineer too, got a bsc degree and worked on offshore oilfield projects, pay was good but a terrible life.

I now work for myself earn less but work less, but least i have potential to progress and im my own man.

Loads of guys in my class at uni are on poor wages now for the amount of education they have.Engineering is not a 3 hours a day 4 days a week course, its a solid hard slog.(the above hours are what solictors and accountants do), it was as hard as any full time job with the same full time hours.

I wish i had done accountancy or banking instead, far easier with less hours and when you finish you earn more.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I did a BSc in Economics. 6 hours a week. Most of us made up the various University sports teams.

Life's tough!!

[marko]

Dear Bored,

I was not pushed into engineering by my parents...they were sheep farmers! Also, I enjoy my work, and I enjoy working in an area I perceive to be worthwhile. I also understand that engineers make good CEOs, and that is why my doctorate is an EngD with a year of Management training chucked in as well.

I just get ticked off when I see the wages these finance-types 'earn'...I also freely admit this has something to do with the fact that I could probably go into the city as a quant or something and have a stab at making those silly figures, except that I have a conscience (I probably wouldn't enjoy it anyway, being surrounded by pr1cks does not appeal to me).

I agree completely with the free market - I never mentioned wage-caps, football, and I am no socialist, believe me! I always try to view things objectively...and when I strip away my anger at not being invited to the party, I still see a financial economy that predicated on theft! The free-market is not operating properly in the financial sector: take the big high street banks - they are a classic ogilopoly.

You are also implying that in the UK we all benefit from London as a finance cluster and consequently I should be in favour of it. I agree with the first proposition but not the second - I still think the whole thing stinks to high heaven: whether I (or anyone here) benefits from it or not is irrelevant. Do you think it stinks or not?

I will continue working in the space industry because I believe it to be worthwhile. Doing a worthwhile job that you believe makes a positive difference to society is worth more than all the leveraged up-side in the world. Even if it does mean I am forced to live in a box-room and hang around HPC.co.uk (in the hope of maybe owning a little place of my own that a banker would not even consider as a second home) as punishment for having ideals.

Oh yes, and DEATH TO BANKERS!!!

[Scooter]

Dear BoredTrainBuilder,

I agree...all we export now is a little bit of energy, guns and financial products. So of course you are right that the financial industry drives UK plc and keeps us going...but is 'I keep the economy going' a good enough reason for people in the city to earn so much more than everyone else? If it is, fine, give me a massively overinflated salary and I will drive the economy with my spending. Of course it was different back in the golden days, when people who actually made stuff got paid well...

...yes Scooter, that's right, I am an engineer. I have a Doctorate in astronautical engineering, have worked at the Spaceport in French Guiana for CNES (French Space Agency) developing reliability models to help iron out problems with Ariane 5, have also worked for ESA at their technical facility in Holland (ESTEC), and I am now working for a private space industry company in the UK, on future ESA space science missions. Oh yeah, and I earn a lot less than most bankers and am lodging in a tiny boxroom as a consequence.

Yes, I do useful, hard, REAL work. Of course you may not think any of this stuff is worthwhile, seeing as it doesn't make 8-12% a year WITH capital appreciation yaddah-yaddah-yaddah.

So as you can see, I actually have integrity to back my arguments up. Like I said: GET A REAL JOB.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree you do a useful and no doubt interesting job...but so do I. We do not all snort coke in Lloyds and some of us have a lot of postgraduate qualifications as well and are economically beneficial to society in many ways. I just take very mild offence to your broadbrush attack on an industry and environment I work in and enjoy. Yes, there are a lot of tossers but that is true of many places and there are also a lot of decent, hardworking people. Cue your cynical response no doubt...

S.