Orsino Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 This made me chuckle: Quote Those A-grade companies find themselves competing with a bunch of second-rung companies who are creating a lot of noise in the market even though their long-term models just don't work. (This is why London is currently being served food delivery by Deliveroo, Eat 24, Jinn, Uber Eats, Just Eat, Feast, Hungryhouse, and Etefy, to name a few. These companies are all good enough to get investment funding. But are they all good enough to survive in the long run?) I was at the Unbound innovation conference in London a few weeks ago. Lots of money men (no doubt many former estate agents) networking with tech guys. An ocean of cash desperately looking for an idea to invest in. And many of the ideas were just TERRIBLE. A security camera that monitors air quality? Why? A rentable network of electric tricycles? Silly. A multisensory pod for the retail business? So kind of like a shop the size of a telephone box where you can't buy anything? It gave me flashbacks to my distant dot.com days and I suspect much of the current scene will suffer a similar brutal end. My current favourite is the oBike hire scheme that's now littering the streets (and canals) of London and other cities with their ugly white and yellow bicycles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Bowman Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 36 minutes ago, Orsino said: This made me chuckle: I was at the Unbound innovation conference in London a few weeks ago. Lots of money men (no doubt many former estate agents) networking with tech guys. An ocean of cash desperately looking for an idea to invest in. And many of the ideas were just TERRIBLE. A security camera that monitors air quality? Why? A rentable network of electric tricycles? Silly. A multisensory pod for the retail business? So kind of like a shop the size of a telephone box where you can't buy anything? It gave me flashbacks to my distant dot.com days and I suspect much of the current scene will suffer a similar brutal end. My current favourite is the oBike hire scheme that's now littering the streets (and canals) of London and other cities with their ugly white and yellow bicycles. Have to agree so spot on. These conferences aren't about technology or ideas they put together madcap inventors with lazy cash. The truth is the money in technology is boring. Its connectivity, running data centres, planning migrations and selling hardware and software, consultancy, virtualisation, helpdesks etc put together turns over billions and billions The trouble is to MSM media and lazy money it is 1. Complex 2. Boring because it works and provides real jobs 3. Academia and the establishment do not and never have had to understand complex networks and how would you with your PPE from Cambridge ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frugal Git Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 18 minutes ago, Greg Bowman said: Have to agree so spot on. These conferences aren't about technology or ideas they put together madcap inventors with lazy cash. The truth is the money in technology is boring. Its connectivity, running data centres, planning migrations and selling hardware and software, consultancy, virtualisation, helpdesks etc put together turns over billions and billions The trouble is to MSM media and lazy money it is 1. Complex 2. Boring because it works and provides real jobs 3. Academia and the establishment do not and never have had to understand complex networks and how would you with your PPE from Cambridge ! Agree - though FYI the PPE is an Oxford (pretty much flagship) course - there isn't a direct Cambridge equivalent. Sorry to be pedantic - my roght honourable Bullingdon Club associates would be pretty annoyed if I didn't point it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freki Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 1 hour ago, Greg Bowman said: Investing in technology is high risk and we are coming to a point where we will need to think very carefully about automating away many jobs. Whatever you might say work is dignity if it can provide a reasonable but not excessive standard of living. What I would invest in is infrastructure Victorian style because once its in it is an asset for the country Interesting, I had a chat with a friend who is a very good IT person, apparently a big automation plan is being stalled by the ethic comity of a big French Bank. The problem is that a new company will create the service and the mutation will happen externally rather than internally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Bowman Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 24 minutes ago, Freki said: Interesting, I had a chat with a friend who is a very good IT person, apparently a big automation plan is being stalled by the ethic comity of a big French Bank. The problem is that a new company will create the service and the mutation will happen externally rather than internally. I might of put that wrong in that I don't really agree with big Government technology investing look at all the failed projects, private companies up to them just to clarify. Your anecdote is very interesting can't quite understand ethic comity ? presume you mean ethical responsibilities ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Bowman Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 33 minutes ago, Frugal Git said: Agree - though FYI the PPE is an Oxford (pretty much flagship) course - there isn't a direct Cambridge equivalent. Sorry to be pedantic - my roght honourable Bullingdon Club associates would be pretty annoyed if I didn't point it out. Thank You seriously always good to have your acts right however the fact I knew the term at all is a miracle considering the sink Catholic comprehensive I went to ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freki Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 30 minutes ago, Greg Bowman said: I might of put that wrong in that I don't really agree with big Government technology investing look at all the failed projects, private companies up to them just to clarify. Your anecdote is very interesting can't quite understand ethic comity ? presume you mean ethical responsibilities ? *ethic committee needed to be read, apologies: so yes this is a shot that requires both the board and this committee to happen because of how sensitive it is and the broader implications for society Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorseinonboy Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 On 07/08/2017 at 6:45 AM, Mine the wheatfield said: The BoE is not remotely independent. It does Phil's bidding. Carney is just the "personality". And what a dreadful 'personality' he is! Give me past Governors every time e.g. Mervin King. I'm not actually impressed with the current incumbent. He is far too quick to voice cheap assumptions about Brexit and our economic future. He's not an innovator and, if anything, has talked the UK down every time he opens his mouth..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmgdawau Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 this is just a distraction, what he'd really like to do is create debtor's prisons so that the poor unfortunates who can't pay their debts will have to work for their gruel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habitationi Bulla Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 (edited) 34 minutes ago, Gorseinonboy said: Give me past Governors every time e.g. Mervin King. Thatll be the same Mervyn King who failed to recognise a debt bubble that'd potentially ruin the financial system but needed bailing out by the taxpayer and future generations ... the same Mervyn King who dropped interest rates in 2003 when house prices were rising by 25% PA. The same Mervyn King who then printed money and dropped interest rates to 0.5%? Yes he was triffic. Edited August 8, 2017 by Habitationi Bulla Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adarmo Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 5 hours ago, goldbug9999 said: +1 High housing costs are the scourge of western economies, except for germany of course where they have almost uniquely managed to keep a lid on housing costs, its almost like they know what they are doing. Oh and japan where cheap housing is a by product of rampant xenophobia. How cheap are houses in Japan? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adarmo Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 4 hours ago, Errol said: It's true, and if rent was say half what it is now people would have loads of money to put back into the economy to actually make stuff run nicely. In my experience they wouldn't. they;d withdraw from the labour market and work fewer hours since they wouldn't need to work as much to have a living wage. My theory about high house prices is that they want them high so that most of us have to stay working as much as we can for as long as we can in order to generate lots of tax revenue. Then, at the end of it all we have lovely expensive asset that can be taxed on death, or used to pay for care etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuckmojo Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 3 hours ago, Habitationi Bulla said: Thatll be the same Mervyn King who failed to recognise a debt bubble that'd potentially ruin the financial system but needed bailing out by the taxpayer and future generations ... the same Mervyn King who dropped interest rates in 2003 when house prices were rising by 25% PA. The same Mervyn King who then printed money and dropped interest rates to 0.5%? Yes he was triffic. His book is very good. Writing in hindsight is a beautiful thing. Not that he takes any responsibility for missing the elephant in the room Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habitationi Bulla Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 2 hours ago, stuckmojo said: His book is very good. Writing in hindsight is a beautiful thing. Not that he takes any responsibility for missing the elephant in the room They must have known before it was an insane debt bubble, house prices were going up 10-25% a year for years. I was a builder in 2003 and i knew it was a fkn insane debt bubble, so how come the so called best and the brightest economists in the country didn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giggler000 Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 8 hours ago, Greg Bowman said: Have to agree so spot on. These conferences aren't about technology or ideas they put together madcap inventors with lazy cash. The truth is the money in technology is boring. Its connectivity, running data centres, planning migrations and selling hardware and software, consultancy, virtualisation, helpdesks etc put together turns over billions and billions The trouble is to MSM media and lazy money it is 1. Complex 2. Boring because it works and provides real jobs 3. Academia and the establishment do not and never have had to understand complex networks and how would you with your PPE from Cambridge ! You missed out then - the conference on virtual housing, can't afford, no worries just VR headset on and see what could have had, had you of been born a generation or two younger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ah-so Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 6 hours ago, adarmo said: How cheap are houses in Japan? https://www.realestate.co.jp/en/forsale/view/445545 For example Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Si1 Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 33 minutes ago, Ah-so said: https://www.realestate.co.jp/en/forsale/view/445545 For example £100-odd k for a 4 bed detached in the Tokyo suburbs then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ah-so Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 22 minutes ago, Si1 said: £100-odd k for a 4 bed detached in the Tokyo suburbs then? Yes, or 3-bed, 2 reception. Either way, not a lot for a house in commuting distance of Tokyo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adarmo Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 1 hour ago, Ah-so said: https://www.realestate.co.jp/en/forsale/view/445545 For example https://www.numbeo.com/property-investment/rankings.jsp Tokyo cheaper than London, but not cheap. Cost of living is 22nd in the world https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings.jsp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyouken Posted August 8, 2017 Share Posted August 8, 2017 That house is reasonably old by Japanese standards and that price is more for the land. Whoever buys it is far more likely to knock it down and build another one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ah-so Posted August 9, 2017 Share Posted August 9, 2017 8 hours ago, Kyouken said: That house is reasonably old by Japanese standards and that price is more for the land. Whoever buys it is far more likely to knock it down and build another one. A good chance it would be rebuilt, but a late 90s house should still be fairly decent, and if you want to, you can buy a family home in the Tokyo metropolis for £100k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ah-so Posted August 9, 2017 Share Posted August 9, 2017 9 hours ago, adarmo said: https://www.numbeo.com/property-investment/rankings.jsp Tokyo cheaper than London, but not cheap. Cost of living is 22nd in the world https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings.jsp The website uses rent as the cost of housing. Tokyo was for years the most expensive city in the world. The fact that the capital city of the world's 3rd largest economy is so far down the list is worth noting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sledgehead Posted August 9, 2017 Share Posted August 9, 2017 Quote This is what Mark Carney knows but dare not say out loud That he's actually only half the size of George Clooney? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macca13 Posted August 9, 2017 Share Posted August 9, 2017 On 08/08/2017 at 2:21 PM, adarmo said: In my experience they wouldn't. they;d withdraw from the labour market and work fewer hours since they wouldn't need to work as much to have a living wage. My theory about high house prices is that they want them high so that most of us have to stay working as much as we can for as long as we can in order to generate lots of tax revenue. If they put taxes up and house prices down we would have 5 star public services at least even if we're not better off.. and BTL scum would have to use their brains to earn money! instead of using other people's brains who are most likely smarter and more worthy of wealth.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adarmo Posted August 9, 2017 Share Posted August 9, 2017 2 minutes ago, macca13 said: If they put taxes up and house prices down we would have 5 star public services at least even if we're not better off.. and BTL scum would have to use their brains to earn money! instead of using other people's brains who are most likely smarter and more worthy of wealth.. Which taxes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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