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Act now to avoid another boom and bust property catastrophe - BOE
Bit of a bubble spoiler alert. This one is more about commercial property, but covers BTL investing too. It appears the BOE are gearing themselves to warn the market not to get carried away, once again, with a boom......(probably under the illusion of "it's different this time" - my thoughts)…
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Canada
Looks like they are going to fully legalise marijuana. I wonder what the economic effects will be ? I reckon their tourist industry might just go through the roof and their roof industry might just go even higher.
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Pensioners now have higher Incomes than workers
http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/8026 Plenty of articles in the Media. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/pensioners-earning-more-than-the-average-worker-new-analysis-says-a6701851.html…
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Oxford at risk due to high house prices
Interesting piece on the BBC news a minute or so ago. They featured Oxford, where to get a mortgage on a standard house, you will need an income of 70k+. This has seen people leave the city in order to find accomodation elsewhere. Oxford now suffers not only a lack of teachers, an acute nursing and healthcare shortage, but…
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The Economics of Nuclear Power aka as Reds under the Bed
I'm not happy about The Chinese running a British Nuclear power plant and it would seem security officials aren't either. What do you think?
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The Economics of Daylight Savings Time
It's that time of the year again. Clocks go backwards an hour on Sunday morning. 5 reasons to stop turning the clocks back http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11188313/5-reasons-to-keep-Daylight-Savings-Time-all-year-round.html (more in linked article) So what do you think?
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Facebook pays just £4,327 corporation tax in 2014.
Reignites the debate. The average worker on 26k paid £5,392 in tax in the same year. The company made a £28.5m loss in the UK in the year. However, it paid out bonuses to UK staff amounting to £35.4m in the same year. The average bonus per employee amounts to over 20x the corporation tax paid. Facebook in response state…
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The STI inflation index
I wonder how STI's are related to house prices in the UK .... http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/brighton-and-hove-has-highest-rate-of-sexually-transmitted-infections-outside-london-a6694136.html
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Deflation
Means that our record high pay rises are damned good news. And it also means that our 3% Interest on savings is damned good news too. Add the 2.5% Pensioners Triple Lock and let it roll ... Will the good times end? :j
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Banks win fresh concession on ringfencing rules
The City on Thursday won the second clear signal in 24 hours of a political shift in its favour when financial regulators granted a key concession on the ringfencing rule for the UK’s largest banks. In rules set out by the Bank of England“ringfenced” banks will be allowed to transfer capital from their retail arms to other…
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Will interest rates ever rise again
Seems a crazy question, as surely rates will rise sooner or later. However, this is the first time I've seen a serious economist come out and make such a claim. Quite a bit of what he says is difficult to dismiss, and goodness knows how many times base rate rises have been predicted, only for the horizon to be pushed back…
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Good News Ahoy!
The new labour market stats are out for the UK: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lms/labour-market-statistics/october-2015/sty-labour-market-statistics--october-2015.html "What about earnings Gen?", I hear you ask. Ah, well I'm glad you asked me that. The ONS has a lovely little infographic that probably cost you a few grand…
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Right To Buy from 2016!
So it appears the Government has now agreed a deal with housing associations over right to buy........yesterday apparently.
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Economic indicators, useful or meaningless?
Why isn't household work & cooking (the sort you perform for yourself or family) used to gauge productivity? How about writing a Wikipedia entry? Why aren't property and stock market prices used when calculating inflation? Are all these arbitrary measures governed by political considerations? In whose interest do we ignore…
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Do you live near a Waitrose?
News has broken all over Social media that there is one opening near us to replace the current mid range supermarket. The renters are up in arms while the homeowners are dancing in the streets. The council is commissioning special bunting and I think there is a day of celebration planned when it opens sponsored by the…
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High housing costs costing London £3bn a year
Looks like even business is now starting to complain about high costs of living and the accommodation shortage in London. The article also leads us back to something that's often cropped up on this forum. Many suggest that money going on rent could be going elsewhere and feed into the economy. However, on the flip side of…
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No more building in Haringey
Looks like haringey is finally full ... 'Last week, Haringey council told Inside Housing magazine that it plans to return all right-to-buy receipts to the Treasury, stating that it was simply unable to build. The London borough returned over £15m of revenue from sales of council homes in 2012, because regulations on…
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Build 50k Houses in London Plus.....
We're getting a bit fed up of bank rolling the rest of the country: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11897033/How-to-build-50000-homes-a-year-in-London.html 50k houses: We're not just a money tree thanks: If you live outside of the SE, SW and London, better hope Zac isn't next Mayor of London!
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Sell off state homes at 100% of value
Here is an idea. Sell off state homes at 100% of value. The subsidy should be in the form of 95% LTV Interest Only mortgage fixed at 3% for 25 years. I think that's a very reasonable and affordable subsidy and could actually be a profit* No need for income multipliers any tenant that gets together a 5% deposit can go for…
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What will happen when interest rates rise?
Ok, so the date for the first rate rise is now apparently Feb 2016. This thread is not about guessing when rates will increase, but discussing how any increases will affect the economy. Its a topic I've been thinking about recently as rates have never been this low before, so reversing may have unknown consequences. I am…