If we're out of the woods now ... who gets the credit?

Thrugelmir

Cleaver wrote: »

True. Nor will anyone who has unfortunately lost their job. But, as I said in a previous post, by far the vast majority of people have kept their jobs. And judging by the 40% rise in the FTSE over the past 6 months, those with jobs have been buying shares in quite large volumes.

No shares have to be traded for prices to rise.

Personally I've never stopped buying.

Cleaver

Thrugelmir wrote: »

No shares have to be traded for prices to rise.

Personally I've never stopped buying.

True, but surely you think a certain amount of the recent rises is down to the sentiment of people thinking, a) my money is earning nothing in a savings account, may as well have a punt, and b) bank shares are 20p, the government have bailed them out, we're only going one way.

I know quite a few people who have never bought shares before who have started buying recently. Probably a good sign to get out...

Thrugelmir

Cleaver wrote: »

True, but surely you think a certain amount of the recent rises is down to the sentiment of people thinking, a) my money is earning nothing in a savings account, may as well have a punt, and b) bank shares are 20p, the government have bailed them out, we're only going one way.

I know quite a few people who have never bought shares before who have started buying recently. Probably a good sign to get out...

A lot of shares and corporate bonds were oversold last year when the financial crisis hit. As is often the case panic sets in and positions are liquidated.

Depends what you term as "banks". A number of major european banks have been relatively untouched by the crisis. Credit Suisse (Swiss), BNP Paribas (French) and Deutsche Bank (german) being good performers recently. In the UK, HSBC and Standard Chartered are far better buys than RBS and Lloyds, as they generate good profits from Asia. Neither of the latter will pay significant dividends for some time. Standard Chartered is also looking to buy some of RBS's Asian operation, which is a profitable part of the business.

If increased capital requirements are required from 2012 as has been suggested. Its difficult to see either Lloyds or RBS having the ability to increase their books. Both companies will continue to contract.

Also the EEC is looking for both RBS and Lloyds to reduce their monopoly positions. Rumour has it that Lloyds might sell the C&G brand. Thats why the closure was reversed.

Pobby

Some of us on the other side, people with savings and i am not the only poster here in that situation are losing a lot of interest over all this. From, what was it 5% almost over night to .5%. Basically, I have lost a potential small income from what we have on the side. It does gall me that friends who have a new mortgage which is less in total than what we have put aside are still paying out a small fortune whilst we are getting diddly squat.

dktreesea

Cat695 wrote: »

I think people won't vote labour because working people are sick to death of paying out for people who can't be ar@sed to work........which Labour seem to love making people do.

There's no point blaming the people on benefits. The system itself is flawed, because for many lower paid jobs you are better off financially on benefits than you would be working. Especially if you have children. Sure, Labour has started to address that from the benefits side, e.g. by reducing the local housing allowance down to actual rent plus £15 a week rather than paying everyone the maximum rate they were entitled to, but they seem to be in freeze mode when it comes to looking at the financial aspects of transitioning off benefits back into paid work.

Masomnia

Pobby wrote: »

Some of us on the other side, people with savings and i am not the only poster here in that situation are losing a lot of interest over all this. From, what was it 5% almost over night to .5%. Basically, I have lost a potential small income from what we have on the side. It does gall me that friends who have a new mortgage which is less in total than what we have put aside are still paying out a small fortune whilst we are getting diddly squat.

Have you switched savings account? You can do a lot better than 0.5% if that is what you are getting.