End of the world?

chrismac1

I'll stick with the logic of Blaise Pascal. If we're all going to hell in a handcart in the next 5 years, then whether I buy shares today or not makes no difference. Logic says find a cave well supplied with nuts and berries as far away from anyone else as possible. However, on the basis that Geoff23 is just yet another Cassandra like the guy in the USA who predicted the end of the world, and that the Western capitalist system has been around since about 1750 survived Napoleon, Wilhelm, Stalin and Hitler and will survive Obama and the Tea Party, I am buying and went long of William Hill shares today.

I wonder if they offer bets on the exact date and time the World will end. Should I ask them for you, Geoff?

Geoff23

chrismac1 wrote: »

I'll stick with the logic of Blaise Pascal. If we're all going to hell in a handcart in the next 5 years, then whether I buy shares today or not makes no difference. Logic says find a cave well supplied with nuts and berries as far away from anyone else as possible.

No such places exist anymore.

However, on the basis that Geoff23 is just yet another Cassandra like the guy in the USA who predicted the end of the world, and that the Western capitalist system has been around since about 1750 survived Napoleon, Wilhelm, Stalin and Hitler and will survive Obama and the Tea Party, I am buying and went long of William Hill shares today.

Good luck. I bought some more gold.

I wonder if they offer bets on the exact date and time the World will end. Should I ask them for you, Geoff?

I didn't actually say the world was going to end. I said the dollar has reached the end of a forty year stretch when it took over from gold as the foundation of the global monetary system. And that has already happened.

unitedwestand

Its funny, I was thinking about this the other day.

Multitude of nuclear weapons, global financial melt down, tempers flare, world ends in 2012.
I'm gonna stick a tenner on it :rotfl:

Geoff23

unitedwestand wrote: »

Its funny, I was thinking about this the other day.

Multitude of nuclear weapons, global financial melt down, tempers flare, world ends in 2012.
I'm gonna stick a tenner on it :rotfl:

I'm not sure the nuclear weapons are much use for anything in the current situation, apart from to dismantle in order to salvage fuel for nuclear power stations.

I think the era of big, global, strategic, ideological warfare is also ending. I expect more localised wars over basic resources like oil and fresh water in the future.

chrismac1

Damn! A massive meteor just landed on top of my house! Aaaaargh! Why didn't I listen to geoff?

Geoff23

chrismac1 wrote: »

Damn! A massive meteor just landed on top of my house!

What's it made of?

kidmugsy

Ark_Welder wrote: »

No. You don't mention shareholders? PIBS holders?


You may find NRAM's half-year results to be of interest, available on here. Shows how much of the taxpayer funds provided to both Northern Rock and B&B has been repaid to-date.


Further reading about Granite:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7256431.stm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/4789111/Creditors-fear-new-losses-on-Northern-Rock-bonds.html

I did mention shareholders. As for the PIBSholders: the question isn't whether a few holders of the riskiest bonds were hit, the question is whether all the bondholders were properly penalised so that taxpayers weren't shanghaied into subsidising them. The bondholders got off with it and the taxpayers were lumbered with it. That's both disgraceful and stupid.

IronWolf

Interesting discussion, good points on both sides.

I think the point is that in the next 50 years the human race needs to develop technology the reduces our reliance on oil. Coal and other fossil fuels are due to last a lot longer than oil so thats the main concern now. We're now seeing electric cars etc, which goes someway towards solving the problem, but we need a breakthrough in renewable energy.

Do I think we'll do it? Well history has shown us the human race survives and prospers, so I'm happy putting my money on it.

Geoff23

IronWolf wrote: »

Interesting discussion, good points on both sides.

I think the point is that in the next 50 years the human race needs to develop technology the reduces our reliance on oil.

Actually, we needed to do that 10 years ago. Peak production of conventional crude oil happened somewhere between 2005 and 2008.

Coal and other fossil fuels are due to last a lot longer than oil so thats the main concern now. We're now seeing electric cars etc, which goes someway towards solving the problem, but we need a breakthrough in renewable energy.

Electric cars don't solve the problem. Not without the massive cost of changing the infrastructure and where is all the extra electricity going to come from? Even without a widespread conversion to electric cars the UK is going to have trouble keeping the lights on, because we are dependent on aging nuclear plants and the dwindling supply of north sea gas.

Do I think we'll do it? Well history has shown us the human race survives and prospers, so I'm happy putting my money on it.

Except the problem this time is the very success of the human race which you think is going to get us out of this predicament. WE are the obstacle that needs to be overcome. The problem is not that there isn't enough oil, fresh water, trees, fertile soil, fish in the oceans, etc.... The problem is that there are too many humans all trying to improve their standard of living.

Got any suggestions how the human race is going deal with that problem? Because right now it is still taboo even to talk about it.

Ark_Welder

kidmugsy wrote: »

I did mention shareholders.

kidmugsy wrote: »

Are you claiming that the bondholders were wiped out? That it cost the taxpayer nothing?

kidmugsy wrote: »

The bondholders got off with it and the taxpayers were lumbered with it. That's both disgraceful and stupid.

Read the links about Granite to understand why NR bondholders were not all wiped out after B&B bondholders were.

A read of the latest NRAM accounts will inform you of how much NR and B&B have paid back to the tax-payer, to-date.