Us Property Prices The Total Opposite Of Uk

empi_uk

I have just started a thread on US mortgage products and my opinion on em.

The housing market is struggling in the sub prime sector they have to take out what are called 2/28 mortgages super low rates for years then tracker rates. These are all just starting to come home to roost after the last housing boom! All the prime borrowers and business are ringfenced with 15 to 30 year fixed rates without lock in's. I have posted examples on my new thread!

Oh and the US would be in trouble if the biggest manufacturer in the world wasn't propping up its currency on the markets month on month. Yep China is the now the largest purchaser of US dollars on the world money markets! Gotta keep those consumers spending!

PosterBoy77

exil wrote: »

I think your economics is several decades out of date. The Third World generates raw materials and manufactures things and exports them to the West in exchange for services. And the West does better out of the deal, hence its high standard of living. In a few decades this may change as the 3rd World starts to move into providing its own services and we no longer have anything to exchange for raw materials and manufactures - but I'll be dead and buried by then.

Germany - GDP per head, PPP basis - $30,579
UK - $30,436

Public debt as %age of GDP

Germany 67%
France 65%
USA 65%
UK 42%

and Japan - hold on to your seat - 176%!!!!

My economics is related to fundamentals, not spin. The GDP per head in Germany includes all the heads in the former East Germany. The UK's debt has been creatively hidden off-balance sheet via PFI etc. It has also been farmed out to its citizens. The UK has more private debt than all the european countries put together I believe.

Also $30k dollars buys you much less in the UK than the other countries listed.

PosterBoy77

Generali wrote: »

That figure for the UK doesn't include PFI or pension liabilities. However, German pension liabilities are far higher than the UK's as they don't have nearly as much private pension provision as the UK does. I believe that the German birth rate is a fair way below the UK's which will cause problems in the future too.

Our birth rate has been kept up by single parents giving birth in our large number of sink estates, which probably cost the country overall.

Generali

mikael wrote: »

Our birth rate has been kept up by single parents giving birth in our large number of sink estates, which probably cost the country overall.

Possibly true - I've been unable to verify this. High levels of immigration of young workers from Eastern Europe probably help the UK economy too although they'll be the first ones out of here if things go bad.

PosterBoy77

exil wrote: »

I think your economics is several decades out of date. The Third World generates raw materials and manufactures things and exports them to the West in exchange for services. And the West does better out of the deal, hence its high standard of living. In a few decades this may change as the 3rd World starts to move into providing its own services and we no longer have anything to exchange for raw materials and manufactures - but I'll be dead and buried by then.

The west has done better as it is living off previously generated wealth when it was doing things itself. The third world has natural resources that it sells to the west, but increasingly much more to China. Australia also supplies huge amounts of natural resources. However the largest amount of wealth is generated my making things the rest of the world wants or needs. Just take a look at China, Germany and Japan.

The "third world" will also produce its own services. We will then see if manufacturing or services will make us rich!

ManAtHome

mikael wrote: »

The "third world" will also produce its own services. We will then see if manufacturing or services will make us rich!

Think the Balance of Payments/Trade may be giving us a clue...

PosterBoy77

ManAtHome wrote: »

Think the Balance of Payments/Trade may be giving us a clue...

It sure does! However it does not seem to register as a problem with most people these days, but the issue will come home to roost sometime.

mystic_trev

Oh dear it's going from bad to worse in the US. The sub-prime mortgage fiasco's caused the DOW to drop 242 points.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6447973.stm

PosterBoy77

Well the US is just leading the way, someday their problems will arrive on our shores.