Preparedness for when

jk0

Frugalsod wrote: »

This is what RBS are doing to good businesses now. Asset stripping good businesses to bail out the banks. Just Google GRG RBS to see what I mean.

The problem is that our glorious leaders are allowing this to continue because they all want well paid banking jobs once they leave politics.

Thanks Frugalsod. I just watched this:

http://www.channel4.com/news/rbs-whistleblower-grg-business-destroy-video

Half a million in fees? Crikey, my uncle got off lightly. In view of this, I'm so glad I didn't go into debt for my BTL's.

Frugalsod

That is the tip of the iceberg in terms of the problems that the banks created. Just find out about the interest rate swaps mis-selling scandal. That will cost the banks billions as well.

daz378

money .... fiduciary (if i remember my economics 101) is a medium of exchange built on trust....all this quantitative easing , using inflation to increase the value of rich peoples assets and devalue what we earn...will only work ...as long as the population believes......when we realize its not worth working....then we may have to borrow GC*S trillion pound note to buy a loaf..... not bought any batteries for a while.....although my current lot will work till 2018, always worth adding to stock....happy prepping

[Deleted User]

Frugalsod wrote: »

What do misers do in very cold weather? Light the candle. :beer:

At which point you have a fire risk.

BTW. You can also have an unlit Hurricane Lantern.

Frugalsod

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

At which point you have a fire risk.

BTW. You can also have an unlit Hurricane Lantern.

I would not use a candle unless I could make it safe to use. There are candle jar heaters which are safer. There are plenty of ways to use it safely.

[Deleted User]

Frugalsod wrote: »

I would not use a candle unless I could make it safe to use.

Likewise a Hurricane Lamp, but then Hurricane Lamps are inherently safer than candles.

Frugalsod

daz378 wrote: »

money .... fiduciary (if i remember my economics 101) is a medium of exchange built on trust....all this quantitative easing , using inflation to increase the value of rich peoples assets and devalue what we earn...will only work ...as long as the population believes......when we realize its not worth working....then we may have to borrow GC*S trillion pound note to buy a loaf..... not bought any batteries for a while.....although my current lot will work till 2018, always worth adding to stock....happy prepping

I agree to an extent. Things can carry on longer than we expect. Look at Japan it has gone on for decades. Though the UK does not have the savings that Japan had to get itself through the financial crisis.

There are huge black clouds on the horizon. There is still too much private debt out there. So while everyone with sense is paying down debts the impact is that it is depressing demand for goods and so the economy is still weak. So when the next down turn eventually comes it will hit those who have not paid down debt hard. Wages will fall again and the debts will take their toll on all who cannot cope. I doubt that wages will start to rise to take the strain off family budgets like the government hopes.

When the Bank of England is unable to inflate the credit bubbles any longer then it will hit the housing market hard. Buy to let landlords with big mortgages could find themselves in trouble. Homelessness will be a major problem. Then the public will feel the impacts of benefit cuts that they foolishly supported.

lovefullshelves

Just finished reading - James Howard Kunstlers 'World made by hand' and 'too much magic'. Very good reading. too much magic is a bit of an update on 'the long emergency' which its glaringly obvious that we are definitely in!

Frugalsod

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I wonder what happening it will take to stop this 'everything continuing as we're used to it being because that's what we're used to' attitude. The way we all live is unsustainable, there is rapidly becoming less of everything oil, food, water, gas,mineral ores etc. and never once have I seen it suggested that it might be a sensible move to look at ways of using and needing less of it all. We would still have considerably more than most of the rest of the world but I never hear use less gas, use less oil based goods,eat simpler food preached, just spend,spend,spend and you've got more to enjoy yourself with now that the economy is growing again, doesn't make a lot of sense does it?

Part of my prepping is to take this into consideration. I am looking for long term solutions to cut my energy usage so that any such power cuts will have much less of an impact on my lifestyle.

For example by watching TV on the iPad I only use 10Watts of electricity rather than the 50 Watts on the LCD TV.

GreyQueen

jk0 wrote: »

This interwebbing business reveals a new revelation every day. I was just reading an article about the Bank of England's paper on Money creation:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/18/truth-money-iou-bank-of-england-austerity

One of the comments is as follows:
I wouldn't have believed this was deliberate until a bank conned my uncle twenty years ago:

My uncle was a partner in a country hotel which was doing well. The bank kept offering my uncle's partner further funds to build more bedrooms. Unfortunately the mortgage was paid by the manager. The bank persuaded the manager to 'forget' to pay the mortgage one month even though there were funds available to pay it with. The bank repossessed the hotel, and revalued it at less than the value of the outstanding mortgage. The manager kept his job.

My uncle's partner spent years in court trying to prove this, but at each hearing the bank asked for 'security of costs' until the partner was broke and could no longer afford to sue.

jk0, one thing we were aware of at the CAB was that there are certain companies dedicated to lending mortgage money to the vulnerable to buy their council homes with no intention that the mortgages be paid off.

They lend the money to people who live on benefits, in some cases persons who are so very obviously learning-disabled that they are completely illiterate and innumerate, people who live on income support or similar and who never have, and probably never will be, able to hold a job. With the intention that they will quickly default on their mortage which will cause the lender to gain a property which then sells on for a lot more than the discounted rate that the tenant purchased it for under Right to Buy.

:mad: On a par with taking sweeties from a baby, yes?

One of the worst perpetrators shared its name with an upmarket London borough. When we saw their name in play on a debt case we knew the client was in grave trouble because they'd never negotiate and would always move to repo asap.

These despicable companies leaflet door-to-door in social housing neighbourhoods to entice people to move away from the security of social tenancies into the market, so they can be fleeced. I've talked to one person through my work who was about to buy their house using their DLA - because the lender was happy to lend on the strength of that benefit income. The tenant didn't know that DLA was on its way out, that its replacement would be harder to get and less money overall. I'd bet my last tin of corned beef that the wannabee lender knew it.

It's not at all uncommon for former-tenants who RTB to be back at the council as homelessness cases in less than a year. And sometimes there is no 'duty of care' beyond basic advice. I often see repo-advisory letters to us from mortgage lenders.

I think by merely reading this kind of site and this kind of thread, we're a self-selected bunch who are liable to question authority, including banks. Just because someone is willing to lend you money, it doesn't mean that it's your best interests to take it. We need to hold the banks in contempt and treat them with civil suspicion at all times.

If you ever wonder how far you should trust a bank or an insurance company, ask yourself the rhetorical question; how far can I spit a rat?