We need a revoultion

[Mega]

http://www.carscoops.com/2014/03/wat...rash-into.html

Am sick & p1ssed off at watching this cheap credit fueled bulsh1t !

Just when will this dreamland CCCP "free money" nonsense end?

I want the syterm SMASHED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Vi la revoultion!

Mike

[DRumsfeld2000]

Re: We need a revoultion

Nothing like speeding in London's cramped streets. Pathetic.

[Fox]

Re: We need a revoultion

Be careful what you wish for you just might get it.

My current thinking is a small spike from a "weather relief" rally. However the march of economic disappointments that started in January will continue. The beginning of the end will start with the whimpering words of "Sell in May and go away". A summer Malaise will follow. And then, when the leaves start to fall, so will the market.

There won't be a crash though, big fund pools, trading controls, and the FED will make sure of that. There will be just a long dark slide lasting 18 to 24 months; with lots of bear traps on the way. So it has been in the past, so it will be in the future.

Be patient all good buying "opportunities" now will come back again within the next 10 years. The only question really is at what point do you want to get on the roller coaster.

Have a pint mega and enjoy the show. Feel smug in the fact that at the end of the day, it's not your money anyways. ;)

[Mega]

Re: We need a revoultion

I WAS promised a "Mad Max" world...........all i got was a few years of "Cuts" that didn't happen much ...& i have to watch these F*ckers.....!

Mike

[BadJuju]

Re: We need a revoultion

Oh, Mega! I'll build you your own Thunderdome.

[Mega]

Re: We need a revoultion

I want the Western imprealist scum to PAY!
Mike

[vinoveri]

Re: We need a revoultion

I want the Western imprealist scum to PAY!
Mike

Sorry, better get used to it. If you are unable to accept "Thy will be done", I suggest stoic philosophy and a good supply of medication

There is no justice in this world .... and those that run it don't believe in the next ... so there will be no justice in this world

[Mega]

Re: We need a revoultion

Selling UK Plc is the only way we can avoid a full-blown crisis

Overseas buyers should be thanked: they are bailing us out and financing our lifestyle

The fact we are building tiny and over-priced flats in high-rise buildings and then selling many of them to wealthy folk abroad should be seen as a stroke of genius Photo: PA









By Allister Heath

6:04PM BST 01 Apr 2014

35 Comments


For sale: that is the sign that has just been hoisted over UK Plc. Over the coming months and years, foreigners will be snapping up even more British companies and buying UK properties, shares and bonds in ever-greater quantities.

This is not just any old prediction, it is the logical outcome of Britain’s exploding current account deficit. It is a mathematical certainty, and the only way we will avoid a full-blown crisis.


Basic economics tells us why it is possible to be so confident about this. There is no such thing as a free lunch: the wonderful imported goods we all have such a great appetite for come with a steep price tag.


There are three principal ways that the citizens of a country can earn their way in the world: they can sell goods and services to people in other countries; they can make great investments abroad and repatriate the cash; or they can deliver assets and IOUs to foreigners in return for buying goods and services from them.


We’ve long had issues with the first of these methods, but had quietly mastered the second technique - until it all started to unravel two years ago, when the return on our investments suddenly took a dramatic turn for the worse. So now we are left with the third option: we need to hand over vast amounts of capital to finance our imports.

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The scale of the deterioration in the figures is almost unbelievably bad. The UK’s investment income balance registered a surplus of £22.5bn in 2011. By 2012, this had turned into a deficit of £3.8bn. The latest figures, released last week, were in the red to the tune of a staggering £17.4bn. In other words, interest, dividends and rents from UK-owned assets abroad - for example, the Asian subsidiaries of British multinationals - now yield significantly less than the money generated on foreign-owned assets in the UK - such as Tata’s Jaguar Land Rover factories or office blocks in central London. This is an astonishing about-turn, and one that has caught most economists by surprise. The boffins were focused on George Osborne’s stubbornly large budget deficit; they didn’t see this latest black hole coming and, in their more honest moments, will admit to not fully understanding its true causes.

As a result of collapsing returns on Britain’s overseas assets, and even though the trade deficit actually shrank last year, the current account deficit hit £22.8bn in the third quarter, a record at 5.6pc of GDP, and £22.4bn in the final quarter of last year, 5.4pc of GDP. In the days of fixed exchange rates and the Bretton Woods agreements, these sorts of numbers would have triggered a full-blown balance of payments panic; while the current system is far more resilient, there is no excuse for complacency.

So what is going on? Between 1998 and 2011, the annual rate of return on the UK’s external assets averaged 3.9pc, comfortably above the 3.5pc paid out on the UK’s external liabilities, research from Citigroup demonstrates. But the margin between these two numbers, which helped finance a large chunk of the trade deficit, has not just disappeared but actually turned negative. In the last three months of last year, the return on Britain’s overseas assets was just 1.7pc, far lower than the 2.2pc collected on our external liabilities, the Citigroup study reveals. Foreigners are now proving cannier investors than we are.

The reasons for this are partly cyclical: many UK-owned investments seem to be located in parts of the global economy that did badly last year; assets in Britain have done better thanks to the rebound in growth. The eurozone’s ongoing woes reduced income flows from Ireland and the continent. Receipts from Hong Kong and Switzerland also seem to have been badly affected, partly because of the continuing shake-out in the financial sector. Some of the overall deterioration was due to bad luck and a fair bit to exchange rate fluctuations.

A stronger pound depresses the value of income from overseas; a lower pound boosts it. The biggest danger is that the public falls for all of the usual protectionist and mercantilistic propaganda and starts blaming foreigners for Britain’s economic troubles. We are already seeing renewed worries about the rise of overseas investors, especially in property; but they are a symptom, not a cause, of the fact that we don’t earn enough money in other ways. The greater our current account deficit, the more we will have to sell homes, offices or companies to foreigners; complaining about it is as pointless as grumbling about the weather, unless we address the underlying issues.

In fact, overseas buyers should be thanked: they are bailing us out and financing our lifestyle. The fact that we are building tiny and over-priced flats in high-rise buildings in London and then selling many of them to wealthy folk abroad should be seen as a stroke of genius, not as some sort of failure. We aren’t good enough at producing goods and services, so we are exporting homes instead.

It is a good thing that UK assets continue to yield a decent return: it means that global investors will continue to want to put their money in Britain. It is probably best that it takes the form of long-term foreign direct investment, as now, rather than merely via short-term portfolio allocations; the money tends to be less fleeting.

If it becomes harder to attract these sorts of buyers, chances are that the pound will drop, which would make UK assets cheaper and more attractive while simultaneously boosting the value of our exports and investment returns.

The authorities should not seek to manipulate the exchange rate, however, as this would be hugely dangerous; and there is nothing anybody can do about the collapse in the performance of our overseas investments, apart, perhaps, from praying. There is only one sustainable solution, but it will take time and require lots of political capital. We need a fresh emphasis on supply-side reforms that strengthen British firms, increase entrepreneurship, improve incentives, boost competitiveness and allow UK producers of goods and services to compete better in global markets.

Expensive energy caused by our obsession with renewables at all costs is strangling British manufacturing, and is a key reason why the sector is still struggling. The City is another great source of exports; it too is being held back by an excessively harsh regulatory backlash. Companies need to be allowed to develop shale more quickly: this would help large corporate energy users while reducing the current account deficit. Our antiquated planning regime for residential property has led to years of under-supply, pushing up prices, fuelling nationalistic tensions and upping costs on business.

All of these issues, and many more, must urgently be tackled. Britain needs to produce more, it needs to invest more and it needs to sell more abroad. We need to get our act together, start living within our means and above all stop blaming foreigners for our own short-sightedness.

[Mega]

Re: We need a revoultion

Britain holds less foreign currency reserves than Poland, says Deutsche Bank

UK foreign reserves rank 24th in the world at just $70bn, Deutsche Bank research shows

Former Chancellor Norman Lamont failed to save the pound in 1992 with reserves Photo: PAUL ARMIGER









By Andrew Critchlow

1:42PM BST 01 Apr 2014

342 Comments


The size of Britain's total foreign exchange reserves - used to defend the pound during a financial crisis - ranks outside the world's top 20 nations behind Poland and the Philippines.

Research from Deutsche Bank, titled "Mapping the World's Financial Markets", showed that the UK is ranked 24th in a list of the world's largest holders of foreign currency reserves.


The Bank of England and the Treasury hold $70bn (£42bn) in foreign exchange reserves, just $2.7bn more than the United Arab Emirates and only slightly more than Peru, according to the report.


The low ranking shows Britain's vulnerability to another external financial crisis and a run on the pound with limited cash available to meet shortfalls or intervene in markets.



Famously when Norman Lamont was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1992, the Bank of England was forced to intervene heavily in currency markets in a failed effort to keep the pound in the European Union's Exchange Rate Mechanism.
However, billions of pounds of reserves spent on buying the pound failed and John Major, the then Prime Minister, was eventually forced to exit the mechanism and effectively devalue sterling in an episode that became known as "Black Wednesday".

Chancellor George Osborne announced in the Budget plans to increase Britain's foreign exchange reserves - a move some commentators have suggested is a veiled message that the authorities will be prepared to intervene on the exchanges to sell the pound to keep the currency from growing too strong for exporters.


In contrast to the UK's current stocks, China - including the State Administration of Foreign Exchange - holds 32.6pc of total global foreign currency holdings worth $3.2 trillion, according to Deutsche Bank.

Foreign-exchange reserves are assets held by central banks or monetary authorities, usually in different reserve currencies, mostly US dollar and to a lesser extent the euro, sterling, and the Japanese yen, and used to back its liabilities.

These liabilities usually refer the local currency issued, and the various bank reserves deposited with the central bank, by the government or financial institutions.

The Bank on its website states: "As part of the monetary policy framework introduced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1997, the Bank holds its own foreign exchange reserves in support of its monetary policy objective. These reserves are separate from the UK's official reserves, which the Bank manages on behalf of HM Treasury."

According to the Bank, most of the UK's foreign exchange reserves are held in the Exchange Equalisation Account - set up in 1932 to provide a fund which could be used "for checking undue fluctuations in the exchange value of sterling".
The UK also has access to Special Drawing Rights at the International Monetary Fund and assets held in the Reserve Tranche Position with the Fund.