MoM down 0.4%

QoQ down 0.3%

YoY up 2.5%

Guess that cancels out the Nationwide?

Already, we’ve seen big names from the high street – including Barclays, Nationwide and Santander – make changes to their affordability stress tests to allow households to borrow more.

And now, among the discussions of where to go next, the idea of using interest-only to ease the affordability burden has resurfaced."

Naive twits & chancers learning the hard way that regulation applies to everybody.

Looks like crypto & crypto derivatives are being wrenched out of the hands of mavericks & hubristic ‘gurus’ & brought into the financial services mainstream too.

Good.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11579649/Tesla-owners-blast-Christmas-car-charging-chaos-dozens-forced-wait-THREE-HOUR-queues.html

Roll on Hydrogen!

Quote

Residents in the tiny village of Copthorne have expressed frustration as house prices drop by nearly 10%, which they attribute to nearby hotels housing asylum seekers.

The quintessentially British village, located near Gatwick Airport, has seen traditional concerns about flight paths and traffic replaced by tensions over migrant accommodation.

Two hotels in the area have been transformed into housing for asylum seekers, coinciding with a significant drop in property values.

Figures from Rightmove reveal that house prices in Copthorne fell by 9% in the last year. This decline starkly contrasts the wider region, with Office for National Statistics data showing house prices in the South East rose by approximately 4.6% from the 12 months to January 2025.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12182513/Scientists-Wuhan-combining-worlds-deadly-coronaviruses-outbreak-Covid-19.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12136203/Beijings-secret-Covid-lab-leak-probe.html

It's clear that the Wet Market was not the "origin" of the virus (no infected animal has ever been found), but a "super-spreader" location. Only 280 metres from the "Centre for Disease Control" lab, which was carrying out coronavirus research at only Level 2 security.

Read this March 2020 article from the "Bulletin of Atomic Scientists", an organisation of impeccable scientific integrity:
https://thebulletin.org/2020/03/experts-know-the-new-coronavirus-is-not-a-bioweapon-they-disagree-on-whether-it-could-have-leaked-from-a-research-lab/

The research preprint referred to in the article is widely said to have been "deleted from the internet". But you can read it here:
https://img-prod.tgcom24.mediaset.it/images/2020/02/16/114720192-5eb8307f-017c-4075-a697-348628da0204.pdf

Figure 1 shows the location of the lab and wet market.

Do we trust the banks to keep our funds secure?

Or if you or they get conscripted to Starmer's Army.

Will you go willingly to face the Russian Guns or Refuse?

Yet everyone was telling me to pay these absurd valuations because that is just how the house market works.

Well a year in, the houses I put realistic offers on or walked away from are still there. They aint shifting.

When I look at the sale prices in the area I am searching in and compare them to asking prices. There is a huge difference; some people are asking 60K above the average sale price in their local area.

I feel vindicated in not paying these absurd prices but also stuck. There is no pressure on vendors to lower their prices to realistic levels. Houses sit on the market forever and vendors get to live in a fantasy world in which they can ask what they like.

Gold price climbs to new record on debt uncertainty

The price of gold has hit a new record price of $1,610 an ounce as debt worries in the US and Europe have intensified.

It climbed above $1,600 for the first time on Monday, capping a record-breaking rally of 11 days of gains.

Gold is considered a safe investment and usually gains at times of global economic uncertainty.

Silver also continued to climb, to above $40 an ounce, its highest price for two months.

"Gold hit another milestone... at $1,600 as investors lose confidence in the ability of politicians to get a grip with the debt problems weighing down on sentiment," said Michael Hewson from CMC Markets, a trading group.

"More advances look likely," he said.

The record breaking price comes ahead of Thursday's summit of eurozone leaders in Brussels where they will once again try to contain the growing debt crisis.

Investors are concerned that Greece may default on its debt, and countries such as Italy and Spain, who are also struggling with high debt levels, will get pulled into the crisis.

US default?

Meanwhile in the US politicians are struggling to reach an agreement on a deficit reduction plan in time to avoid a debt default before the deadline of 2 August.

Gold price reaches new high on eurozone debt fears

Nicholas Brooks, the head of investment strategy at ETF Securities, told the BBC investors were worried about the US economy.

"I think the concern is that if we see another round of so called quantitative easing, it's basically de-basing the US dollar. It's putting new dollars into the system and that of course makes investors concerned about holding on to US dollars.

"When they look at the alternative, the euro and the issues that are now affecting the euro, they look for alternatives and gold of course is one of the first places they go, along with other so-called hard commodities," he said.

Mixed signals here - on the one hand they are flying the warning flag, saying "prices are higher than they have ever been before", but then almost in the same breath saying that the price will go higher, and that it is "considered a safe investment"... Note that they don't put any disclaimer on it - it is therefore "never" an unsafe investment...

Hi all. A very elderly couple we've known for a while, who have no kids, have let us know they plan to leave us their house in their will. They have told us they are now very belatedly getting their finances in order, because with stocks and shares etc, their total estate is worth seven figures. A quick Zoopla check values the house at £425k. No 'lucky bugger' comments please - they have made it very clear they are leaving it to us so we can rent it out to someone they know but we have never met. From their perspective, they are very excited about this idea and have already told this individual their plans. I have no desire to be a landlord, for all sort of reasons. Also, and my question to the knowledgeable folk here, is how much tax are we likely to need to pay, because I don't think we will have anywhere near that amount to hand and would therefore need to sell the property to pay the sum, and thus be unable to rent it out as they wish. I am expecting to need to have a difficult conversation with this couple, who are quite out of touch with money issues. Appreciate any insight. Thanks.

Start of the week I was offered 1.19, same as it’s been for months.

Mid week 1.16.

Now 1.14 (via broker).

* London Aquarium - £28 a ticket https://www.visitsealife.com/london/tickets-prices/

* Too Good To Go app - stale food at fresh prices

* Starbucks

* Magazines - not paying the price of a book for a catalogue of adverts

Stone cold Bailey.

However, he told Higgins it would be “impossible” to ignore a cache of emails from JP Morgan, which included a notorious exchange discussing Disney princess characters.

“I explained that there was no way that we could avoid asking Mr Staley about the “Snow White” email,” Bailey, who was then running the FCA, said. “Given that this was suggestive of a closer relationship, it was impossible that we could just ignore them.”

In those messages from 2010, Staley contacted Epstein, saying “say hi to Snow White”. Epstein replied “what character would you like next?”, to which Staley answered “Beauty and the Beast”.

The court was shown notes taken by Higgins after a call with Bailey, in which the former is said to have declared “you have destroyed him,” in an apparent reference to Staley. “I don’t see any evidence of a lack of integrity,” the note adds.

“I do remember a conversation along those lines, yes,” Bailey told the court.

The Pigs not having children is a problem for the Farmer, not the Pigs.

Quote

The boss of the UK’s biggest building society Nationwide has warned that a tax raid on Cash Isas will make mortgages more expensive. Chief executive Debbie Crosbie said she was ‘very keen’ for the tax-free allowance to remain at £20,000 a year.

It comes amid renewed fears that the Chancellor will cut the limit in her October Budget to get more savers to invest in stocks and shares instead. Rachel Reeves is plotting an overhaul of the Isa regime but has not yet revealed what it will involve. She abandoned plans to address the issue in March’s Spring Statement after fierce pushback from savers.

Crosbie yesterday questioned whether a cut to the tax-free limit was the ‘right way’ to promote growth, as Nationwide revealed profits soared to £2.3billion in the year to March 31, from £1.8billion a year earlier. The Scottish executive yesterday said Cash Isas are a ‘very important source of funding’ for building societies providing home loans. ‘I’m not sure [a cut to the tax-free allowance] would prevent people from lending, but what it could do, particularly for some of the smaller building societies, is increase the costs of mortgage lending,’ she said.

Leeds Building Society boss Richard Fearon has said such a move means ‘mortgage rates would become more expensive to borrowers’. And the Building Societies Association has warned it could lead to a downturn in the housing market.

This made me laugh a bit. While these firms are attempting to shut coal plants down, China is building coal capacity at an enormous rate.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/30/five-asian-countries-80-percent-new-coal-power-investment

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/china-coalfired-power-plants-iea-clean-energy-b1858236.html

Is China's coal power program the biggest threat to preventing climate change ?