Will!

Anyone can become homeless, but not anyone can stay homeless. I've worked with St Mungo's and I've been impressed. https://www.mungos.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/NSNO-FAQs-Nov-22.pdf

Criminalising homelessness is both unjust and difficult to enforce. Street drinking is the index activity for much criminal behaviour. Criminalising street drinking would probably achieve more than banning tents.

House prices might plateau?

The Bank of England’s Asset Purchase Facility might lose money on the bonds even if it held them to maturity, albeit more slowly.

For a change from the sterile lockdown back and forth: Sky News: Matt Hancock wanted to decide 'who should live and die' if NHS overwhelmed in pandemic Hancock was correct that that that decision should have been at a policy level. A draft guideline was drawn up, but never implemented. It's not in the public domain, but the Italians' similar guideline is attached. The news story doesn't report (and I must admit I haven't watched everything or read all the transcripts) whether anyone considered that guards for ICUs would be necessary once people realised that there loved ones weren't going to be admitted because of the policy. It is worth considering that even the authoritarian People's Republic of China didn't try a no lockdown + guards for ICUs policy. SIAARTI Covid-19 Clinical ethics recomendations for allocation of intensive care treatments.pdf

It's the "diving watches" that make me laugh. All the ones I've looked at have a small disclaimer saying they can't actually be used for diving calculations. What's the point of them then?

Nationwide are the most liberal BTL lender. If and when they go pop that will definitely cause prices to fall.

It reminds me of De Beers and diamonds.

Thanks.

How quantitative tightening *really* works https://www.ft.com/content/c9ccd19c-14dc-4b15-8a21-126a36fdc1d6 Registration but not subscription required.

It used to be the case that bad news sold papers. Now it draws the clicks in. Some people with not enough happening in their lives like drama / panic. Some people who have not done very much with their lives hope for the apocalypse when (they imagine) that won't matter and they will thrive, Mad Max style.

Interesting read, thanks. January 2022 was indeed a bad time to buy index-linked bonds. My personal situation: I plan to hold to maturity so I'm not too worried about what the price does after I buy. RPI (or CPIH from 2030) of >3.5% is exactly the expectation on which I'm basing my decision. CGT exemption is a sweetener for me.

What are you thinking?

For an HPC it’s all about the area under the curve, not the height of the peak. Looks good to me.

I know a few. Knew about Section 24 of the Finance Act 2015, ltd company, leverage under 60%, accounts done professionally, no stupid Property118 tax wheezes. They vex me a bit because https://www.themortgageworks.co.uk will still lend to them and in a market with low enough volumes they can be price-setting marginal buyers.