BoldAsBrass

Who is the biography by? Is it available for Kindle (which I think I am about to get for my birthday)?

Millions of people take no notice of the macro economic/political system they live in. They discount their importance and it affects them as much as it affects you. Or do you have a way of not be affected? What would reading hundreds of posts on this forum achieve - in terms of dealing with what is, allegedly, ahead? Having some gold buried in the garden doesn't sound as though it will be much use. I buy enough insurance to pay the mortgage off if I die. That's it - oh and what I am legally required to have. You seem unable to resist the temptation to try to portray me as some sort of hippy nutter. But what's your prescription? In fact whistling happy tunes - if this means carrying on as normal and not starting to stockpile food and fuel then I'd say it's not such a bad idea. I assume from what you have written that you are busy building a bunker and stockpiling food and fuel - hidden away somewhere so the marauding hordes won't find it when everything you predict takes place.

It is a catastrophe. I lost my job in 1990 during the last shindig. Luckily I had seen what was coming and downsized - cut my mortgage in half - and we got by on my wife's earnings. I remember the weird feeling of say driving behind a bloke in a van and thinking 'he's got a job, why haven't I got a job'. I've never forgotten the feeling of hopelessness and uselessness. I lived in a little cul-de-sac at the time - at one point half the men in the close were out of work. Which felt weird to us - in the early 80s we were used to seeing pictures of whole towns in the North blighted by unemployment as whole industries disappeared - but we got a good taste of it in the South in the late 80s/early 90s recession. All I'm saying is - if we all listen to the news 24/7 and get ourselves into the mindset that a catastrophe is in the making - if we all stop spending money and sit around waiting for armageddon then, as sure as night follows day, armageddon will follow. The one thing we really need at the moment is leadership - but our political system - with one side endlessly carping on about the other - does not engender any sense of pulling together etc. We do it in times of war - maybe we need to develop the same mindset.

It's all justs zeroes and ones in a computer. You're taking it all way too seriously. The larder might be clean ... yet the supermarkets are full of food and most people can afford to eat, clothe themselves and keep warm. At least, that's how it looks to me. What do you suggest people do? You talk about systemic failure - I wonder what on earth that means? Should people get up in the morning and go to work - or is the whole thing about to fall apart (whatever that may mean). We had all this in the late 80s when the housing market tanked - recession - lots of people lost their jobs in areas where that had never really happened before - i.e. London and the South East. I was one of them. We had it in the 70s with the energy crisis and the 3 day week. Lots of people were muttering about crises then, and systemic failure, and the end of our economy/society etc. Yet, weirdly, we got through all that. And we'll get through this a lot better if people stop using phrases like 'systemic failure' without a coherent explanation of what it means, why it will happen and what will happen when it happens. Because, one way or another, we will get through this. Surely we've already seen that when we're short of capital, we can just create some. Again, that's how it looks to me anyway. Edit: Just noticed another word you used. "The figures are CATASTROPHIC". In what way do the figures mean we are to suffer a catastrophe. A catastrophe to me is a flood, or an earthquake. What do you mean by a catastrophe? Meanwhile, in a high street near me someone is spending 50k refurbishing their pub. Why are they bothering? I'd say it's because after they re-open (new menu, of course) they'll be heaving for a year and recoup their investment and a lot more. Or are you saying they won't? Edit: Just noticed this: " Positive thinking, fairies and rainbows will make no difference" - why do you try to equate my point that the endless diet of bad news from the media - the same news repeated over and over again, day in, day out, endlessly - has a very negative effect on many people and is, in fact, contributing to the problem - with fairies and rainbows? I didn't mention a belief in fairies. I met someone the other night who believes in angels - but, hey, each to their own.

I don't buy your basic premise - the global economy is not in crisis. But if you repeat it often enough, it will become true. If I buy a house when I'm young and borrow a load of money to do it - it doesn't mean I have a crisis. It just means I've borrowed a load of money and need to pay it back. In this country we need to pay down our debts and make more and import less. It's not a crisis. No doubt some debt forgiveness will be involved globally. Maybe the political and banking classes that run things will learn something. One thing is for certain - we need to positive and optimistic.

Thanks for that link. I clicked on the Vegetarianism link and it was great to read all the comments by people like Tolstoy, Jesus, Shaw, Besant, Einstein and so on. When I became vegetarian in 1984 I read a lot on the subject but in the intervening years I have just been a habitual vegetarian. But when I first started I was fired up a bit - the start of a spiritual journey (ahem, sorry about that). I became vegan for a while but it seemed to be too much hard work reading every packet and when the kids came along I went back to vegetarian. But reading that makes me want to move to vegan again. I was told I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol a few months ago (probably due to stress and getting into the daft mindset of thinking 'I'm vegetarian so I can/must eat loads of cheese for protein') - so I cut most dairy products out of my diet (still have milk in tea though - find that hard to give up) - haven't eaten any cheese - or chocolate - for about 10 weeks - and started exercising every day (10 minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes out on the bike). I've lost 20 pounds and feel a lot better. Used to fall asleep over my computer most afternoons, now I'm full of energy. Which seems to have sorted me out on the physical side - which is great. But, again, thanks for the link. Now I need to step up the yoga and meditation and move forwards - and stop eating baby food meant for calves.

But I've never heard David Cameron say 'the end of the world is nigh' - on the contrary - he says things are serious, we have a lot of money to pay back, which is why we've got to get our heads down, remove the shackles from business blah, blah - it might be all words but he does strike an optimistic note on the whole. The newscasters, by comparison, you't think they were bringing good news the way they shout the headlines. Eurozone in CRISIS! Why not - Eurozone Finance Ministers meed today to discuss latest tranche of Greek bailout. But, no, it has to be ... BOING! EUROZONE IN CRISIS! Stuff it, I am not listening to them any more. If you had a mate who spoke to you all the time in the way that newscasters do ... have you heard the lates on this, did you hear about that ... we all know people like that and avoid them like the plague because they bring you down. Well that's what the media is doing to the whole country.

Sorry that things are not so good for you - I wonder how much of that - in a macro sense - is down to the general doom and gloom. It got so bad a couple of weeks ago that I was seriously thinking of taking 5k out of the bank and sticking it under the mattress - I did that in 2008 when the banking crisis was in full flow and only found out later that we were within half an hour of closing the cash machine network. This 27/7 media nonsense has a lot to answer for. I have done it so many times lately - I go into the lounge and watch the box for an hour at about 9.00 ish - and then the 10 o'clock news comes on. Boing! The Eurozone is collapsing. Boing! The public sector is going on strike. Boing! Nurses are starving old people. Boing! David Cameron says this. Boing! Ed Milliband says that. Boing! The governer of the Bank of England says the end is nigh! By which time I'm either on a repeat of Two and a Half Men or on my way to bed. It really is getting beyond a joke. I like current affairs. If I watch News at Ten and then Newsnight - I'm ready for an overdose by the time I go to bed. So I've stopped watching and I feel a whole lot better.

I think it has more to do with the media than the politicians. If I don't watch the news for a few days - I look out the window, the sun is shining, so far, so good, on the work front, family all well and those old enough to work are in work ... I feel pretty optimistic about life and the future. I listen to the news and I'm ready to slit my wrists. I think the media should be banned - apart from good news stories. If something bad happens in the Eurozone that is going to affect me in a serious way - the government should write to me. Other than that they should all shut up and stop scaring the hell out of everyone. As Roosevelt said - "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" - people are never going to have the confidence and optimism to work ourselves out of the debt hole we are in if, every time they read a paper or look at the television or go on a web site, someone is standing telling them the world is about to end. I say the above a little 'tongue in cheek' but I really am sick to the back teeth with the prophets of doom delivering the news. In our house now even my kids (without any prompting from me) say 'turn it over' whenever the news comes on. Edit: From today's Telegraph web site ... "A dramatic fall in confidence over the economy has prompted small firms to lay off staff as costs rise and revenues decline. More companies are now pessimistic about their prospects than bullish and intend to sack staff in an attempt to reduce costs and save cash." Why are they pessimistic? Is it because orders have fallen, or enquiries are down or something tangible? Or is because every time they listen to the media they are told - over and over again - 24/7 - that the economy stands on the verge of collapse. Well the economy is not on the verge of collapse - that is total bunkum. We really are talking ourselves into this. The media helped create the boom by kidding everyone that property would rise forever and was a one way bet to millionaire status - now they are doing the opposite. Damn depressing listening to the muppets.

Yes, I completely disagree too. So many people are negative about this country yet (as has been observed, depending where you live), there really are few places on earth I would rather LIVE. One day I hope to retire either to the South Hams or the North Cornwall coast somewhere around Watergate Bay. A walk along that beach every morning and evening, and a pint of Doom in the bar there watching the sun go down over the Atlantic is, as far as I am concerned, 'as good as it gets'. Bearing in mind you are in a country that is vaguely civilized - it will do for me.

Don't be so bloody patronising. Just because I can see - I KNOW - that what you posted is complete drivel - it does not make mean I am not open minded. My mind is open - but not to the ravings of ill-informed fools primed with their own self importance. If this means a ban - so be it. I thought this site was about investment - not about loony conspiracy theories which, if you decide to call them nonsense, gets you called 'close minded'. If ever you want to discuss the true nature of reality - I'm up for that. But not that drivel you posted.

Okay, I thought I'd listen to the video. I lasted 3 minutes. I cannot listen to gullible fools spouting conspiratorial nonsense - referring to their 'sources'. This isn't even 4th form debating society level - it is just puerile nonsense peddled by people who are simply deluded. In particular they are deluded that they have an open or inquiring mind - that 'they' are so clever and special they do not fall for the same tricks as the rest of us poor deluded fools. One ludicrous, unbacked, assertion after another delivered in such an irritating manner too.

I'm not asking you to trust me. That's the point. Work it out for yourself. It's what you have to do.

People who say that those links you posted are baloney are not, necessarily, closed minded. It may be that they are very open minded and can see that what is being propounded is just a load of new-age, psycho babble mumbo-jumbo. I certainly think that - yet I regularly meditate and take a 'close minded' trip down into quantum reality - beneath the world of cells - and molecules and atoms - into the void - where there is only darkness and the energy/intelligence that is the source of creation. (Now look, you've got me at it!) But this is a private world - in that it is a private experience - I don't have the words to explain it. What I can say is ... I haven't come across any symbols there that need to be shared. I can't see what this has to do with sharing, or not sharing, trading ideas with people who scoff at the nonsense spouted in the links you posted. Trust me, they really are complete baloney.

There is a difference between an open mind and a 'I'll fall for any old baloney that someone wants to spout' mind. I didn't look at the videos / links because I read this ... "Based on a hugely popular Internet documentary, this exploration of historic signs and symbolism determines what the future holds for humanity come 2012." ... hmmmm, sounds like typical new-age, old-age, semi mystical nonsense spouted by people who have no real understanding of quantum reality. "If you believe there is no special significance to the year 2012, then prepare yourself for a guided tour through the most incredible scientific mysteries in the modern world, which may be the rediscovery of an ancient system of physics and spirituality that was once widely used and understood, but has since crumbled almost completely into ruin." -The Source Field Investigations ... ohhh please - it's just gibberish. My mind is far from closed. I ponder a lot on the true nature of our existence and of reality. It doesn't cause me to start spouting nonsense about symbols - dreamt up by people with feeble minds who are as far from understanding anything as your average religious devotee. And, apart from responding to this thread, I keep my thoughts to myself - because most people are not the slightest bit interested and you, for want of a better phrase, 'look for the path' when you are ready. There is no change in human thinking about to happen. No more than it has for the last 10,000 years. Some people progress - mentally and spiritually - most don't. Enlightenment is available to all - if you want it. Most people don't.

Where to start? I admit I haven't looked at the videos / links because, from the tone and texture of the intro to them, I know they are nonsense. The fact is this 'source field' is nothing more, nor less, than the quantum field we are all a part of. We each build our own version of reality, using our senses and our learned experiences. Challenging our normal perception of reality is not new or original in any way - people have been doing it for thousands of years. What's funny is that not many people ever seem to find the time to stop and think about our human condition - and, by thinking, coming to any sort of realisation of the true nature of our reality. All you need to do is find the time - and the determination - to meditate. It's not rocket science, it's not new age - but it takes a lot of time and persistence to get anywhere. Most people are too busy paying the mortgage. The bloke referred to is just someone else who is 'on the way' - but I guess his ego has made him spread the word and try to appear clever.

First, an aside, even with my new 30mb BT Infinity broadband - this site is running like a dog today. And, you haven't answered the question. You make regular statements about how it will all change when interest rates go up (same as we all made back in 2003 on the site that has become too weird to mention). But, whose interests is it in for interest rates to go up? Because, I observe that actions take place that are usually in somebody's interest. And making sure people who have saved money earn more (unearned) interest at the expense of far more people who have debts seems to me to not be a good enough reason. That and the fact it will take the economy down. The current situation is surely the opposite of endlessly rising house prices - i.e. it is a transfer of money from the old to the young. Which strikes me as a good thing.

Against the dollar and the euro - sterling has flat-lined for the last 3 years.

Whose interest is it in to put rates up? Whose interest is it in for rates to stay low? Savers have, apparently, lost £43 billion in interest. Borrowers have, apparently, saved £58 billion in interest payments. On the face of it the banks have £15 billion less to spend on bonuses and there is £15 billion more sploshing around in the economy - on the basis that most people spend the money they don't pay on mortgage interest. Only the dedicated few pay down their mortgages. When the global economy is in the same boat - can't see where the pressure to raise rates will come from. We could have low rates for 10 years. Maybe 20 years. Who knows? One thing is certain, people with money to save will start looking for better yields and may even 'invest' rather than save.

Boy, I'd love to see 'crash cruise speed' but 0.4% in a year hardly fits the bill does it? Meanwhile London property is still going up - unbelievably - but there it is - and, in my area, suddenly a rash of Sold signs have appeared. We seem to be back to a similar market to a couple of years ago where there is now very little on the market. Anything half decent is now selling quite quickly and, at prices I would say are at least at 2007 levels. Given that most of the wealth of the country seems to be in London and the South East - and some of the South West - I'd be curious to know how many people live (roughly) in London, Essex, Herts, Kent, Bucks, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, parts of Suffolk and Norfolk ... is it the case, I wonder, that half the population live in areas where there have been no significant drops overall.

The thing with recessions is they don't affect everybody. And, after a year or two, the natural optimism of the UK human takes over. Surely, now, one thing is obvious. People's time horizons are about a year - two at the most. And, if they are greater, they simply extrapolate the current situation and assume it will carry on. Nothing else can explain the fact that people are still taking on mortgages of hundreds of thousands of pounds to sustain the London/South East property market. They really do think that interest rates will be at their current levels forever. This is a good example of the lack of 'realization' mentioned often in Eastern religions. If you ask a successful chap about to move and take on a 400k mortgage (to buy that nice £1m house in Chiswick) whether he is worried about interest rates going up in the future he'll say 'Of course I know interest rates could go up in the future' but, somehow, he discounts this 'knowledge' because, although he 'knows' interest rates can/will go up in the future he doesn't 'realize' it. If he 'realized' it he would not take on such an insane mortgage because he would have recognized the threat as 'real' and not taken the risk. All the property craziness of the last 14 years has proved to me that people are fundamentally optmistic ... in that they live in a state of denial about how the world really is.

It is a sad but unavoidable truth that the principal factor that will guide the actions of those who lead us is May 7th 2015.

I find that a very odd reaction. These are the facts. We walked into a sales office on a new housing estate and said we've got 500k to spend. She said 'the 5 bed houses are £525k' and my wife said 'Would they take an offer?' just assuming she'd say 'yes, most people offer under the £500k to get below the 4% stamp duty'. But, no, she said 'not 25k less'. I wheeled round and said 'Really?! They won't take an offer in this market?!' - and she said; 'No, they are selling well at the current prices'. During my 20 odd years in construction, I spent the last few years managing large housing developments in Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Surrey (having moved out of London where I used to work on big office developments). So I know how the sales process works on these sites. I asked her what was being released in the next few months and it is only about 20 units (the site is, like all big sites these days, mixed development - from 1 bed flats to 5 bed detached with a smattering of affordable housing in there too. Whereas in the old days they would have been building at at least twice the rate. So they are being sensible - they are matching the building rate to local demand so they don't end up with houses standing empty that they have to discount to sell. So, I can assure you she was not lying through her teeth. Why would she lose a good potential buyer by doing that? (We'd already told her we were in rented and were cash buyers (bit of a porkie there). She'd been selling on the same site for the last 6 years so she knows what she is doing and what she was doing was telling us how it is - that particular developer on that particular site in that particular part of the Home Counties is not taking offers of 500k on 525k houses - and they are selling them at the rate they are building them. There were no finished houses sitting there with 'Available' stickers in the windows. Not one. And, before I get accused of being a troll - I'm just reporting what happened to me on Sunday afternoon. And, out last night for my regular stroll around a neighbouring estate - two houses opposite each other that have had For Sale signs outside for the last 3 to 4 months have both got Sold signs outside (okay, a long way from exchanging contracts). So, what do we know? Well very little from such miniscule anecdotal observations but, in my area, sales are half what they used to be but prices seem to be holding up. My eldest lad is getting more and more fed up with the realization that unless something changes, he is going to be living with us indefinitely. I'm having to seriously discuss with him selling the house we have just bought and looking for something we can do up/extend so he can have independent living accommoodation.

Yesterday my wife and I, on the way to visit relatives, drove past a big, new, housing estate in Hampshire. We decided to go in and have a look at the show homes - we are about to refurbish our bathrooms and thought we'd have a look at what is now current. Of course you have to pretend you are interested and I like to take any opportunity to find out how the market is really doing. We said 'we're looking up to 500k' and the sales person said 'the 5 beds are £525k and the 4 beds are £450k'. We said 'would they take an offer on the 5 bed' and she sort of half-smiled disdainfully and said 'not twenty five thousand'. So we had a look around and went through the usual banter before we could get away. She said they are selling them as fast as they build them and are not having to negotiate on price. The site is big and it seems they have been on site for some years. She added, 'a couple of years ago when the market went down we dropped our prices a bit, but they've gone back up again now'. It seems that, so far, it's not just London that is disconnected. Most of the South East seems to be too.

The thing is - what, actually, is going to happen? Despite the evidence presented here and in other places I still think global inflation is what is going to happen. I don't think we're going to see the end of fiat money - or gold going to the moon - or the banking system shutting down - or any of the more apocalyptic scenarios on offer. I do, of course, accept I may well be wrong.