nicejim

To quantify this, January's Credit Action report stated daily interest payments of £252m and August's stated "only" £182m. I think this is for personal debt. The overall level of personal debt rose slightly but so did savings, and the rate of increase in debt is falling. http://www.creditaction.org.uk/debt-statistics.html Net mortgage lending was negative for the first time, according to latest monthly figures release today. http://www.citywire.co.uk/personal/-/news/....aspx?ID=355629 But whilst the people become more responsible, the government soaks itself in debt.

Interesting parallels there, Dr B. The last 2 troughs have each been lower than the 2 preceding peaks, inflation adjusted. Anyone think it'll be different this time? http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/graphs-av...house-price.php

What pop up in commodities? Oil down 4.5% today, below 70 for the first time since whenever. Gas down, heating oil down, copper down 3.5%. Cotton and lumber were up. Confusingly, the g:s ratio is below 64 now after rising above 68 in the last week. Isn't this fall supposed to signify inflation(ary expectations)? Some here switched to gold at 66. Are you still expecting a move upwards?

G:S below 65

+1

Taking population data from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population ...and official gold reserves from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_gold_reserves ...and allowing for some copy/paste errors ...I created a spreadsheet of gold reserves per person here http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=twV...amp;output=html Points of note 1) ECB reserves are listed separately and I didn't bother splitting them between Eurozone populations 2) Bullionvault has more gold than Jordan 3) Canada and Chile are surprisingly low on the list 4) Does anyone want to finance an invasion of Aruba? Err...I mean "an enterprise of great advantage, but none to know what it is"

I love google for this sort of thing... http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=360+milli...unces+in+tonnes 360 million troy ounces = 11 197.2516 tonnes

From http://www.dailywealth.com/archive/2009/aug/2009_aug_20.asp "there are some 400 million households in China, with an average ownership of about 0.1 ounces of gold. The average gold ownership in most emerging countries works out to about 1 ounce per household. The Chinese are beginning to make up that gap." That's 360million ounces to be bought. Global jewellery demand is about 70million so even if it takes a decade for Chinese domestic gold investment to catch up, that's equivalent to a 50% increase in jewellery demand!

List of Gold and Silver companies on google finance (half way down the page): http://www.google.co.uk/finance?catid=uk-64980108 AUCO/AUCP is an etf for goldminers from ETFSecurities. I'm not aware of a silver equivalent.

The ratio of British average wage to Chinese average wage is roughly the gold/silver ratio. Savings rates are probably wildly different but you could imagine the average Chinese buying something in excess of the weight in silver that the average Briton buys in gold. I imagine this isn't very much per person, but there are an awful lot of people over there. Let's hope they embrace the idea.

It got a mention a few weeks ago http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index....mp;#entry119435

Just to add that the price is locked in if you get the money there in a reasonable time (eg. if it looks like you kicked off the transfer shortly after placing the order).

The bit that struck me was "Central banks were net buyers for the first time since at least 2000". They're not even pretending any more, they're protecting themselves. That $10 rise today...are the bipolar swings getting more frequent or are we still deciding whether the next move is up or down?

Rates would surely go up as per Argentina, but what could make wages rise fast enough for people to make the new higher payments?

Not compulsory for women though. Vest tops and flip-flops are ok for women whilst men have to suffer with their body heat trapped by their top button.

The bulls are now adding 500,000 to their "pent-up demand" models and recalculating...

A favourite topic from HPC last time I went here regularly was the size of housing on offer. As Dr Bubb has shown, the US wasted its resources on large "McMansions" spread thinly over land which could have been used for food, but in the UK we get smaller and smaller homes with their own negative impacts on society. Not enough room for furniture or even recycling bins. Not enough room for a dining table, so families cannot eat together and people can't invite friends round for a meal. Apparently lack of space has negative impacts on health and education. Is Britain still Britain if working people cannot afford the space to cook and eat a Sunday Roast in their own home? I don't know if this is a result of planning restrictions but you can bet that if there is a bureaucrat behind it then the Mail would have said so. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12...ook-unwind.html Also, mortgages up again in June http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8194768.stm

I don't think you have to move in, you just declare it your main residence. Perhaps there is an MP who visits these forums and can advise?

It's rose gold, so may be 75% gold, 21% copper and 4% silver. So it's about 3.6toz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colored_gold#Rose_gold_alloys

1 weekend and working from home, eh?

I read a few chapters from one book in the series. There was so much repetition of a few basic themes it felt like reading an old testament story. A few bullet points and one or two footnotes could get the ideas across far better. Anyway, here's a pic to celebrate the PM sales...

It doesn't seem like she needs 4 bedrooms. Getting a smaller house and saving/investing the difference in mortgage payments would probably have been a better choice, but as things stand there is the option of renting out bedrooms. If this is in the UK the first £4250 is tax free.

What did they want us to believe about the quadruple top below 700?

I know there's inflation in China at the moment but won't it be one of the most successful currencies over the next few years? Average Chinese wage is about £3500/year, 1kg silver on CID is £354.20 so it's not an easy way in.

Sounds like you need an iphone and a password safe. I thought they were mainly for remembering website passwords. You old folk can use them to remember what websites you joined, where you put your car keys, your car...