Concrete Jungle

Nice charts, cheers Dom!

I am a British citizen and I am confident plenty of people will take the money. Some will end up under water, in arrears and / or reposessed. Others will sit tight, keep their jobs and sweat out negative equity. Don't forget the government here will also pay your mortgage interest for two years (I think) should someone be made unemployed. Property is the UK economy and we have no shortage of idiots. I guess we will have to wait for the finer details to be made public on the mortgage 'backing' scheme.

I have not seen a figure quoted for the amount committed towards mortgages yet. The four hundred million pounds announced was basically a bribe to builders and a bail out for the land values on their balance sheets and ditto banks. It is supposed to bring mothballed housing developments back to life. So assuming each mothballed property on average requires a forty or even twenty thousand pound bribe for the builders to finish it, you are only looking at say ten to twenty thousand finished houses. Or roughly one to two weeks mortgage lending for house purchases at September 2011 levels.

Have any meaningful numbers been published on this latest government wheeze to persuade proles to take on massive debts from banksters to 'get the housing market moving'? At a first glance it smells suspiciously like the various New Labour grand plans for housing and mortgages in 2008 - 2010 that fell to pieces upon closer inspection. Initial back of a fag packet calculation 400,000,000 / 160,000 = 2500. A bit high you might cry well divide it by 80,000, or 40,000. Bearing in mind for September 2011 total mortgage lending for purchases was seven billion one hundred million pounds on 48,200 sales for just one month. The initial four hundred million to "unblock" stalled housing schemes at say forty grand per property = 10,000 houses. Or less than one weeks worth of mortgage lending for September 2011. Unless the total amount committed is in the tens of billions per year, it initially strikes me as more political smoke and mirrors designed to win some favourable headlines in the mainstream media. Ditto the £150 million to help bring empty housing back into use. At fifteen grand per property it brings ten thousand properties back to a habitable standard. At ten grand per property it brings back fifteen thousand. At five grand per property it brings back thirty thousand, a tiny percentage of the total housing stock. Fingers crossed I didn't inadvertently borrow a calculator off Mr G Brown when doing the sums.

I don't know why you can't all just get along and cut out the distracting petty squabbles and tit for tat name calling, posts and thread titles. That goes for everyone. I imagine we are all here for the same broad reasons. I.E. mistrust of mainstream economists, politicians, central banks, central bankers, banks, bankers, hedge funds and the current monetary / financial system. Trying to minimise the impact of the aforementioned on your wealth, purchasing power, financial security, stability and family. If you buy and hold gold / silver as part of your strategy, it works for you and you are happy with it fine. If you buy and hold miners as part of your strategy, it works for you and you are happy with it fine. If you buy and hold more exotic / complicated instruments as part of your strategy, it works for you and you are happy with it fine. Now substitute the words buy and hold for the words trade and speculate and the same still applies. It is your money, your choice, your risk and your life. Grow up and stop belittling the decisions other people have made, it is their money, their choice, their risk and their life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-mcWbntuqc

I am banned, but have a on me!

Ordered mainly silver and a bit of gold just over a week ago. Had the longest wait ever 'til it turned up in this mornings post.

A few of The Newly Banned on AitchPeeSee have recently turned up at UF, one wonders what foooobarra are playing at.

I'll tell you now and I'll tell you firmly I don't never want to go to Burnley What they do there don't concern me Why would anybody make the journey?

There was a short piece on Silver and Gold on Radio 4 at about 20 past 12 this afternoon. I will keep a look out for the listen again link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010dq6y

http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1303153473.php

I think both Gold and Silver are due a correction and a backing up of the G/S ratio somewhat. Still a LONG way to go in this bull market.

Anything over 80% imho and the bank should be FORCED BY LAW to keep the loan on their books. Anything under 80% can be packaged and sold on.

The hallway, got real loud and crowded They walked right past us, I don't know how they allowed it The funny thing about it, through all the excitement They Range got towed, they double parked by a hydrant Stupid mother****rs