Member Info for Love_You

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/deloitte-chairman-nick-owen-on-building-inclusive-teams-inclusive-capitalism-and-inclusive-society-230100110.html

I think all the focus on diversity, equality etc is slightly missing the point. What benefits people is cooperation. If I were to be a leader I would keep emphasising the need for everyone to find win-win. Cooperation is King.

Too many empty properties in the UK. I just looked on Rightmove at a medium-sized town. There are thousands of properties available to rent.

Surely this is a market failure as in the way to fill these properties more quickly would be to reduce the rental prices.

Why are estate agents not recommending to their clients that instead of putting a small two-bed flat on the market in non-descript, average, English town for £650 per month that actually the true value is probably about £375 per month.

Christie and Christine begin swapping tales of violence and arson and other such lawlessness. I ask if they ever see police officers walking the beat. Christine looks at me with an equal measure of bewilderment and derision. I may as well have asked if Elvis comes to town for the occasional gig. She nods towards the high street. “It’s tough for old people when the shops close down. Most of them can’t work a computer, so they can’t shop online. It must be terrible for them.”
“And the rents are too high for young people,” Rose says. “Unless you’ve got a well-paid job, you can never expect to get your own place.”

https://unherd.com/2019/06/the-town-that-should-shame-our-politicians/?xtor=ES-208-[23275_NEWS_NLB_ACT_Wk23_Thursday_6_June]-20190606-[bbcnews_lowestoft_unherd_lowestoft

Too many empty properties in the UK. I just looked on Rightmove at a medium-sized town. There are thousands of properties available to rent.

Surely this is a market failure as in the way to fill these properties more quickly would be to reduce the rental prices.

Why are estate agents not recommending to their clients that instead of putting a small two-bed flat on the market in non-descript, average, English town for £650 per month that actually the true value is probably about £375 per month.

Christie and Christine begin swapping tales of violence and arson and other such lawlessness. I ask if they ever see police officers walking the beat. Christine looks at me with an equal measure of bewilderment and derision. I may as well have asked if Elvis comes to town for the occasional gig. She nods towards the high street. “It’s tough for old people when the shops close down. Most of them can’t work a computer, so they can’t shop online. It must be terrible for them.”
“And the rents are too high for young people,” Rose says. “Unless you’ve got a well-paid job, you can never expect to get your own place.”

https://unherd.com/2019/06/the-town-that-should-shame-our-politicians/?xtor=ES-208-[23275_NEWS_NLB_ACT_Wk23_Thursday_6_June]-20190606-[bbcnews_lowestoft_unherd_lowestoft

https://unherd.com/2019/06/the-town-that-should-shame-our-politicians/?xtor=ES-208-[23275_NEWS_NLB_ACT_Wk23_Thursday_6_June]-20190606-[bbcnews_lowestoft_unherd_lowestoft

Surely something can be done to improve the quality of the raw ingredients which the talented chefs in the UK have to work with?

The point is I've spent enough time working to provide a comfortable lifestyle for myself if society was functioning in a healthy manner. Why should I invest anymore time in trying to improve the efficiency of solar panels when I'd like to travel the world - and the easiest way to travel is by cruise ship and plane - and currently the easiest way to power them is with diesel/petrol/jet fuel.

If you want to make life difficult for yourself then don't let anyone stop you.

However, I'd like to see you try and argue how it's ethical for you to try and prevent other people from using fossil fuels if they so wish to do so.

In essence human beings are defined by their culture. I find it sad when a culture becomes nothing more than sitting around in Weatherspoons. I feel for these people if they also feel that they want more than this from life. However, I rather think they need to build some new boats and get back to doing some fishing - good quality fish would provide at least one reason for top chefs to move to Lowestoft and bring a food culture with them. Once you have good quality restaurants you will then attract people from further afield - in the end the whole community becomes a busier and more interesting place.

I don’t expect the good folk of Lowestoft to be hammering at the gates of parliament any time soon. But I do fear that, such is their cynicism in the entire political process and its ability to improve their lives, they will – if they haven’t done so already – disengage from it completely. Perhaps never vote again.
That may suit some people, of course – those who privately regard voters in these communities with contempt and believe the country would be better off if their voices stayed unheard. But for the health of our democracy and civic life – and most importantly our sense of ourselves as one nation – the implications of that would, in the long run, be far more profound.

“This is a clear signal that BT is committed to the whole of the UK”... Hmmm.. So closing 270 offices whilst still providing old rusty copper wire & connections to most UK houses whilst increasing charges means they're committed to the UK? LOL BT.. You're going under because you're just another total rip-off company.

https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/1136573/BT-latest-news-offices-shut-down

Woodford closes fund

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/06/03/neil-woodford-fund-closed-redemptions-outflows-hit-10m-day/

Sir Philip Green announces Arcadia job losses: Which shops are closing? - https://inews.co.uk/news/business/sir-philip-green-arcadia-stores-close-high-street/

Debenhams goes into admin - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/debenhams-administration-store-closures-jobs-a8861336.html

Just think the economy is now probably worse than before any General Election since the late 1920s/1930s. In my opinion it will be hard for the government to get re-elected with the level of economic destruction it is over-seeing.

BT to close offices in 270 UK locations in cost-cutting move

https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/1136573/BT-latest-news-offices-shut-down

Very disappointing news given that BT have not reduced my line rental - may get rid of landline soon and stop paying for it - seems pointless now everyone has a mobile. And if BT aren't going to provide any customer service or employ people to upgrade their network then I would actually feel I was being remiss to keep my landline if they merely view this as a cashcow - they don't have a right to just fleece people.

Re BoomerBower - the whole point of money was/is to allow a fair exchange. However, once you have people making financial decisions without thinking of the consequences for the value of everyone else's money within the system then the whole system no longer provides any value in terms of facilitating efficient cooperation between humans (the whole point of trading in the first place which initially required money but now Bitcoin and blockchain are better as they prevent fraud better).

For example when people are setting prices for a takeover they need to not only think about what their company can afford - but also they need to think about the consequences of the inflation (if it is a cash takeover offer) that will be created for everyone else within the system. You can't just expect citizen C not to care that company A overpaying for company B is going to have consequences for the value of citizen C's money.

BoomerBower - prices have bee so distorted by corrupt financial practises that money is no longer evidence of having contributed anything useful to society.

The company, which employs 18,000 people, has warned that it is “highly likely” it will be forced to go into administration if the deals are not approved.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/fate-of-sir-philip-greens-arcadia-empire-in-hands-of-landlords-080510042.html

Arcadia, which employs 18,000 people, has warned that it is “highly likely” it will be forced to go into administration if the deals are not approved.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/fate-of-sir-philip-greens-arcadia-empire-in-hands-of-landlords-080510042.html

The oil industry is always talking about boosting returns and yet the big companies are barely growing their dividends whilst the smaller ones are going bankrupt and destroying tens of billions in equity value between them.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/1-shell-eyes-dividend-spending-070210814.html

Just hope Shell sticks to its promises and it seriously needs to start increasing dividends again after years of them remaining static (falling behind inflation) - also a share buyback would be useful - could do with a largish one, say around $75 Billion please?

I posted that about Shell as it's relevant to banks. Banks need to know the pain certain sectors of the market are going through. This is why the ordinary person is becoming poorer and a tiny percentage in society are becoming richer at an exponential rate. It's because banks are closing down too many smaller companies and whenever the politicians ask why the voters are angry the banks shrug their shoulders and tell the politicians everything is fine because a handful of large companies have been plodding along with only occasionally cutting 10% of staff (I think the last time Shell cut 10% of staff in the North Sea was 2016).

But the point is the bankers never tell the politicians about the thousands of smaller companies around the globe that are going bankrupt each week or about the lack of finance available to people who'd like to start-up a business (such as myself).

The oil industry is always talking about boosting returns and yet the big companies are barely growing their dividends whilst the smaller ones are going bankrupt and destroying tens of billions in equity value between them.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/1-shell-eyes-dividend-spending-070210814.html

Just hope Shell sticks to its promises and it seriously needs to start increasing dividends again after years of them remaining static (falling behind inflation) - also a share buyback would be useful - could do with a largish one, say around $75 Billion please?

Have you not noticed that 20 million jobs in USA have been lost since 2006 and salaries/benefits/pensions have been slashed for 90% of the other employees - only senior managers and directors/execs have been making out like bandits.

It's the same in the UK - the national debt is increasing because the richest 5% are getting richer at an increasing rate - but it's the other 95% that are seeing their standard of living falling year-upon-year.

Didn't you realise what this would do for oil demand?

And it's even worse in the rest of the world. What do you think happened in India when the government arbitrarily removed most of the cash from circulation in 2016? This was people's life savings that the government basically just stole - did you think this would lead to a boom in demand for petrol/diesel.

Crikey. People can't afford bread in Venezuela never mind petrol - the same in much of India and Africa.

People need to get real.

I agree - the more projects people say "yes" to the richer society becomes - also you never know when you might need it in future. The same people saying no to oil-and-gas projects might regret it in ten years if they are lying in some cold hospital bed somewhere on a dull and calm day (no wind or solar), and then the generator runs out of petrol. But you tell the staff that you were always against fossil fuels - so everything is okay - they shouldn't worry about you that was your choice. Just hope the person in the next bed remembered to bring their own generator and petrol because they weren't stupid enough to try and stop economic progress after 2,000 years of it making everyone's lives better.

Hi lignumvitae - I'm a direct person because I've always believed the best way to analyse a situation is to go right back to the fundamentals and then see what is the optimum that can be constructed out of them.

I'm not one for little tweaks here and there - they do nothing to save a crumbling building. Of course one needs to be sure one has analysed the root causes correctly. However, I think my over-riding thoughts are based around the fact that it's not ethical to try and prevent anyone else from improving their standard of living. Hence if the Indians want to burn coal to speed up their economic progress then I'm fine with that. I believe in the West if we want to go down the tidal power/wind power route then that is our choice - we should just get on with it - however, we have no right to try and prevent other countries from choosing different methods of providing energy to their economies.

I guess I believe in the American dream - everyone has the right to pursue happiness. All I would ask is that people pay a certain level of taxation so that the benefits of cooperation can be felt by society at large. After that it's up to how hard you want to work to achieve your dreams - yes if you work very hard you will pay more tax - but if you get to keep 80% of what you produce then you will also end up with a lot more for yourself.

Regarding entrenched positions - that is probably true - it's hard to change our minds - I know that better than anyone probably. But what I've learned from life is what is the point in being too entrenched? It's a selfish way to be at the end of the day. Maybe some people find it scarier to be open? However there are also a lot of benefits to being open (especially when the existing system is taking people for fools and saying that climate change is a larger threat to our health and happiness than waking up each day ready to do some honest work and then have fun, along with our fellow citizens).

A doomed endeavour?
As my colleague Kevin Godbold has noted in recent days, the tie-up with Ocado is a funny one as mounting competition among the industry’s major players damages the economics of selling food to the nation.

Indeed, Sainsbury’s bought catalogue retailer Argos a few years back to diversify its operations and reduce its reliance on the high-pressure grocery market. Marks & Spencer is swimming in the other direction and, most probably, into massive danger.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/more-bad-news-ftse-100-084555048.html