Member Info for mick-b

Johnson's resignation honours list includes the donor who arranged his holiday to Mustique, Nadine Dorries & two of his former aides who are set to become the youngest life peers ever.

A scrounger to the end........

Professor Danny Blanchflower economist & fisherman

When facing a recession a government should:

- Cut interest rates
- Cut taxes
- Increase its spending

We are facing recession and:

- Interest rates are rising
- Taxes are increasing
- Spending is being cut

There is no worse economic policy for this moment.

spot on NON
Raising taxes and cutting services is madness in a recession.
The polar opposite is actually needed

Argo Blockchain (LON:ARB) (£34m) - we reported recently that Argo was in danger of an equity wipeout, due to its overly aggressive growth strategy. It is currently suffering from a) bitcoins that are increasingly difficult to mine - this is a design feature of the bitcoin system, b) higher electricity prices and other input cost inflation, c) the bitcoin price being stuck around where it was in late 2020 (Argo seems to have assumed that that Bitcoin price would rise forever), d) over £100m of borrowings. Today the company reports that it has finished selling the mining computers that it recently bought, and that its mining capacity is unchanged at a “hash rate” of 2.5 (it previously planned to reach 5.5 by the end of 2022). It also reports an improved “mining margin” of 32%, but this leaves out the depreciation of mining equipment, i.e. one of its biggest costs. Mining profit minus depreciation remains firmly negative. These shares are a punt on the bitcoin price rising and on electricity prices falling, and on financing discussions having a favourable outcome for shareholders. I don’t have confidence in any of these things happening.

ZPHR up 5%

morning EVIKING
Welcome back from NZ
24hr flight not for me
If China lockdowns end comods will fly

FTSE100 DOWN 0.5%
view live >>>>>.
https://www.ig.com/uk/indices/markets-indices/ftse-100

https://www.teletrader.com/europe-trades-mixed-in-premarket/news/details/58920800?internal=1

Johnson's £250m HMS Brexit sunk by Ben Wallace.

One cut I'd endorse.

Brextremists having nothing to show for leaving the EU apart from weaker £, less trade, unfilled job vacancies, more Channel boat crossings, passport queues, mobile roaming charges

25,000 dead in Mariupol they reckon, killed by the Russkies

somits up?

Cheers m8
Was about to post it here as now a shareholder

for TREK
As his post was accidentally deleted by ADMIN

Even at a premium of nearly 70% to the prevailing Appreciate share price, I suspect that PayPoint is getting a bargain here.

The offer is valued at £83m. As announced in today’s RNS, they are paying 6.2x adjusted EBITDA for the year ended March 2022.

For the current year - FY March 2023 - forecasts suggest that Appreciate’s adjusted pre-tax profit is going to be over £9m. So they are paying barely over nine times that.

They are also buying a bullet-proof balance sheet: Appreciate’s year-end cash was last seen at £20m. Including cash held in trust, average funds held during the year were £179m.

As I was saying back in 2018, when Appreciate was still called “Park Group”, there is an implicit interest rate hedge at this company, since it benefits from higher rates.

PayPoint will know this, and have timed their purchase very nicely as interest rates rise.

There is also the possibility of some valuable synergies, although I’m not sure exactly how it will work. I suppose that consumers who use PayPoint’s terminals might benefit from the traditional Christmas saving scheme offered by Appreciate.

And perhaps it makes sense for Appreciate’s gift voucher business to plug into PayPoint’s existing retail network of convenience stores. It will be interesting to see how the two businesses might cooperate.

However it might work, I believe that the deal will get voted through, because Appreciate’s fund manager shareholders will want to see the back of a holding that has been an awkward one to sit on for the past five years.

House prices in the United Kingdom increased by 8.3% in October compared to the same month in 2021, according to Halifax's monthly House Price Index report published on Monday. The annual price growth was down from 9.8% in September.
On a monthly basis, housing prices in October declined by 0.4%, hitting an average price of £292,598. Compared to the previous trimester, house prices in the UK rose by 0.4% in the quarter to October.
"Average house prices fell in October, the third such decrease in the past four months. The drop of -0.4% is the sharpest we have seen since February 2021, taking the typical property price to a five-month low of £292,598," Kim Kinnaird, director at Halifax Mortgages, said. "While a post-pandemic slowdown was expected, there’s no doubt the housing market received a significant shock as a result of the mini-budget which saw a sudden acceleration in mortgage rate increases," she added.
Baha Breaking News (BBN) / NP

House prices in the United Kingdom increased by 8.3% in October compared to the same month in 2021, according to Halifax's monthly House Price Index report published on Monday. The annual price growth was down from 9.8% in September.
On a monthly basis, housing prices in October declined by 0.4%, hitting an average price of £292,598. Compared to the previous trimester, house prices in the UK rose by 0.4% in the quarter to October.
"Average house prices fell in October, the third such decrease in the past four months. The drop of -0.4% is the sharpest we have seen since February 2021, taking the typical property price to a five-month low of £292,598," Kim Kinnaird, director at Halifax Mortgages, said. "While a post-pandemic slowdown was expected, there’s no doubt the housing market received a significant shock as a result of the mini-budget which saw a sudden acceleration in mortgage rate increases," she added.
Baha Breaking News (BBN) / NP

FTSE100 DOWN 0.7%
view live >>>>>
https://www.ig.com/uk/indices/markets-indices/ftse-100

https://www.teletrader.com/europe-mixed-in-premarket-ahead-of-data/news/details/58913329?internal=1

" Oh apart from our occasional visitor that is who seems to be barred quickly by the moderators here."

Yeah that QAnon Trumpeon creep !

Wish I was still a boomer ...
:-(((

INTEL m8
Back in the day they made almost all the Worlds computer chips and Microsoft supplied most of the PC operating systems too.
How things have changed !

Intel
in January announced plans to invest up to $100 billion to build a new chip complex in Ohio, starting with an initial $20 billion commitment. The full scope of the project also relies heavily on funding from the CHIPS Act.

EU divorce Bill £42B,
Test & Trace £37B,
Furlough fraud £4.3B,
Useless PPE £8.7B,
Sunak error hedge int rates £11.4B,
Lost trade Brexit £100B pa,
Economic error Truss Kwarteng £300B wiped off markets! £100's Billions wasted & stolen by the CONs

No wonder taxes have to rise and all our public services to be cut to the bone!

United States President Joe Biden (pictured) said Friday that the Chips and Science Act invests $52 billion to supercharge the efforts to make semiconductors in the country.
"Instead of relying on chips made overseas that could be delayed because of a pandemic or some other global disruption, now they're able to have those chips available on the spot," said Biden while delivering remarks and in reference to manufacturers in the country.
At the same time, the president pointed out the significance of the semiconductor industry in the defense of the country and in the market competition with China.
Baha Breaking News (BBN) / JG