Member Info for skier1

UK housing culture will never change. It is too easy money (real or perceived). Know someone who bought a place in Cornwall for £400k in 2017 and has just sold it for £700k in 2022. On his modest salary, it would take him 25-50 years to save what he's achieved in 5. He and his wife can now retire a decade early.

The Navy / Rwanda stuff is obviously electioneering before the May 2022 local elections.

But it is too late, and it looks like Labour is gonna see a massive swing and win a landslide victory, paving the way for PM Starmer in 2024. Brace for another round of eye-watering tax rises, more restrictions on speech and thought, and another rampup in the state.

Looks like UK, US and global "core" inflation is starting to peak.

From a pricing perspective, the worst of the inflation shock may already be over.

UK economy per-head was (by far) the world's no.1 richest in 1870... falling to no.2 by 1900... no.6 by 1950... and no.35 by 2021.

You are living through one of the worst economic declines in the entire history of mankind.

Get well soon, Plato.

UK has the 4th highest crime rate in the whole developed world and rising.

To be fair, the UK has been in economic decline since the 1900s, accelerating from the 1960s. It is not a new trend.

In effect, 100% of UK people have a roof over their head.

There are currently 1 million properties for sale or rent in the UK.

The ratio of UK housing costs to disposable income is broadly the same as it has been for half a century.

There is no housing shortage. There is no affordability crisis.

What's more, be careful what you wish for...

Once the state gets a serious taste for asset taxes, they will never stop.

Homes today.

LLOY shares and dividends tomorrow.

It is important not to get caught up in the politics of envy and communist hysteria.

In a free market, people must be allowed to buy, sell and rent whatever property they choose.

Free movement and free choice in a free democracy.

Local homeowners chose to sell their local properties to fellow citizens and made a profit.

Good on them.

There is suddenly a huge wave of high-profile press articles demonizing UK buy-to-let, holiday let, and second homes...

Three in the BBC and Daily Wail just in the last 2 days alone.

That is almost certainly a sign of a coordinated govt campaign -- prepping the ground for yet more taxes.

Greedy second homes = bad
Tax the "rich" for revenge = good

Get ready for a big second-home tax, holiday-let tax, BTL tax, or a combo of all three ;-)

US companies take a growth-first, buyback-second, dividend-third approach.

UK companies take a dividend-first, buyback-second, growth-if-we-can-be-bothered approach.

That is why the London stockmarket is now -90% smaller than NY and crashing down the charts.

FTSE is like Jurassic Park, a stockmarket theme-park full of old fossils from the good old days.

It is right to challenge buybacks and dividends, tho.

They are outdated strategies from the 20th century, and should not be the main focus of a "modern" 21st century bank and board.

The UK banking sector is in longterm severe decline, while the London stockmarket is a lame duck. The only way LLOY is gonna buck that downtrend is by aggressive domestic growth and big takeovers of foreign banks in emerging powers like Australia or Canada. Not some outdated buybacks and a weird dividend obsession.

"...the banks have very little interest in savers/depositors...its the borrowers in all forms they want/chase..."

The golden rule, as always, is to shop around.

It is currently possible to borrow £1m at 1.8%, and save at 2.4%.

Tens of thousands of pounds of free money.

Brix

Think PBs have been 1% for a few months.

If, by 1-in-58-billion chance, you win the big million, don't forget to share some winnings with yer old mates on the LLOY chatboard ;-)

Always astonished at how many people ignore the "free" money from their savings.

Some £476b from 26m LLOY customers, most earning ~0.1%, just boggles the mind.

Losing billions in free cash.

Right now, with a few clicks, it is possible to get 1.3% on an ISA, 1.5% on a current account, 2.0% on a 1-year fixed, 2.5% on a JISA, 5% on a regular saver, 6% on an IFISA, and 25% on a LISA.

And they're gonna go higher in a week or month or two.

No wonder the London stockmarket is decaying and declining! Everything is being sold off abroad. Even the strong ones, like BRW.

Price targets triggered at 50p.
Resistance at 50p.
Global / US / Japan / Russia / El Salvador bond-selloff jitters.
Russia-Ukraine wobbly peace talks.
Inflation.
Recession chatter.
RBC downgrade.

Wouldn't be a surprise to see Barclays sold off in the next year or two.

These kinds of catastrophic blunders often prove terminal for UK firms. They screw up, the share price collapses, the US or others pick it up on the cheap, and ship all the profit and top jobs overseas.

Once you factor in extensions, buildups and renovations, like-for-like UK house prices have actually risen only about +1% per year on average since 2000.

LLOY has fallen about -3% per year on average since 2000.

UK is one of the poorest countries in the whole industrialized world.

An incredible 9 of the 10 poorest regions in Northern Europe are located in the UK.

Just a quick drive through East London, Swansea, Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast etc. reveals shocking economic decay. Not just 1 city or town -- hundreds of them!

Multiple institutions, like the OECD, forecast the UK GDP economy to grow between +2% and +6% in 2022, with the consensus average circa +3% this year.

A wealth distribution-curve where "20% of people take 80% of the wealth" is absolutely normal. It happens in every country on the planet. It is called Pareto's Law.

Britain's core problem, of course, is that it no longer makes anything the world wants.

Every single sector of the entire UK economy -- from factories to exports to retail to services to London -- is in absolute or relative steep decline.

We have serious, serious economic problems -- which may be unfixable.

P&O Ferries is obviously losing £100m, and copying the cruise-ship industry.

Efficient new boats, on order from China.
Lowest-cost labour, from overseas or agencies.

If your revenues go down... your costs must go down.