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The UK economy soared +8% YoY in 2021.

The only reason "you don't see those kind of upbeat economic headlines anymore" is because the UK state and mainstream media have developed an insidious culture of self-flagellation and talking down their own country. We have fostered a nasty culture of self-loathing. We collectively revel in misery.

Just a few weeks ago, the Bank of England was crowing about the "longest recession ever in UK history". It was utterly, utterly wrong. Now, the UK is on track for +1% YoY growth and the world's strongest G7 currency for the past year.

What's more, the ONS really should stop announcing GDP in QoQ terms (like they did today). It reduces the size of the headline number and deflates expectations. The US always headlines growth in YoY terms and always sounds bullish and strong. Their numbers "sound" bigger. Headlining UK GDP stats in QoQ terms (+0.2%) is deliberately designed to talk down the UK's prospects and make it sound weaker and smaller than it really is. It has to stop.

The average American UPS driver, dropping off parcels in their brown box-vans, is now paid an impressive $170k a year (£135k). No sign of a recession there.

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/09/ups-drivers-to-average-170000-in-pay-benefits-at-end-of-5-year-deal.html

Can get nearly 6% taxfree in a cash ISA, 6% in a multiyear savings account, and 7-8% in a regular saver.

UK crime rate is down -35% since 1993. UK violent crime is down -75% since 1993. Renting is making the UK safer.

Mind you, lots of buzz on social media tonight that Oxford Street (London) could get a bit tasty in the next day or two. Crime has not (yet) completely disappeared.

The huge Italy bank windfall tax shouldn't be a surprise to anyone on here. Many posters have been predicting it for months in UK and Europe. The temptation among the state to snatch free money is just too strong to resist. Oil first, banks second, who's next. Starmer and Sunak are going to be sharpening their pencils for 2024.

Clearly a troll thread...

The richest proper economy in Europe is a landlord one. The biggest economy in Europe is a landlord one. The richest province in China is a landlord one. Many people like to outsource their housing needs. Landlording does not harm economies.

Stop posting the landlord nonsense on here.

UK wholesale inflation -- which precedes retail inflation -- is actually falling. Deflation is creeping in. Factory input prices for Jun 2023 (latest data) are sliding -3% YoY. Output prices are close to deflation, at 0% (zero). Services inflation has slumped to +3% YoY. Don't get too carried away with inflation hysteria, at the end of the cycle.

The US dollar today accounts for 75-95% of all international trade outside the Eurozone, around 95% of global oil trades, and 60% of all global forex reserves on the entire planet, more than all other 161 currencies and 23,000 cryptocurrencies across the whole world combined. Nothing else credible out there to replace the USD. Certainly not the euro, which has lost ~20% relative liquidity against the dollar this century. And certainly not the yen, pound, yuan or franc, which are tiny, illiquid, or prone to reckless state intervention.

UK home energy prices look set to fall -5% from Oct 2023, and will still be -4% lower than July 2023 by Jan 2024. The UK energy market is not a free market. It is, in effect, run by the state (Ofgem).

SAR (Aramco) share price has plunged -15% in the past year and barely grown at all since IPO four years ago in 2019. The share price today is falling -- while Saudi GDP is rising (+9%). Dividend is a tiny 4%. It's hard to see net profit going much higher than the current $150-200B level. Saudi oil reserves have peaked. Not to mention the risk of the shares being listed in a ruthless autocracy, where business or social laws can change on a whim.

Ahm oot.

BoE should have left the rate unchanged, at 5.00%.

UK inflation is clearly coming down. It doesn't need smashing down further with a hammer blow. There are even signs of *deflation*. Wholesale input inflation (to factories) actually fell -3% YoY in June 2023 (latest data). Wholesale output inflation sits at 0% (zero). Wholesale services inflation is coming down from +5% to +4% in the past quarter.

The BoE was too slow to tame inflation in 2021, and now it looks too slow to spot deflation in 2023. What happened to our Old Lady of Threadneedle Street :-(

Yes, ARM is being tag-teamed around the world like a cheap toy. A company with unprecedented 99% worldwide premium smartphone CPU market share is gifted to Japan on the cheap, then gifted to China, and now gifted to the US. Such a waste of UK intellectual property.

On the plus side, however, if ARM can spin the New York IPO with an AI story, it could easily do +100% in a flash. NVIDIA, for example, is up +200% since January.

Lol.

That looks like another one of those absurd "forecasts" from the losing side of Remainers who are desperate to spread Project Fear!

UK will be in recession... oh, it's not... UK will have massive unemployment... oh, it's not... UK will never win any trade deals on its own... oh, a trade deal with the world's biggest trading bloc and world's biggest country...

It's time to stop the divisive Brexitphobic hate. It's time to look forward with confidence. UK is the world's fastest-growing G7 economy for 2 years in a row since Brexit began. Facts, not forecasts. The Brexit benefits are emerging more and more every week.

UK is the world's fastest-growing G7 economy for 2 years in a row since Brexit formally began. The world's strongest G7 currency for the past year. UK wages soaring at their fastest rate this century. UK outgrowing Germany since 2016 and again this year in 2023, as well as outgrowing the Eurozone. Giant trade deals inked with the world's largest trading bloc and the world's largest country. UK the world's no.2 strongest player in Ukraine and defending the world against Russian evil. UK the world's no.2 cyberpower and indispensable to Ukraine freedom fighters and South Korean defence against North Korea axis of evil. UK winning a huge nuke submarine deal with Australia, beating France.

The Brexit benefits are crystal clear.

UK outperforming economically, politically and militarily.

And the Brexit boom has only just started!

Another incredible trade deal coming for the UK, with India, the world's biggest country. Follows the trade deal with CPTPP, soon to be the world's biggest trading bloc and overtaking the EU. Brexit is starting to bed in nicely.

https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2023/07/28/uk-india-trade-deal-could-be-signed-this-year/

NatWest 5.9% cash ISA tax-free + First Direct 7.0% regular saver (if basic taxpayer).

It is important not to get swept up in over-emotional hysteria.

Short-selling provides liquidity for stockmarkets, it is a useful source of market info, it maximizes market efficiency, it controls risk for traders, and it strengthens corporate governance.

Plenty of studies show stockmarkets with short-selling perform little or no different to those where it is banned.

Short-selling is good.

As the old saying goes -- your shares may go down, not just up ;-)

A bank is for banking.

A bank is not a clandestine insurgent tool for political persecution, revisionist subversion, or cultural revolution.

This is the most serious event to hit UK banking this century.

The new regs seem harsh, but it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone on here... US and UK casino banks came within a whisker of bankrupting the entire world just 15 years ago and within living memory... Forcing the freewheeling banks to save more cash for a rainy day was / is inevitable.

..."Farming is suffering"...

Good grief. Does the nonsense and hysteria on here ever stop!

Govt figures released just last month show UK farming revenues soared +13% to an all-time record high in 2022, and are on track for another record in 2023. They have doubled since Brexit in 2016. England's crop output alone jumped a huge +21% to a record £11b in 2022. What's more, thousands of hard workers from the Stans (like Kazakhstan) have flown in this year and quickly filled the EU picker gap for farmers.

UK farming remains in good shape.

Please, stop the hysteria.

LLOY is being hit with a double whammy of rate squeeze and rate profiteering.

Rate squeeze = big £700m provision for bad customer loans.

Rate profiteering = high mortgage rates, low savings rates.

The rate profiteering, perceived or real, opens the door to an easy windfall tax for the red Tories or commie Labour in 2024.

Interesting update on the new wave of synthetic milk and cheese coming from the UK and US, some made with fermented yeast, such as Better Dairy.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-12336097/UK-start-launches-dairy-cheese-thats-WITHOUT-milk-vegan-alternative.html