Member Info for skier1

Quite a poor performance from Djokovic. Was almost admitting defeat in his media interviews yesterday, let the crowd get to him today, and bottled the chance to go 2 sets up. Feels like the end of his era.

UK needs a change of civil servants. BoE, ONS, many other discredited institutions, time and time again, their "forecasts" prove absurdly wrong. Recession, unemployment, inflation, their failures go on and on and on and on. There is no way we can trust their CPTPP "prediction" -- it looks like yet another attempt to talk down the UK on the world stage and humiliate their own country. We need to stop listening to the losers. Listen to the winners (those who won Brexit).

Lol.

Not sure I'd ever trust a "forecast" from a UK govt institution or bitter Remainer lobby who lost. All they ever do is deliberately talk down their own country, and almost always get their "predictions" (wildly) wrong. They are utterly discredited.

The UK CPTPP trade deal removes tariffs for 11 big countries of the future that will have a gigantic $22 trillion economic opportunity by 2030 and overtake the EU. The opportunity here, from a growing base, is incredible for the UK.

Great to see the UK joining the $16 trillion Indo-Pacific CPTPP high-growth trade bloc. Will soon be bigger than the EU. The future is in Asia, Europe the past.

Great to see the building blocks of Brexit now taking shape. The world's fastest-growing G7 economy in 2021 and 2022, the world's strongest G7 currency in 2023, and joining the world's fastest-growing mega trade bloc by 2024. Not to mention Britain's world-leading role in Ukraine against the tyranny of Russia.

Brexit is rapidly picking up steam.

..."I know lots of people on 32k, and they are struggling"...

That's a tiny sample size, and not in any way reflective of the UK's 70m population. A £32k salary puts you in the top 50% of UK salaries. It's more than enough to live on quite comfortably for the majority of the country (and the world).

..."People in the sectors you mention are leaving on droves...the E. T. economy, many of them went home"...

UK-wide total employment "churn" today in 2023 is currently running around 15%. That is pretty much in line with historical 50-year norms. The NHS (healthcare) churn rate in 2023 is currently running around 11%. People in the sectors mentioned below are not leaving in droves at all.

Please stop the propaganda and needless hysteria.

The average UK salary of those 1m job vacancies is around ~£32k. The biggest sectors with job vacancies today are value-added sectors of healthcare and food retail. Plenty of good jobs out there.

Veggie pickers and bar staff are a tiny 3% of the UK workforce economy.

UK job vacancies have been coming off their (post-Covid) peak for the past 1.5 years, so this is not new news from Reed Recruitment.

There remain 1 million more vacancies than workers today, GDP is continuing to rise YoY, while UK business confidence and hiring intentions have just hit a 1-year high.

Recession is not a certainty.

https://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/news/237071/uk-business-optimism-highest-in-10-months.aspx

Yup. This looks like yet another scaremongering "forecast".

That number represents just a tiny 3% of all UK households.

And, even if the "prediction" is remotely accurate, those 3% of households have 3 years to prepare and save up for it.

Context is everything.

Can get 6-8% with other banks.

S&P 500 today set to breach 4500, up +30% from its 2022 low, just 9 months ago. The US juggernaut keeps on rolling.

Https://www.fool.co.uk/2023/07/11/4-reasons-why-im-avoiding-cheap-lloyds-shares/

The ONS is a weird institution. It seems to take bizarre glee in publishing the lowest possible GDP number every month and talking down the UK economy. It loves a red arrow.

Stripping out the one-off "redundant" extra bank holiday, the UK MoM number for May 2023 was flat, at 0.0% MoM.

In annual terms, the UK is still growing around +1% YoY.

Since Brexit officially began on Dec 31, 2020, the UK has delivered the world's fastest-growing G7 economy for 2 years in a row in 2021 and 2022. And, now, the GBP is the world's best-performing G7 currency in 2023. Meanwhile, Germany and the Eurozone have plunged into recession.

Despite a global tsunami of relentless anti-Britain propaganda and hysteria, the UK is actually performing strongly.

The "Brexit bonus" is quietly gathering steam.

Sterling is up a huge +30% against the USD in just 10 months, one of the world's best-performing currencies this year. Yet another sign of Britain quietly gaining post-Brexit confidence.

Nasdaq is up +24% in the past year.

Doubt the FTSE will ever again catch up with the US indices. The US talks up its stocks. The UK talks them down. That is a powerful cultural difference.

Folk have been saying Lloyds is "undervalued" for the past 15 years! But the shares keep on going down and down and down. Plunging -35% in just 45 months. The general narrative for UK shares and the UK economy today remains one of self-pitying misery, hysteria, and loathing. That's not going to change anytime soon. With Labour set to tax, punish and spend like drunken sailors, the outlook next year for Lloyds remains poor.

As predicted, yet again, HFEL is tumbling well under the 240p level and ready to test the 230p level. Sentiment is very bearish on China and dragging this down.

Sounds like wishful thinking.

VOD has plunged an astonishing -45% in the past year.

The share price today in 2023 is lower than in 1995, during the previous century, nearly a third of a century ago, when John Major was still PM!

VOD is one of the worst-performing shares mankind has ever seen.

The charts are pointing more to 50p than 70p. The glacial approval process for the Three takeover, which may well get rejected, is going to hang over VOD like a black cloud for months or years to come...

Lol.

Good ol' UK.

This is yet more self-inflicted misery, exaggerated hysteria, and self-loathing.

There is no "shock" about +7% YoY UK wage growth in May 2023.

The UK minimum wage was deliberately over-inflated +10% YoY in Apr 2023.

UK wage inflation in H1 2023 is entirely self-inflicted. The govt did it.

A UK cash ISA now will pay 5-6% net fixed for 2-5 years. For folks looking for guaranteed income, for up to half-a-decade, a cash ISA looks a better deal than the vast majority of UK share dividends right now.