Member Info for skier1

That won't be a surprise to anyone who has been reading this board for the past 18 months.

The UK economy is much stronger than the Brexit hysteria and bitter Remainers will have you believe. Much stronger.

..."Hoorah for renters wanting to be smarter and stop being a rentard"...

It is worth noting that the "total lifetime" cost of a mortgage versus renting is marginal, and long has been.

Renters don't have to pay £10,000 in moving fees, £3,000 for a new boiler, £100,000 in interest fees to the bank, and so on.

What's more, the world's richest "proper" economy (Switzerland) is a rental economy (60%), not a mortgage economy.

And linguists will note that mortgage is derived from the French for "dead money".

In short -- renting is not as bad as you think, and can often be cheaper over a lifetime. Just ask the Swiss.

The BoE upward rate cycle doesn't look far from the peak now. Savings rates (at UK retail banks) have dropped sharply this morning. And the next monthly UK inflation print seems set to fall back into single-digits.

Yes, Asp1, the Skipton 100% mortgage does not look reckless at this point. Some first-time buyers may even save money, as they shift from overpriced rents to a means-tested mortgage.

Good to see the return of UK 100% mortgages.

It suggests UK banks are confident, rates are headed down, and the debt markets remain strong.

If the UK housing market slides into negative equity, the UK govt will just step in and bail everyone out for free.

Expect plenty of free cash for homebuyers next year, such as RTB, LISAs, etc. A national election is on the way.

We all need the UK housing pyramid scheme to keep rolling upwards. Our futures depend on it.

Current academic research suggests AI will improve call-centre productivity by about 10-20% this decade. That Octupus case study looks broadly in line with predictions.

AI is going to be a double-edged sword for LLOY.

The upside is, Lloyds can save cash in call centres and security. For example, AI will need fewer staff in call centres, they can process calls faster, and it will be quicker to spot fraud.

The downside is, Lloyds (and other banks) are going to see a jump in fraud. For example, AI can clone a customer's voice and bypass voice-recognition security checks.

I reckon AI will be neutral for LLOY. Save some cash, lose some cash.

PacWest popping nicely in the premaekef. Good day for US banks coming up. Good news for LLOY.

The UK staged 67,000 coronation Street parties this weekend. More than there are pubs.

Some 350 million people worldwide watched the coronation. Double what the Super Bowl gets.

Penny Mourdant stole the show and should be PM.

King Charles III is king of 15 countries worldwide. Not just the UK.

The Commonwealth of 56 countries is by far the world's no.1 biggest population and economic bloc. The UK really should promote it more. Much more.

The SNP is in freefall. Their dream is over. Forever.

Interesting to see the final numbers after yesterday's UK 2023 council elections...

Labour would NOT have enough votes to win the UK national election in 2024...

Which would mean a hung Westminster parliament... and probably a Labour-Lib-Dem-SNP-Sinn-Fein coalition of the ultra-left extremists...

That would obviously not bear thinking about...

Rishi needs to get cutting taxes, and fast. Rev up the feelgood factor for next year. Keep out the coalition.

https://news.sky.com/story/uk-elections-labour-would-fall-28-short-of-overall-majority-in-general-election-sky-news-vote-share-projection-shows-12873917

..."it's a steady Eddie share to hold"...

LLOY has plunged -30% in 5 years and -50% in 8 years!

Don't think many banks would pay much above 50-60p for LLOY at the moment. Too much risk out there for now, such as windfall tax, renationalization under Labour, breakup, US banking contagion, etc.

As the old saying goes... When you are young, you vote Labour, because you want them to snatch money from rich old folks and hand it to you for free... When you are old, you vote Conservative, to put a brake on those Labour policies. The problem is, the Conservatives now do the same as Labour... Tax is at an all-time record (and rising).

To be fair, there is almost no difference now between the red Tories and red Labour. Barely a Rizla paper between their core policies. Both want (much) more tax, more state, more surveillance, and more control of how you and your family think, say, do, and move. UK has entered a new pseudo-China era, and who you vote for will make no difference whatsoever to the direction of travel.

To be fair, Sirius Minerals was always pie in the sky for dreamers and fantasists. That was clear at least 2 years before the company imploded. A tiny AIM firm with a handful of staff was never going to self-build a Channel Tunnel hole in Yorkshire where the local nimbys hated the company with every fibre of their being and the country's deep-mining skills have all but disappeared and the end-product was a bit of cheap fertilizer.

British"investors" are not only weirdly obsessed with outdated dividends, they are also obsessed with pouring their cash down mines that everyone knows typically have a 90-99% failure rate.

"... dividends suck money away from future R&D investment .."?! Of what relevance is that to mainstream banks"...

Less R&D = less research into developing new growth markets = less future growth = less share price upside.

It's very simple.

British "Investors" have been saying for 3 decades that "tech stocks are dead"... all while the Nasdaq has soared +1700%... and the dividend-obsessed FTSE100 is up just a tiny +170%.

The UK "investor" community is stuck in the past 20th century. It's depressing stuff.

Let's pretend that £23k annual dividend came from roughly £500k of LLOY shares in 2023. Those LLOY shares will have plunged from £5m equivalent valuation 25 years ago (when started) in 1998. If that £5m had been invested in the S&P500 (they hate dividends), you would now have £25m and be among the richest men on Earth. £500k vs. £25m.

Fleccy, have heard it all, mate.

Dividend investing has been a flop since the last century. Dividends suck money away from future R&D investment, suck money away from future takeover funds, and suck away future growth.

Dividend obsession has wrecked the London Stock Exchange. Its global exchange ranking has plunged from the big 3 to the lower 10 since the last century.

A 5% dividend at LLOY is effectively worthless, when the stock has collapsed -30% in 5 years and-50% in 8 years.

Banks are unfashionable, politically risky, low-growth plodders. US banking contagion, UK windfall tax, renationalization fears, breakup fears, Marxist state creep, high mortgage rates, high rent rates, taxes going up and up for customers. The headwinds never end.

What's more, dividend investing has been out of fashion for over quarter of a century. But UK investors cannot stop their outdated obsession with dividends -- at the expense of growth. No growth = no share growth.

Another day, another US bank down the gurgler.

"...Developing a diamond mine (or diamond province) is slower than I initially assumed or hoped for too"...

Lol.

KDR and CGNR have been searching for diamonds or gold since 1995 in the last century, 28 years ago, nearly a third of a century has passed. The CEO is around 90yo.

Revenue generated so far is, err, zero...