Monday 25 August 2008

Alice's bubble wrap

To sell or rent?

Take a look inside the mind of a BTL gambler.

With inflation looming, the ECB has tough choices ahead

I am sooooooo sick of articles like this one. Apparently, the central banks have to figure out where to keep interest rates. If the rates are too high, then growth suffers, if they are too low; then inflation remains elevated.

That is not the choice. Central banks have to decide whether to maintain their counter inflationary credibility in the face of powerful political forces that actually want more inflation. This "powerful political forces" includes debtors and bankers, who want and need to destroy the real value of debts. Or do they want to stop inflation, maintain the real purchasing value of paper money and so favour savers.

Economic growth, in the long run, has nothing to do with the nominal price of money, which is of course, what central banks set.

Subprime: it is not over yet

More from the shindig at Jackson hole

"It was clear from what was said that most people here don't believe the financial crisis is necessarily over or close to being over" - Stanley Fischer, head of the Israeli central bank.

US home sales: up or down?

It sounds like down to me:

"Existing-home sales (Seasonally adjusted) rose 3.1% to an annual rate of 5.00 million units in July, from a downwardly revised level of 4.85 million in June. These are 13.2% percent lower than the 5.76 million-unit pace in July 2007."

FBI Blamed For Mortgage Mess

There is no shortage of institutions who sat around doing nothing when they should have acted.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gosh, alice, you are sooo negative, baby. Visit dear old Anatole over at the Times.

Everything is hunky-dory and just a lil ole reduction in interest rates will see us underway back to Nirvana.

Please note the H/T in comments and put my kiss in the post, please.

Anonymous said...

Ok, I clicked the first link. After a rambling piece that seemed to balance the reason for the investment as an equal portion of greed and stupidity, and a conclusion that "fate" will decide perhaps her most important financial decision of the decade, we get this footnote:

"Jennifer Hill is deputy editor of the Money section"

Oh lordy! This clown is paid to deliver financial advice to the masses.

Maybe she should join Kirsty's dream team and advise the Goblin King.

Nick

Anonymous said...

I still can't stop laughing regarding "Jennifer Hill is deputy editor of the Money section".

The best bit is she still has hope.

Oh well, I suppose the bank of mum and dad always told her she was special and clever.

A good education is no substitute for intelligence.

Sackerson said...

Your Youtube exposition has had 404 views already...

Alice Cook said...

Sackerson, thanks for putting it on your site.