March 9, 2009
Central banks and the recession
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The central banks did renew their pact to cap bullion sales and the market gladly took the opportunity to accept. But still, the markets are going crazy with gold settling around double their value of 2004 and the property market crashing at an incredible pace, where will we go next?
Central banks and the recession
When Europe’s central banks told the gold market five years ago that they would renew their pact to cap their bullion sales, the sector breathed a sigh of relief. Today, gold prices are double their 2004 level and central bank sales far smaller, but the market is still hoping that the Central Bank Gold Agreement will be renewed again.
The current CBGA, which caps sales at 500 tonnes a year, expires in late September, but the banks have in the past announced the terms of a new agreement in March and there is an expectation in the market that a statement could come soon.
March 5, 2009
Boomerang kids
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More and more children are going periods of independence only to return home at a later stage and staying with parents.
This is becoming an increasing factor in the UK economy and especially the property market. People are looking to get onto the property ladder but the lack of finance available is usually the deciding factor for most children to return home.
For Clarissa Young, a highly qualified, articulate 36-year-old from Ascot in Berkshire, waking up each morning in a bunk bed in her parents’ spare room is not where she envisaged being at this stage in life, when most of her friends are married with their own children in bunk beds.
“To make matters more laughable, when my 32-year-old brother Jared came home over Christmas, he had to sleep in the top bunk, so there we both were, feeling we’d regressed back to childhood,” says Clarissa, who finds herself one of the “boomerang generation”: people in their 20s or even 30s who, usually thwarted by lack of mortgages, precarious careers or the rising cost of living, move back home with their parents.
March 3, 2009
FTSE at six year low
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If any financial market was likely to feel the strain more than the rest, it was going to be the FTSE 100.
The FTSE 100 has now posted its lowest low, in the last six years, which shows just how far, and bad, the current worldwide financial system has spirally out of control.
The FTSE 100 Index sank to a six-year low today after HSBC’s £12.5 billion fundraising plea dealt a fresh blow to the battered confidence of the banking sector.
With market heavyweight HSBC down 9% and Royal Bank of Scotland off 15%, London’s top flight index fell by more than 3% to stand below the 3700 mark for the first time since April 2003.
AIG need to step up
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The problem is, while the failure of such companies is devastating to the financial industry on a world wide basis, how much can be burdened on the taxpayer?
Surely the funds could be put to better use?
“The ensuing panic would be disastrous,” he said.
AIG was saved from bankruptcy last September, just days after the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers, with $85 billion in taxpayer funds that later swelled to $150 billion. The company has tried to plug its deepening financial problems by raising funds through asset sales but has found few buyers in the current environment.
Late mortgage repayments hit new lows
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Mortgage repayments defaults are at the highest ever, with a huge increase in the number of sub prime mortgage lenders slowly increasing, now at their highest levels ever.
Financial companies can use the repayment levels as an indicator as to whether the individual will default the payment in the long term, so they can begin to gauge their losses for 2009!
Late mortgage repayments hit new highs
Households are finding it harder to pay debts on time, with the number of subprime mortgage holders falling behind on payments at its highest ever.
Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating agency, examined the performance of loans bundled into securities – bonds or notes – and sold to investors. The rate of delinquent or overdue payments, particularly those late by 90 days or more, are a leading indicator of the losses that lenders are likely to make on those loans.
February 25, 2009
Pawn rights to future work
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What needs to be done needs to be done I suppose and if she finds this is the best way to get around her finances, for the good of the business, then that seems a fairly feasible option. Take into account the size of the loans and I would expect banks to be asking for this as a minimum.
She is the world’s most famous celebrity photographer, whose portfolio contains some of the most iconic images of the past 30 years, not least the glamorous pictures of Michelle Obama on the latest cover of Vanity Fair. As such Annie Leibovitz is hardly the kind of person you would normally associate with going to a pawn-broker.
But it seems that in these unusual times even the likes of Leibovitz need to find cash in unusual places.
UK economy continues to contract
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The UK economy is constantly contracting, loosing more and more revenue each day, with latest figures suggesting that the last three months of 2008 showed a decrease in activity of around 1.5% in comparison with 2007.
UK economy continues to contract
The UK economy shrank by 1.5% in the last three months of 2008, official figures have confirmed, unrevised from the initial estimate issued in January.
However, the data also showed a 0.7% contraction in the July to September quarter, worse than the original estimate of a decline of 0.6%.
£2m home and a squatter
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The banks overlooked the fact that the property owner and of course the person who applied for the loan had no form of steady income, but still wanted take over repayments on a £1.2m loan. We wonder why the banks and the financial industry as a whole are in the current situation.
What makes me laugh, is a friend who earns a very respectable and steady wage, was refused an overdraft increase from £100 up to £200, due to the fact that he has to be out of his overdraft completely for three months, yet they will lend £1.2m to someone with no form of income.
Aged 71 and the daughter of a millionaire property tycoon, she’s not your average squatter. But Rosalie Reeves-Fisher says she has no choice.
The spinster inherited her £2.2million home from her mother, who bought it in 1973 after the death of her husband, a millionaire property developer.
February 23, 2009
Vodaphone to slash jobs
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Although Vodaphone are posting very impressive sales and profit/loss figures as well as their predictions for the rest of 2009, they still need to scale back in case 2009 does not go their way.
They are basically preparing themselves in case their end of the market starts to dip, although that bears no help for the people losing their jobs.
Mobile phone giant Vodafone is to cut hundreds of jobs in the UK, Sky sources say.
The news comes after the group earlier this month reported a 1% dip in underlying third quarter sales, despite a weaker pound helping its full-year prospects.
Government create help website
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The Government has managed to create a website which explains the efforts and precautions taking place, which will allow the UK public to quickly inform them selves about the goings on in the UK Economy.
Certain help features are available, including a support section.
Government create help website
The government is promoting its efforts to help the British economy through the recession with its own version of US President Obama’s “recovery” website.
Gordon Brown referred to the “real help now” website – listing action being taken around Britain – as the cabinet met in Southampton.