baypond

No country will voluntarily leave the EURO, the cost of funding, and cost in terms of depreciation would be too great. It would be suicidal. I don't think the core EMU countries, Germany, BENELUX, France could stomach ejecting them from the EURO (due to failure to maintain fiscal discipline) because politically it would be suicidal. Unfortunately Ireland and the southern and eastern states will have to take some pretty bad mediciine. Proof that one size doesn't fit all.

I think at this juncture, Central Banks would love to be able to inflate their way out of the current mess. Phsycologically it is so much easier than via deflation. The problem is that inevitably by the time inflation takes hold, all Central Banks will be behind the curve and we risk a return to the 70's

I think part of the problem is that there is huge demand for EUROs from corporates and Eastern European countries that have to fund loans etc. With lending terms being so difficult, the only access to EUROs is to buy them vs their own currency because they can not find anyone to lend them. This is very simplistic but may PARTLY explain why 'reserve' currencies are still strong versus other currencies. Flight to quality, interest differentials etc also play a part.

I have just spent 20 mins trying to work out why my BT landline phone bill was so large last quarter. Thanks to my darling young children, I was staggered to find out we dialed in 358 votes at 35p a call during the series. 308 of which were for Alexandre. Suffice to say the handsets will be hidden from October to December this year! Who said it was cheaper to stay in on a Saturday night and watch TV[6]

[quote user="hoverfrog"] 2/ if you offer the asking price they cannot legally refuse to sell to you. However - see 1# above. .[/quote] Not strictly true as we found out during our house purchase. What you are refering to is the mandat between vendor and immobiliere. If a full asking price is made, then the vendor is legally bound to accept within the terms of the mandat, or face having to pay the agents commission in full. As far as I know there is no compensation for the prospective vendor. In our case the immobiliere was reticent to apply the conditions of the mandat because it would have taken something like 2 years via the courts to get a conclusion, so in then end the agent agreed to lower commission charges to get the sale to proceed.

www.rspb.org.uk/advice/watchingbirds/behaviour/birds_and_windows/attacking.asp - 27k www.rspb.org.uk/advice/expert/previous/robinterritory.asp - 28k these might help

I presume you are talking about the male blackbird? This behaviour is very common amongst the crow family. We would often have rooks and crows attacking windows. I think you will find some info on the RSPB website, but if the Blackbird behaviour is the same as the crows, then it will be because we are now in the breeding season, and the blackbird is attacking what it thinks is a competitor. So anywhere it sees a reflection of itself, it will attack. We had a crow making a real mess of a freshly polished car once.

my shower routine 1. adjust shower direction for adult 2. close shower door and turn on shower and adjust temperature 3. realise there is no shampoo left because her indoors uses  a bottle per hair wash 4. open door with shower still running, walk to cupboard to try and find shampoo 5. if lucky, return to shower avoiding pools of water as i go, then wash hair. 6. shout at wife who thinks its funny turning the taps on and off so water goes cold then scalding hot  7 look for shower gel and if none  use shampoo or conditioner as soap. 8 exit shower and use the kids towel because my wife has used our 4 when she had a shower.  

excellent thanks

Does anyone have any knowledge of fishing on the Gers. It always looks incredibly silty near Lectoure, in fact its like a pea soup for most of the time.

[quote user="krusty"]I did a search to see if it had been on here before but could not find it , I must practice my search skills more [:$][/quote] Clair will catch you out more times than a gatso....

This must be the least contentious and shortest subject ever posted. I wish I could be so succinct. Salut

It really hurts, our dog Toby (avatar picture) was put to sleep last spring. We (me, wife, and children 9 and 11) went to the vets to see what the prognosis on Toby was. Our vet said he had to operate and was kind enough to let us walk him in to the operating room. I picked him up and placed him on the operating table, and we all talked and stroked him as the vet placed him under an anaesthetic. We sat in the waiting room waiting for news, but we knew it wasn't a good sign to see the vet appear with tears in his eyes. We made the decision to let him go to save suffering, and I will never forget the children's pain, and our efforts to try and hold back our emmotions in front of the children. Toby is missed, but remembered with great fondness and affection, I am sure Jean-Claude will be the same. Stay strong....

BOE also buying £75bn of assets to reflate the economy.

Worsley has played himself in I think. Personally I think Powell has to prove he is not one dimensional. I think he is being found out. I don't go for Lewsey simply because I frequently hear that test match rugby is a step up from club rugby, and without a staedy flow of test rugby I am not sure they can pick him. The other point about Lewsey is that he isn't particularly tour friendly. He is not really a team player. Robot O'Gara would be unsuprising, but I think he is shocking once his kicking game goes off the boil. McG is the master tactition, he will want flexible players who have more than one facet to their game.

[quote user="dragonrouge"]Now let me take a punt (sorry for that) but I say a very close game in Dublin today and England to sneak a win?  How about that for I think that Martin Johnson would have say a few things this week. [/quote] OH FOR  *&%%**""!!??%%$$££ SAKE what on earth are England doing. Not a very good game, the best moment being the view of Martin Johnson when Care got a yellow. They should keep replaying that video at training for the next two weeks before France at Twickenham. Wales vs Ireland ... still a great prospect.

[quote user="Dog"]The current problems were caused by lack of morality, greed and lax rules. It has grown over time until Directors of companies think they own them, then rob them or use lax out of date laws to enrich themselves at the cost of the public. [/quote] So nothing has changed since Adam and Eve then ! At least we are on PAYE. If we earn a pound, we pay 41 pence in tax. Full stop. To get involved in morals and morality draws in every profession known to man. Also to tar every banker with the same brush is absurd and irrational.

Well, Wales were anonymous, France were magnificent as only they know how to be 1 game in 6. Maybe this 6 nations will even up the national representation in the Lions squad. Sadly Powell looks a little one dimensional and Henson blew Wales' chance to nick a win. The quality of Wales was that despite the fact that they didn't see much of the ball, they were within striking distance until the 80th minute. You notice I am being all critical of Wales BEFORE England play - your turn tomorrow dragonrouge!

I think the main realization coming out of these dramatic economic events is that people genuinely have to realize that if you earn 1 pound you can only spend 1 pound. If you earn 1 pound and spend 2 pounds then eventually you are in trouble. I genuinely believe that to concentrate solely on blaming the bankers means that you have missed the point. The sad thing now is that with the extent of the current economic downturn, we are begining to see signs that even the more prudent amongst us are getting in to financial difficulty as unemployment increases sharply. Also I think the comment about being prepared to work hard has nothing to do with it. People throuhout the banking world tend to work hard, for long hours with heavy demands made. It's poor decision making , even greed, that caused the problem.

thanks! how the b.....y h..l do you stop it once it's started .... i closed it but it's still bleeding all over my speakers with no program running[:)]

[quote user="powerdesal"]At 24p are they worth a 'punt'? [/quote] usual rules - i am not qualified to comment blah blah blah all i would say is that if you think nationalisation is a possibility then in that event, shares would be worth zero. If they dont nationalise but have further share dilution (via UK treasury injections) then the shares will tend to zero as the dilution takes place and as has happened in the past few months. You pay your money and takes your choice.   By the way, I don't trade stocks n shares.

well   EURUSD started week at 1.2750 and ends the week at 1.2670 GBPEUR started and finished the week at 1.1250. whats that saying ? something like ' everything changes and everything remains the same'   Bon le weekend...

For example Goodwin held 2,732,572 shares, the last of which he recieved in Jan 2008 at around 330 pence. So the value was £9,017,487=60. As of today the shares are worth 24 pence, so value today is £655,817=28 So he has lost, or more accurately not been able to realise, £8,361,669=72 on his shares. I would guess, that he sees the pension as some form of recompense. I will leave that to you as to whether or not you feel it is justified.  

I think something that may be on Goodwin's (and all the boards of directors in every bank in the worlds) minds is that they lost so much money on their stock holdings (because large parts of their pay was in shares they were not allowed to sell) that the only option they have, is to wait for their pensions. It is all in the public domain, but in many banks where bonuses have been paid, a large portion of pay from the last few years has become worthless, so in effect the calls by public for bankers to repay a portion of past years bonuses has actually happened. It doesn't help the shareholders but this is a fact. So to re-iterate, where board directors have lost their fortunes on share holdings, they may well be clinging on to their pensions as their only valuable asset. This is clearly Goodwin's thinking, whether or not you agree with it.

Whether or not you are a Woodward fan, he did pay incredible attention to detail. Yes , I firmly believe refereeing consitiency was an issue, Haskell yellow card for tripping up an Italian, but next week one of the only penalties awarded to England was for a trip where the Welsh guy went unpunished. But... Wales under Gatland are showing the bloody mindedness that England used to show, with a total intolerance to giving away unnecessary penalties. England should expect a level playing field from the ref, but they have made their job harder by whingeing rather than finding solutions. England to win if my prediction at the start of the 6 nations is to remain intact. Lets just hope Ireland can make a slow start as they did against the Italians. No Cipriani in the line-up, bad for Saturday's game but Johnson showing strength of his convictions, which in Cipriani's case has to be correct. Goode had a horror for Brive last weekend, I really hope he isn't needed this weekend.