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baypond

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Everything posted by baypond

  1. " If you offer the full price on a house then that is legally binding" The only legally binding part of offering a full asking price is that the vendor has to pay the estate agent the full fee if they back out. But even then it is invariably contested in court and can involve 'greedy' estate agents pursuing poor vendors who made a 'mistake'. The buyer gets nothing. On the subject of whether or not to buy. I would also add the fact that the perilous state of EU fiscal finances means that governments will be looking for more and more ways of collecting tax. They have already increased Capital Gains Tax for second properties, and I imagine there will be more tax traps to follow. Tread carefully, and think about possible tax pitfalls. The French would love to tax foreign ownership i'm sure.
  2. Is there a definitive answer on this. We have a conforming pool (electric roller cover with pool end attachments) and want to put some safety railings on top of a retaining wall that is 1ft high on poolside, but 6ft drop on the other. Our neighbour (and maker of the railings) has said that the railings need to be over a metre high to comply, and extend round the pool?
  3. I have just read the press statement and it says there may be additional charges for seats with extra leg room. It says speedy boarders will be able to board plane first, an advantage when carrying locker luggage on a busy flight, but I couldn't see anything about priority access to seating position, so they may allocate seats as the flight is booked?
  4. I have just recieved an email saying that from Spring 2012 Easyjet will be running a trial on allocated seating on selected flights. What agreat improvement that will be. Apparently speedy boarders can pre-select seats.
  5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC19fEqR5bA&feature=topvideos_news  "trader on the BBC says Eurozone will crash" This is the sort of person that gives banking and traders an even worse name than they have already. He is not representative of the industry. I can not believe that the BBC didn't vet him better. Laugh, but don't take his arguments seriously.
  6. I use World First. I used to work with the guys who left our bank to do the start up, and always find them first class. They are not the only boutique FX outfits, but I would look for one that is well established.
  7. Quillan, The USA has a bit more time to work things out because it's debt is in it's own currency IE it probably wont default because it just prints more dollars, and more importantly, the difference between the USA and EU is that there is one fiscal policy for the USA, but in Europe each country has it's own individual fiscal policy. There is no leadership because there are too many different sovereign interests within Europe, and no one wants to foot the bill. \
  8. Nice site Lyn, I have just signed up for the Royal British Legion London to Paris bike ride in September. Training started this weekend and it hurt!
  9. [quote user="Gluestick"][quote user="baypond"]Gluestick. It was not a cop out. I have never said or meant to imply that banks should not shoulder a share of the blame. What I have always said is that the regulatory environment was deliberately lax due to a political desire to see momentum in UK growth sustain their political ambitions to be re-elected. I do think though, that borrowers have forgotten that loans have to be repaid out of future earnings, and that house price inflation is unlikely to help in the near term.[/quote] I would totally agree with that. However, lenders were hugely irresponsible in lending increasing sums, on ever-increasing LTVs and Income Multiples and excessive tenor. And from historic experience (1970s and late 1980s) ought to have exercised greater caution. [/quote] There is no easy answer to this. I work for a bank that became inefficient with too many employees making too little money vs their peers. Their answer was to move too far down the credit chain and take too much poor quality debt on their books to try and raise the margin on their lending. When the credit crunch unwound, the bank was very poorly positioned. I have two main observations: Firstly by being inefficient the bank took risks to keep up with competition (ie not totally due to greed or 'master of the universe' traders) and secondly that if regulators restricted banks from taking on too much poor quality debt via regulation, the result would have been that the bank would have to be more efficient to compete rather than operating with poor lending polices to compete. It keeps coming back to regulation I think.
  10. [quote user="NickP"] Not true, Abbey National made it a condition of giving us a mortgage that we took out an endowment . [/quote] All lenders want life insurance cover, but a lender only requires an endowment if it is an endowment mortgage no?
  11. Gluestick. It was not a cop out. I have never said or meant to imply that banks should not shoulder a share of the blame. What I have always said is that the regulatory environment was deliberately lax due to a political desire to see momentum in UK growth sustain their political ambitions to be re-elected. I do think though, that borrowers have forgotten that loans have to be repaid out of future earnings, and that house price inflation is unlikely to help in the near term.
  12. [quote user="Théière"][quote user="baypond"]Then everyone can blame bankers again [/quote] Yep too frequently we hear of cowboy tradesmen who "ruin" some peoples lives whilst these supposedly qualified professionals have an effect on everyone's lives. Stone them! Prisons were invented for debtors so as the bankers and economists are to blame and caused the countries debts then lock them up with a bucket to crap in (shared) [/quote] Erm thanks for that comment - I am a banker. Unfortunately we live in a society that has NOT taught us that a loan is basically a tax on future earnings. As much as banks lent frivilously, people borrowed without understanding the possible consequences. Bankers are not solely to blame, it is plainly too simplistic to suggest that. Giles
  13. [quote user="sweet 17"]See, Baypond, I'd never have made a banker, like you?[:D][/quote] Maybe sweet, but that is not necessarily a bad thing is it?
  14. [quote user="sweet 17"]Like I said earlier, why don't we give each Irish person a quarter of a million each and they can spend some of that buying British goods?  Still less than 7 billion?[/quote] Hmm not quite - 4,000,000 people x 250,000 is 1,000,000,000,000
  15. It would amusing if it wasn't so tragic that all the problems in the UK and the USA were supposidly caused by 'masters of the universe' traders taking stupid risks, and yet in regards to Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal the press blames it on property bubbles and write downs due to people being unable to pay back their loans. The credit crunch was due to unabated, unregulated lending that created a 'developed world' bubble. When the straw broke the camels back (ie when the worst bits broke first, CDOs etc to loan delinquencies) it swept all banks away. The different scenarios in different countries are due to one thing, and that is economies, governments, people borrowing more money than they can easily repay. The most worrying part is that as someone once said, YOU CAN'T SOLVE A DEBT CRISIS BY BORROWING MORE.
  16. Jako, you are sadly suffering from delusion if you think this is all a wheeze by bankers to move the markets for their own profit. This is about countries being fiscally and monetarily loose for too many years on the back of the stronger core EU countires. Ireland and all are taking pain from too much profligacy, not from markets.
  17. Anecdotal evidence I have from colleagues at work is that UK residents have been heading in their masses to Devon and Cornwall. It may be worth googling the tourist offices to see just how much higher numbers are there. I think people found 2009 expensive in GBP terms in France and so booked at home for 2010 before the exchange rate came back. Giles
  18. baypond

    simvustatin

    Hi I have been taking simvastatin for about 3 years with no side effects. The effect on my cholesterol has been excellent. I am diabetic so there was really no hesitation on my part when it was suggested I use it. The on e thing that is absolutely critical, is that you have a liver function test soon after starting to take the drug, and again after 6 or 9 months. In very rare situations, it causes complications for the liver, so early liver function test is v importaant. Giles
  19. I have to admit that I never really understood road bikes and riding. I always enjoyed mountain bikes. However, I have been transformed this year. In an effort to get fit before I get too old, I started going out on the mountain bike, but areas to cycle on tracks are a bit limited, and repeating the same tracks can become a bit boring. In August, we happened to stay in the Pyrenees, and on the way home, travelled along (up) the legendary Tour de France route, the Col du Tourmalet. It is a beautiful piece of France, and you could only admire the cyclists pounding up the relentlessly steep road. When I got home, I tried a road bike and am hooked. The best part is that you have an infinite variety of local routes to try. I guess the downside is that roads are sometimes more dangerous. However, since the Tour came to England, the number of cyclists on the road has increased dramatically, and so drivers tend to be more expecting than in the past. I am looking forward to the Tout of Britain which starts soon.
  20. Not sure if this website is already widely known, but here it is anyway: With Le Mans coming up in a few weeks, I guess a number of English plates will be getting these! http://english.controleradar.org/speeding-fines.php
  21. [quote user="bixy"] What a bunch of useless w*****s. [/quote] Ci-tb-nk are just about the only bank that support regulatory changes in the US that will make the system more stable. They are no longer the biggest bank in the world.
  22. I always tip when the service has been good or deserved. Why not? It makes me feel good and I'm sure it is well recieved by the recipient. I think not giving anything at all is just mean most of the time if service is non compris
  23. The one bad thing about coalitions tends to be that a small coalition partner can carry the balance of power. In Israel for example this means that to gain the minority party's votes, the laarger partner has to make concessions on items that help only a minority of the population. I think we are odds on for a colaition government, and I think Gordon Brown has done a nice stitch up on the Conservatives by climbing into bed with the Lib/Dems. Conservatives buggest problem is Cameron and fact that Labour somehow stole the middle ground, and made a mess of it.
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