BBC Blog Network

User Profile

Cheese_Me_Too

Listed below are comments made by Cheese_Me_Too between Monday, 20th October 2008 and Friday, 8th May 2009.

«Newer
Older»

Royal Bank as Jekyll and Hyde 08:38am on 08 May 2009 Sounds like another bit of fairly positive news that we're moving in the right direction.

What I'm not clear on is the taxes, I though corporate taxes were paid on profits but they made a loss and appear to then have paid taxes 18 times the loss. I'm not certainly not complaining, just curious as I thought a big factor in the drying up of government income was reduced taxes from bank profits
Treasury wants to cut pensions tax break 4:37pm on 20 Apr 2009 Just to add my views in case anyone is still reading.

I'm a life long Labour supporter and a higher rate tax payer. I save a large chunk of my pay because I want to have some change of actually being able to retire one day. I have never had, nor will I ever have access to any form of final salary pension.

I am already deeply worried about the potential leveling down impact of the compulsory saving schemes and what this will do to company contributions. I am also upset about the loss of tax relief on dividends in pension funds. However, this would pale into insignificance next to any attempt to remove or limit tax relief on contributions. If this ludicrous idea actually is in the budget it will be the death of Labour - I for one would certainly not vote for them again and I stongly believe comments on here saying people will not notice are naive, this would be such a betrayal to the people who actually voted them into government that this party would never win back power.
Final numbers 4:52pm on 02 Apr 2009 Fantastic, very impressed with this on paper. Far more agreement than I ever expected.
Should bankers repay bonuses? 4:49pm on 05 Feb 2009 --- POSITIVE NEWS ------

A bit off topic but I for one am convinced that all the negative reporting over the last 18 months has been a key factor in the eroded confidence which has contributed to the recession.

So a few things to point out from browsing the news today:

- Shares are up - around 15% from their lows in December
- Buffett is reinvesting again - a decent sign that we've reached the low
- The pound is bouncing back strongly - up around 10% on the dollar, Euro and other currencies in the last month or so.

And most positively from an overall economy perspective (though not necessarily from everyone's point of view) - Halifax reported a rise in House prices last month.

I know it's only one data point, it contrasts with Nationwide and all the other arguments but there are several small signs of life being breathed back into the market in both the UK and US. House prices crashes largely triggered the present situation and it won't be resolved until they at least stop falling so this is definitely the most positive sign I've seen in months.

Now what was that about green shoots????
Rose on pay and VAT 4:28pm on 07 Jan 2009 Nice to see pay and bonus restraint following a negative set of results. I don't have a particular problem with high levels of executive pay when they've earnt it through creating significant value for the shareholders but if the shareholders and staff have suffered it wouldn't be right for the board to fill their pockets.

On VAT I'm still baffled by the cost of this. A 12bn GBP cost across 60m people works out at an average of 200 GBP per head (this obviously includes children- would be 800 GBP for a two parent, two children family). Does anyone at all out there feel like they're 200 quid better off as a result of this cut?

Clearly well intentioned but it seems like a knee jerk reaction and that money could have been much better spent elsewhere (or probably better still not added to our national debt at all). I'm traditionally a labour supporter by the way but think the whole pre budget report was a fiasco. Like many others I would love to see Vince Cable given a more prominent role where he can actually do something.
Barclays protects its bankers' pay 11:23am on 31 Oct 2008 Sorry bit this is disgraceful.

I'm not generally one for laying into bankers to anything like the degree regularly seen on here and I'm passing no judgement on salaries and bonuses but this is bascially riding rough shod over existing investors.

In some ways I'm pleased that the governments stake in banks is lower than it would otherwise have been but it's immoral (and I'm surprised not illegal) for Barclays management to actively seek out a lower offer for personal reasons to the detriment of it's shareholders.
Pricking the profits bubble 10:53am on 24 Oct 2008 I thought this was going to be a positive blog for a minute there when I first started readin.

Should have known better. Shares are clearly undervalued right now. There's no doubt that you're right that earnings have been inflated but some of the valuations right now are crazy - a result of sheer panic selling from people who really should have cooler heads. Herd mentality means markets drive too far forward in a bull market and contract too much in a bear, we've definitely over contracted now and worst case scenario is already priced in.

Please can you stop with the doom and gloom. You aren't helping.
Now there are runs on countries 4:18pm on 23 Oct 2008 Some confused history on here.

Blair was determined to join the euro, it's only because of Brown (who was desperate to avoid it) that we aren't in it now.

I'm not making any judgement call on that - I'm not sure if we'd better or worse of in it (I suspect if we are going to join it would have been better early than now but that's a mute point) but those posting that this is all some Brown plot to achieve 1:1 parity with the Euro and join it (at a massive cost in living standards to all in the country) are surely as delusional as those who harp on about full reserve banking being the answer to all our problems.
Now there are runs on countries 1:20pm on 23 Oct 2008 Aren't currency exchange rate movements a zero sum game?

I.E. If a currency declines in value, everyone else appreciates in value, they can't all devalue at the same time.

So yes, bad news for some local economies but not for the global economy, surely at a macro level exchange rate fluctuations are irrlevant (or am I missing something, I'm not an economist?)

Pulling capital out of share markets however is a different deal altogether as it won't necessarily be reinvested in shares in another country.
Crisis is business as normal 09:23am on 20 Oct 2008 So are we at the beginning of the end or in the eye of the storm?

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

Cheese_Me_Too