Tuesday, February 27, 2007

The road pricing policy has been in the new a lot lately and 1.8 million people have signed the online petition

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

protesting against its implementation.This emphasises  what is wrong with the current government, namely

  • Waste
  • Overcontrol

If they are worried about congestion then why not raise fuel duty? The proposed road tax will cost billions to implement and will be a very inefficient way of raising funds. Also, it will further transform the country into a big brother state, with the powers that be having the ability to monitor your every move. On the subject of waste there was an interesting program on last night about

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=9554

http://www.dh.gov.uk/ProcurementAndProposals/PublicPrivatePartnership/PrivateFinanceInitiative/fs/en

This seems a horribly inefficient way to pay for schools/hospitals etx while allowing Gordon Brown to appear as the Iron Chancellor.

Winston Churchill once said

http://web.univ-pau.fr/~parsons/45Elections.html

Socialism is, in its essence, an attack not only upon British enterprise, but upon the right of the ordinary man or woman to breathe freely without having a harsh, clumsy, tyrannical hand clapped across their mouths and nostrils. A Free Parliament - look at that - a Free Parliament is odious to the Socialist doctrinaire. Have we not heard Mr. Herbert Morrison descant upon his plans to curtail Parliamentary procedure and pass laws simply by resolutions of broad principle in the House of Commons, afterwards to be left by Parliament to the executive and to the bureaucrats to elaborate and enforce by departmental regulations? As for Sir Stafford Cripps on "Parliament in the Socialist State," I have not time to read you what he said, but perhaps it will meet the public eye during the election campaign.

But I will go farther. I declare to you, from the bottom of my heart, that no Socialist system can be established without a political police. Many of those who are advocating Socialism or voting Socialist to-day will be horrified at this idea. That is because they are short-sighted, that is because they do not see where their theories are leading them.

No Socialist Government conducting the entire life and industry of the country could afford to allow free, sharp, or violently-worded expressions of public discontent. They would have to fall back on some form of Gestapo, no doubt very humanely directed in the first instance. And this would nip opinion in the bud; it would stop criticism as it reared its head, and it would gather all the power to the supreme party and the party leaders, rising like stately pinnacles above their vast bureaucracies of Civil servants, no longer servants and no longer civil. And where would the ordinary simple folk - the common people, as they like to call them in America - where would they be, once this mighty organism had got them in its grip?

However, I can't see hug a hoodie "Dave" Cameron being any better, maybe it's time to give these lot a go

http://www.newparty.co.uk/

Tuesday, February 27, 2007 12:39:31 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [1]  |  Trackback
Tuesday, February 27, 2007 8:57:42 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [1]  |  Trackback
Thursday, February 08, 2007

Nothing new in this article

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a9Y_CRc7oo2Y&refer=home

but I was interested to read that Etienne Gorgeon thinks that buying the bond and CDS protection (negative basis trade) means that you are immune to default. What happens if the protection seller (counterparty) cannot pay (counterparty risk). Furthermore, the CDS protection does not cover coupon payments, so if default occurs just before a coupon is due to be paid, the protection buyer misses out. There is also recovery rate risk - more significant for bonds that are priced away from par

Thursday, February 08, 2007 8:29:30 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback

Not sure if this is a wind up, but Harlow estate agent Alan Howick is fuming that interest rates have been going up recently

http://www.bishopsstortfordcitizen.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.1167393.0.rate_rise_is_outrageous.php

I'm not sure if he appreciates that interest rates are still below their long term mean, and that real interest rates (interest rates - inflation (5.25- 4.4) are still very low. I'm not sure that raising equity from your residence is hard work - surely they have merely been the beneficiaries of historically low rates. I'm sure Mervyn and co. will pay lots of attention to Mr. Howick going forward.

Betfair are quoting 4.4 (3.4-1 in traditional odds), so it's looking like rates will be held this month (although punters could be wrong footed as they were last time)

although the market has priced in a couple more rises between now and June

Thursday, February 08, 2007 8:10:39 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback
Monday, February 05, 2007
Friday, February 02, 2007

The Irish are favourites for the championship.

What I think may be worth a flutter going forward is Italy to be ahead at half time but to lose the game. Italy were doing well in all of their games at half time last year, but went on to lose them all.

  • vs. Ireland

Ireland: (10) 26

Italy: (10) 16

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/international/4681060.stm

  • vs. England

Italy: (6) 16

England: (7) 31

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/international/4696474.stm

  • vs. France

France (8) 37

Italy (12) 12

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/international/4744926.stm

  • vs. Wales

Wales (15) 18

Italy (15) 18

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/international/4792984.stm

  • vs. Scotland

Italy: (7) 10

Scotland: (10) 13

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/international/4814686.stm

 

For this Saturday's match against France I will be placing a bet on Italy to either be ahead or drawing at half time and for France to win.

 

Friday, February 02, 2007 3:53:37 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback

Theme design by Jelle Druyts

Pick a theme: