The rising cost of living

[bickster]

16 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Went through Whitchurch today, cheapest diesel around,  £1.42 a litre.

Still £1:38.9 (for both Diesel and unleaded)

[Genie]

15 minutes ago, stuart_75 said:

A few years ago this was suggested and the Daily Mail and its readership went into meltdown.

One of the Daily Mail gold members on my fb friends list has been campaigning to stop the abolition of cash for some time. Then you realise that:

1) He’s an idiot

2) He’s separated from his partner/children

3) He’s a tradesman

4) He’s currently in prison awaiting sentencing for his part in a drug dealing and money laundering operation.

So he’s a bit biased in his desire to have all financial transactions on the books…

 

[foreveryoung]

1 hour ago, bickster said:

Still £1:38.9 (for both Diesel and unleaded)

This is how it should be, just equal it out it'll show a bit of willing to help. Shows blatant profiteering having deisel the more expensive, supposed to be much cheaper to refine than petrol too.

[bickster]

30 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

This is how it should be, just equal it out it'll show a bit of willing to help. Shows blatant profiteering having deisel the more expensive, supposed to be much cheaper to refine than petrol too.

Cost of refining has nothing to do with it really. It's the exchange that determines the price but atm both are roughly the same price on the exchange, so they should be roughly equal at the pump

[Xela]

8 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Friend of mine bought a flat a few years back. Last year his fixed period on his mortgage ran out.

However his apartment block has the same cladding as Grenfell, so nobody will remortgage for him. Literally nobody, not even his current provider.

So he's stuck paying his variable rate which is going up and up and up.

 

His mortgage payments were £750 a month 18 months ago. They've now hit £1,650

Can't even fix with his existing provider? Usually you can move products and as long as you don't amend term then its not even a credit approval. 

What a shitter for him. The handling of the cladding crisis in this country has been very poor, but I thought it was moving in the right direction, albeit slowly. 

 

[Stevo985]

8 hours ago, av1 said:

Wow that’s horrible

I’m obviously wrong, but I would have thought that would be more a problem with his insurance rather than his mortgage. 
 

 

My guess is the cladding on the block massively drops the value of the flat so he’s in negative equity and nobody will give him a mortgage that covers what he owes because it’s now not what the flat is worth

[Panto_Villan]

7 hours ago, sidcow said:

Isn't that missing the point? 

If a 1p coin costs 5p to make that's not an issue because you don't use it once then throw it away. It's used thousands of times over decades. 

That said I'm old enough to remember 1/2p coins that they did drop.   I expect at some point in the future the 1p will go. 

Not really. The problem is that if people can buy 5p worth of metal for 1p, they'll just melt it down and sell it for a profit.

[Stevo985]

21 minutes ago, Xela said:

Can't even fix with his existing provider? Usually you can move products and as long as you don't amend term then its not even a credit approval. 

What a shitter for him. The handling of the cladding crisis in this country has been very poor, but I thought it was moving in the right direction, albeit slowly. 

 

Apparently not. I’m sure he would have if he had the option, he’s a switched on bloke

[sidcow]

36 minutes ago, Panto_Villan said:

Not really. The problem is that if people can buy 5p worth of metal for 1p, they'll just melt it down and sell it for a profit.

Surely the logistics of collecting enough to make it worthwhile would be horrendous? 

[Panto_Villan]

53 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Surely the logistics of collecting enough to make it worthwhile would be horrendous? 

Yeah, you're right it's logistically difficult. But I think any time you're having a serious discussion about whether it's worthwhile or not to melt them down, it's an indication you probably shouldn't be bothering to make those coins. After all, they'll lose value relative to the metals used to make them as time goes on due to inflation, and you'd expect newly minted coins to last 30+ years. At some point melting them down will become economically viable.

I think there's also more boring accounting reasons why it's a bad idea to make coins that cost more than their face value, too. I think if you create money, you're basically creating an asset for the government - effectively you're creating money out of nothing that you can spend on things, which is a great trick to be able to do (although do it too much and you get inflation). But if you're spending £5m to create £1m then that's wasting £4m the government can't then spend on other things. Although I guess they could just print £4m of £50 notes as well, to cancel it out - but again then you're in a situation where you're doing complicated things just to be able to create some coins that are of kinda debatable utility in the first place.

EDIT - actually, you've sent me off down a bit of a wikipedia rabbit hole. Turns out people melting down coins was actually a genuine problem in relatively recent times. Pre-1965 the US had half-dollar coins made of 90% silver, and after 1965 they made new ones with 40% silver. What that meant was people looked at the dates on the coins and hoarded the ones that were 90% silver and bought things with the 40% silver ones instead, and as inflation steadily eroded the value of the dollar the silver became more valuable than the coin itself and they were melted down. Then in 1971 they introduced a no-silver half dollar and people immediately started hoarding the 40% silver ones, and the same thing eventually happened.

You can just google Gresham's Law if you're interested.

Edited May 9, 2023 by Panto_Villan

[foreveryoung]

I see the interest rates are set to rise yet again. How this is helping reduce nflation is only for the rich bankers to understand I'm sure. Screwing everyone else, my pals mortgage has gone from £780 month to £1650. He earns 50k plus, but said with other bills they will struggle if it goes any higher.

[sidcow]

14 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

I see the interest rates are set to rise yet again. How this is helping reduce nflation is only for the rich bankers to understand I'm sure. Screwing everyone else, my pals mortgage has gone from £780 month to £1650. He earns 50k plus, but said with other bills they will struggle if it goes any higher.

I mean they keep putting the rate up and it keeps having **** all effect on inflation. 

Inflation will start falling next month naturally as all the Ukraine War and Global issues recede, Sunak will claim he did it, BOE will claim they did it when the reality is it's just going to happen naturally regardless. 

[foreveryoung]

4 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I mean they keep putting the rate up and it keeps having **** all effect on inflation. 

Inflation will start falling next month naturally as all the Ukraine War and Global issues recede, Sunak will claim he did it, BOE will claim they did it when the reality is it's just going to happen naturally regardless. 

Agree, also makes people reduce there spending, which can't help.

 

[trekka]

I personally think there will be a dramatic fall in interest rates again starting in the next few years when they realise inflation is lower and nobody has a pot to piss in.  Just a hunch, no evidence at all.  Shame about the time leading up to it mind if my hunch comes off, many people are going to find it really difficult. 

 

[Genie]

I think part of the plan is raising them now under the banner of inflation, then cutting them next year in the run up to the GE to try and win some votes.

[Genie]

1 minute ago, trekka said:

I personally think there will be a dramatic fall in interest rates again starting in the next few years when they realise inflation is lower and nobody has a pot to piss in.  Just a hunch, no evidence at all.  Shame about the time leading up to it mind if my hunch comes off, many people are going to find it really difficult. 

 

Same here. Whilst all other major countries see growth the UK will be bumping along about 0% so my prediction is they’ll slash interest rates to try and stimulate the economy. Starting with the run up to the GE then into 2025. 

[trekka]

7 minutes ago, Genie said:

I think part of the plan is raising them now under the banner of inflation, then cutting them next year in the run up to the GE to try and win some votes.

The BoE is meant to be independent of Government (well owned by Government but independent in how it sets policy etc) .  

[foreveryoung]

14 minutes ago, trekka said:

The BoE is meant to be independent of Government (well owned by Government but independent in how it sets policy etc) .  

Is that like Newcastle being independent to the Saudi Royals. 

[Genie]

26 minutes ago, trekka said:

The BoE is meant to be independent of Government (well owned by Government but independent in how it sets policy etc) .  

It’ll be purely coincidental that there’s a GE around the corner when they start cutting rates  

[Demitri_C]

1 hour ago, Genie said:

I think part of the plan is raising them now under the banner of inflation, then cutting them next year in the run up to the GE to try and win some votes.

Im starting to think so too and they will give us tax cuts then. By then it would have been too late i think