QUOTE (Doug @ 22 Jan 2008, 08:01)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>How is this going to affect your modelling?
Hmm, hard to say. These trends are just averages so the circumstances of each individual can be widely different. Rather than global share prices etc. I'm far more concerned about how Stirling does against the Euro, being a continental modeller.
As Stirling slumps I suspect I will win fewer eBay auctions on www.ebay.de and as a consequence spend less there, but then can spend a touch more via mail order from shops etc. so actually I'll be helping the European manufacturers and shops!!
I don't have any shares so I shall watch that storm safely from the shore - besides all the banks were peddling FTSE-growth linked bonds a few months ago and so I thought - AHA it's all about to go belly up!! Low and behold - it is!! (First law of sensible investment - do the opposite of what your bank advises you.)
And to be honest, all the share prices have been going up for a long time now so it's time for them to come down. If you were playing Higher or Lower with that pickled Bruce Forscyte chap then you'd be shouting "LOWER" as his glamourous assistant turned over the next card...
QUOTE (pedromorgan @ 22 Jan 2008, 08:42)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>I sometimes wonder if our living standards are just too high in the west. we encourage the east to come up to our standards but perhaps we should be meeting them half way.
I've often thought this! Although I came to the conclusion that we maintain our current standard of living in a selfishl and blinkered way and we could be much more efficient at resource usage if we made a few small compromises, and so keep the iPod et al.
Besides, are our big multinationals going to want to sell things to the Third World until they've reached our standard of living OR ask us to show restraint and cut back on our consumption and spending?! Capitalism strongly favours burning resources ever faster at the moment...why do people cut their energy and gas usage etc.? to save money!! What do they then spend it on? A holiday with massive carbon emissions...
QUOTE (34C @ 22 Jan 2008, 10:02)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Also really inefficient businesses are stressed enough to be 'eaten' by their more efficient competitors, which is an evolutionary filter for quality. Except that protectionism is all too often invoked to 'save the dinosaur'.
Ahem...another Northern Rock cake Gordon Brown, or did you choke on the last? Perhaps you'd like to wash it down with our gold reserves, oh, hang on, you flogged them all a few years ago at 'rock bottom' prices...
I would say it's going to hurt some people a great deal in the near future, but everyone else will survive...and carry on modelling!!