Sterling recovers

[Bagpuss]

I don't see the point you're trying to make there Bagpuss. It seems that those posts are pretty consistent. Keep trying !!

Well if there are no inconsistencies your house has dropped 9% in one month

and no crash must = a drop of 20%

[Gonzo]

With Controls.... yes !! Gordon brown dumped controls and look what happened.

Er are you absolutely sure about that?

Rationing of lending ended in the early 1980s ISTR. Ask someone who bought a house during the 1960s or 1970s about "mortgage queues".

[Cyberman]

I agree that there should have been a limit to lending that is a figure less than 100% of deposits, that would have more or less killed debt culture - I doubt it was realistic to achieve however during last 5-8 years since banks were already lending much more in the past. The responsible course of action therefore must have been higher interest rates to avoid creating house price bubble - BoE's job is to target inflation and houses should have always played a part in it since one can live without plasma TV but living in a cardbox is much harder to do.

I don't see why the careful majority like myself should pay high interest rates just because others are spendthrifts. There are other fairer controls available which most lenders do use, such as credit-scoring and credit-checking, whereby those with a bad record do not get loans.

[Cyberman]

Er are you absolutely sure about that?

Rationing of lending ended in the early 1980s ISTR. Ask someone who bought a house during the 1960s or 1970s about "mortgage queues".

Yep... absolutely sure. Gordon Brown relaxed regulatory controls and we are now paying the price for that.

[AtW]

I don't see why the careful majority like myself should pay high interest rates

You don't have to pay high interest rates - just don't borrow like me. If you are a true contractor you should be buying your house for cash anyway leaving a big tip to the cashier girl...

[Cyberman]

Well if there are no inconsistencies your house has dropped 9% in one month

and no crash must = a drop of 20%

20% is not a crash. It is a reasonable adjustment after rises of over 100%. 50% would be a crash. That 20% will be recovered by the end of 2010 IMO.

[Cyberman]

You don't have to pay high interest rates - just don't borrow like me. If you are a true contractor you should be buying your house for cash anyway leaving a big tip to the cashier girl...

My only borrowing is my mortgage and I have reduced that by half in the past 3 years. The majority of people in this country are sensible and should not be made to have to subsidise the reckless minority.

[Cyberman]

It's not clear how you're being racist just by mentioning immigration, if that's all pm-junkie is referring to. That accusation sounds like the same knee-jerk reaction every bien-pensant person has whenever some problem is even partly attributed to excessive immigration, whether immigrants are claimed to be morally at fault (as in increased crime for example) or, as in this case, just unwitting indirect causes of the problem.

I thought that blinkered, unthinking attitude was changing these days. But maybe some people are a bit slow to catch on, and of course they imagine everyone must think them a righteous "caring" person just for wheeling out the "racist" mantra to suppress rational argument.

It's obvious uncontrolled immigration *has* played a major part in this downturn, or at least made it worse than it would have been. Yes, bankers have been their usual greedy selves (but also forced to lower themselves to the standards of the most loony lenders or else lose business).

But it wasn't simply through carelessness that Governments in the UK and US and elsewhere let bank lending standards slip, as they would have us believe. There has been a deliberate policy to encourage and even threaten banks to allow more "social lending". And why? Largely on account of uncontrolled immigration, over twenty million in the US over the last few years for example I believe, and huge numbers in the UK and Spain and other Western countries as well. That's obviously a massive amount, and all those guys need houses, which has a knock on effect on prices all up the line for longer-established but still poor residents.

To people like pm-junkie and Bagpuss (who scorned this idea last time I aired it) I say open your eyes!

WHS !!!

[PM-Junkie]

So, resorting to insults as usual shows a lack of intelligence on your part. I have made no racist comments at all, unless the use of the word 'immigration' is now considered racist in your little world.
The right to buy is still occurring today under this socialist government, so it appears that not that many people think it is stupid. No amount of house buiding could have kept up with an estimated 5 million legal and illegal immigrants over the past 11 years. Apologies for using that racist word 'immigrant' yet again, but it is impossible to debate sensibly without using words.

Cyberman, you are quite right - my sincere apologies for calling you a racist. Looking through my posts I have you confused with someone else. I am of course a pratt.

I have edited my posts accordingly.

I still reserve the right to call you a pratt though

I shall get back to writing my book, and shut up until my brain reboots.

[Schrodinger's Cat]

Yep... absolutely sure. Gordon Brown relaxed regulatory controls and we are now paying the price for that.

Take those Tory boy blinkers off FFS.

Almost all the people who are responsible for this mess are Tory voting bankers, you might want to think about that for a while.

I will sleep well at the next general election knowing my vote will be cancelling out yours.