Europe Energy

[Ironman]

@rabidfoxes

Yeah the housing market in London is fucked. No other word for it. Insanely expensive, multi-billion apartments being bought up as investments or as a holiday home for gulf arabs to come to for the summer months. Rental market in London is similarly fucked.

I will hope that my lender does not withdraw the offer. Very frustrating watching a bunch of etonians play economic theory when they are unaffected by the consequences.

Our housing market is going to follow suit in America - we had sky high home values under Trump, which was good for selling - but it cost me more in escrow to handle the property tax and homeowner's insurance that is part of my mortgage. The escrow difference is what got me. I would get an annual estimate and one year, I was told that my escrow account would need the equivalent of a full month mortgage payment additional to cover the rise in tax/insurance - divided by 12 months. I decided to pay it in one swoop, only to find out even that wasn't enough and they needed an additional 25% of a monthly payment to cover the cost - attached to my new monthly payment against my wishes. I paid 13 1/2 months worth of money in 12.

With the market tanking, that will reverse and I'll end up with a refund lol. I have decided that whatever I get is going to principal to pay down my mortgage faster.

I have only six years left.

[Otherside]

@Ironman It's been fucked for years in London, London is like San Francisco/New York housing market.

Not just home ownership. Spoke with my parents last night and there pension value has now tanked because of pound tanking, were planning on retiring soon, now having to put that off.

Hold an election on any of this, they will be out.

[Ironman]

@Ironman It's been fucked for years in London, London is like San Francisco/New York housing market.

Not just home ownership. Spoke with my parents last night and there pension value has now tanked because of pound tanking, were planning on retiring soon, now having to put that off.

Hold an election on any of this, they will be out.

Our elections for midterms (halfway through Presidency) is November 8th

October 14th was the deadline for me to apply for 2023 insurance through work. I am currently in my 19th year as an employee. We have a retirement pool we set up that uses stocks, bonds, and things we pay into and our company matches up to a certain percentage of our salary.

I checked my retirement -> down 23% since October of 2021. Unbelievable. This was self-imposed by my President. I know we all got hit, but this whole thing was unnecessary. I decided to put a little more of my paycheck into this, and tried to temporarily move some of my money into less risky areas - I don't think that part worked completely, but at least I can change that part whenever. The rest of my insurance - medical, dental, visual, etc. is now locked and will take effect January 1, 2023.

The only good news is that in 2008, I lost 57% in one year and it took four years to recover that loss. Since I have more in it now, the loss is less severe, but stunning nonetheless.

I would hope Liz Truss kicks some [BEEP] over there. Our President and Cabinet are literally lost int he fog and lying to us every day. People are snapping at the party in power - and they deserve it......it's a rare feat for us, but people are waking up.

"We're not in a recession" - uh, yes we are! Two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction...January to March 2022, March to June 2022. We haven't got the June to September 2022 data yet, but with inflation still at 8.2%, a third quarter of contraction isn't a surprise at this point.

Karine Jean-Pierre aka Ill-Prepared, aka Dora the Implorer - asks us to believe what they say, not reality.

[Otherside]

Our elections for midterms (halfway through Presidency) is November 8th

October 14th was the deadline for me to apply for 2023 insurance through work. I am currently in my 19th year as an employee. We have a retirement pool we set up that uses stocks, bonds, and things we pay into and our company matches up to a certain percentage of our salary.

I checked my retirement -> down 23% since October of 2021. Unbelievable. This was self-imposed by my President. I know we all got hit, but this whole thing was unnecessary. I decided to put a little more of my paycheck into this, and tried to temporarily move some of my money into less risky areas - I don't think that part worked completely, but at least I can change that part whenever. The rest of my insurance - medical, dental, visual, etc. is now locked and will take effect January 1, 2023.

The only good news is that in 2008, I lost 57% in one year and it took four years to recover that loss. Since I have more in it now, the loss is less severe, but stunning nonetheless.

I would hope Liz Truss kicks some [BEEP] over there. Our President and Cabinet are literally lost int he fog and lying to us every day. People are snapping at the party in power - and they deserve it......it's a rare feat for us, but people are waking up.

"We're not in a recession" - uh, yes we are! Two consecutive quarters of GDP contraction...January to March 2022, March to June 2022. We haven't got the June to September 2022 data yet, but with inflation still at 8.2%, a third quarter of contraction isn't a surprise at this point.

Karine Jean-Pierre aka Ill-Prepared, aka Dora the Implorer - asks us to believe what they say, not reality.

Truss needs to go after this. I'm not exaggerating the impact of a month.

Budget was so incompetent, it's peoples mortgages and pensions that they have screwed with what her and the chancellor tried to do. There are a lot of people about to lose their homes when the mortgage renewals happen. Pound tanking as fast as it has means stuff is a lot more expensive here, more so than it was to begin with. It's gotten bad over the course of a month, very quickly.

New Chancellor is in. Sacked Kwasi Kwarteng. But he was pretty much only just implementing what she said she would do, rather than being a rogue chancellor. New chancellor is saying they will not do what she said she would do. Will see if the markets react well to that on Monday.

They won't hold an election here, not until they have to in 2024. They should. Was not voted in by the public. We had 60,000 party members vote her in. Some of whom are not UK resident (or even citizens). Others who are underage. So, less than 1% of the countries population. But they would not win. Not now, not after this.

Move it into Pound? If it keeps tanking as it is you'll be rich quickly lol.

[rabidfoxes]

@TuanJie second time, I'm a real beginner starting from the couch end of C25K. I'm progressing slowly, partly because pain demotivates me and partly because I only run 1-2 times per week, mixing it in with other kinds of exercise. Basically, one day I want to get to where you're at! And you're absolutely right about not starting off too fast, it's something I'm still learning. Being a beginner, I'm a little self-conscious and it's tempting to start off faster so I look like 'a real runner'
@Otherside Fucked is the word for it, yes. Tbh, I've never understood state pensions at all, they just seem like a ponzi scheme. And my 2nd pension is in an index fun pegged to the U.S. stock market which is equally volatile so I expect it will be a bumpy ride for some time. It's merely a bumpy ride for people my age, it's a bloody disaster for people who were about to retire, like your parents.

[TuanJie]

@rabidfoxes
Nice move! If the pain you refer to isn't in the injury department, I can only encourage you to keep going in a manner that feels right to you. Once you start craving being in the zone, you've done yourself a big favor. Didn't know the app. I think it took me much longer than nine weeks to get to 5K. Trust me, people who see you run are not concerned with you in the slightest. I forgot, but being self conscious while running was an issue for me as well. It was actually a good exposure exercise. What was a big help was that any encounter I might have would be fleeting because I was literally moving.

[Ironman]

@TuanJie second time, I'm a real beginner starting from the couch end of C25K. I'm progressing slowly, partly because pain demotivates me and partly because I only run 1-2 times per week, mixing it in with other kinds of exercise. Basically, one day I want to get to where you're at! And you're absolutely right about not starting off too fast, it's something I'm still learning. Being a beginner, I'm a little self-conscious and it's tempting to start off faster so I look like 'a real runner'
@Otherside Fucked is the word for it, yes. Tbh, I've never understood state pensions at all, they just seem like a ponzi scheme. And my 2nd pension is in an index fun pegged to the U.S. stock market which is equally volatile so I expect it will be a bumpy ride for some time. It's merely a bumpy ride for people my age, it's a bloody disaster for people who were about to retire, like your parents.

@rabidfoxes
Nice move! If the pain you refer to isn't in the injury department, I can only encourage you to keep going in a manner that feels right to you. Once you start craving being in the zone, you've done yourself a big favor. Didn't know the app. I think it took me much longer than nine weeks to get to 5K. Trust me, people who see you run are not concerned with you in the slightest. I forgot, but being self conscious while running was an issue for me as well. It was actually a good exposure exercise. What was a big help was that any encounter I might have would be fleeting because I was literally moving.

Most of the time, people don't care. I have been running the streets for years. I have been catcalled by girls, honked at, shrieked at by passers-by trying to get me off pace, nearly hit by cars four different times, nearly tripped by passing motorcyclist (yep, just stuck his leg out), yelled at ("Hey lardass, can't you move any faster?"), and nearly had a water bottle hit me in the head.

If you can survive that, you're good. lol - the only time I am afraid to go run - if it's real late, I worry about what cope will think. Then, there was the five weeks they threaten to fine people during the pandemic. That set me back.

The exercise will help keep you going - I run outside so I am generally more tolerant of colder weather; I can lower my thermostat to 20c/68F. Less electricity used as opposed to a 24c/74F setting.

[TuanJie]

@Ironman
That's a completely different experience. Pretty rough. Sorry about that. I literally can't recall a single incident remotely like that in 17 years. Encountered plenty of people.
Hope they won't stop you from running. A person who's at ease with himself/herself would never judge a fellow man for exercising. Pretty sure this'll help with lowering the thermostat indeed. Thanks for making this remotely on topic again Have a good one!

[rabidfoxes]

@TuanJie what really helped me was seeing people who weren't the youngest, slimmest or most muscular, who didn't have the fanciest gear (just their regular t-shirt), who maybe run in a bit of a funny way, do really brilliantly and leave 'professional' looking runners behind. I realised that all that stuff really doesn't matter, and me huffing and puffing doesn't either. The program I'm doing is the NHS one (not the American one), it's basically running and brisk walking alternating until you can just run 30mins non-stop. I'm progressing slower than I 'should' because I need a few 'easy' runs in order to build motivation.

@Ironman I'm so sorry this has happened to you, people can be real assholes. It's incredible that you've been able to brush it all off and just keep going. What the hell is their problem? I have made low-key fun at people exercising in the past but I was like 16. You'd imagine adults would have a bit more sense than that, but I guess they don't have sense; they just have a bag of insecurities. My city is small and quite polite but I fully expect unsolicited comments about my butt when I move to a metropolis next year and go running there - _ -

[Ironman]

@rabidfoxes - those incidents are spread out - the smokescreening is the worst, when trucks drive by and they release a cloud of smoke. lol
I have maybe one or two incidents a year, and I try to run three times a week. I learned to not be distracted - I give them an "eagle hand flip" and go about my run lol

So, what happened with Liz Truss? I read that the pound was falling to near the dollar (which in and itself is bad because we have 8.2% inflation ourselves), but there's more to it.

[Otherside]

@Ironman The best analogy i can think of is if you walk into a bank, insist that you would like to borrow a lot more money but at the same time, you're going to massively decrease your income so you're not sure how you're going to pay it back.

That on a country-wide level causing the value of Pound to crash against dollar and euro, and the value of gilts increasing (how much it costs for the UK to borrow). Pound crashing is bad because we're a service based economy dependent on imports for everything.

It almost wiped out a lot of pension funds (until the bank of England intervened to ensure they did not) and caused peoples mortgage payments to shoot up insane amounts, so her popularity tanked to near zero, so she was told to resign.

[Ironman]

@Ironman The best analogy i can think of is if you walk into a bank, insist that you would like to borrow a lot more money but at the same time, you're going to massively decrease your income so you're not sure how you're going to pay it back.

That on a country-wide level causing the value of Pound to crash against dollar and euro, and the value of gilts increasing (how much it costs for the UK to borrow). Pound crashing is bad because we're a service based economy dependent on imports for everything.

It almost wiped out a lot of pension funds (until the bank of England intervened to ensure they did not) and caused peoples mortgage payments to shoot up insane amounts, so her popularity tanked to near zero, so she was told to resign.

Our issues were self-inflicted by an incontinent incompetent - whose Cabinet is so stpuid and power hungry, they won't 25th Amendment him out (amendment to our Constitution about having an incapacitated President out of office), but our Vice-President is even worse. November 8th will be our starting point by revamping our Congress and removing a lot of the people who passed the wastfeul spending laws around here. We are hoping at that point, our President becomes a Liz Truss because the man isn't only asleep at the wheel, he shouldn't be driving the car - and shame on the people who covered up for him.

We have a man in Pennsylvania (next state over from me) who had a stroke in July, has trouble completing thoughts, and has a teleprompter show him questions people ask in real time because his stroke affected the way he processes speech......and the man is still running for office, a six-year term! He lived off his parents' money until he was in his 40s, got a college degree he never used, and ended up becoming a Lieutenant GOvernor, I think. There was a man who hung around these forums who was a lot like him in character - and he was banned from another SA site, and ultimately this one for our safety, for conning someone out of money when he said he would purchase a gun for the guy. Bizarre - but I see a lot of scary parallel between the two guys.

[Otherside]

@Ironman so we don't have a presidential system, no where on the ballot paper does it say you are voting for this person, rather you vote in a local representive who choses a leader - so they are easy to remove and replace.

More often than not, if you're polling gets low enough (Truss is at 19%, Boris wasnt quite as low but was low and had lost local council elections and byelections for them), you will be out. Add in elections in a year and a half and a lot of MPs are wondering about whether they will elected after all of this.

Unfortunately, this means that there is no election needed (although there should be, quite frankly), and it is is an internal Conservative party matter. Hence we can have a leader with a wildly different manifesto than the one they went to an election on. So we had a situation where we had 110k Conservative party members vote on a leader. Some of whom are underage (minimum age to join is 14, we do not let teenagers vote for a very good reason), or are non-UK citizens, some of who do not even live in the UK. This is compared to the adult population of roughly 55million. We are now on leader number 3 since the last General Election, after number 2 almost crashed the economy, and we will not get a say on number 3.

They will probably be out next election no matter who they pick this time - it's just a casenof how many parliamentary seats they will retain based on the next pick. We go 10 years with one party before we go to another usually, and these antics aren't going to be forgotten in a year and half. Opposition doesn't really terrify anyone anymore as it did in 2019, he's rather dull and unremarkable, and is making a lot of sense on TV, simply by being able to comprehend that there is not some magic money tree with endless funds, and that any spending (or huge tax cuts) needs to be funded somehow. And to be honest, a lot of us would like dull back and some stability and to go back to being able to ignore politics.

[Ironman]

@Ironman so we don't have a presidential system, no where on the ballot paper does it say you are voting for this person, rather you vote in a local representive who choses a leader - so they are easy to remove and replace.

More often than not, if you're polling gets low enough (Truss is at 19%, Boris wasnt quite as low but was low and had lost local council elections and byelections for them), you will be out. Add in elections in a year and a half and a lot of MPs are wondering about whether they will elected after all of this.

Unfortunately, this means that there is no election needed (although there should be, quite frankly), and it is is an internal Conservative party matter. Hence we can have a leader with a wildly different manifesto than the one they went to an election on. So we had a situation where we had 110k Conservative party members vote on a leader. Some of whom are underage (minimum age to join is 14, we do not let teenagers vote for a very good reason), or are non-UK citizens, some of who do not even live in the UK. This is compared to the adult population of roughly 55million. We are now on leader number 3 since the last General Election, after number 2 almost crashed the economy, and we will not get a say on number 3.

They will probably be out next election no matter who they pick this time - it's just a casenof how many parliamentary seats they will retain based on the next pick. We go 10 years with one party before we go to another usually, and these antics aren't going to be forgotten in a year and half. Opposition doesn't really terrify anyone anymore as it did in 2019, he's rather dull and unremarkable, and is making a lot of sense on TV, simply by being able to comprehend that there is not some magic money tree with endless funds, and that any spending (or huge tax cuts) needs to be funded somehow. And to be honest, a lot of us would like dull back and some stability and to go back to being able to ignore politics.

Well, today is the big day in America - November 8 midterm elections. There is a day of reckoning coming for our leftist Democratic Party. The party in power usually loses seats at this point, but how severe things are depends on the policies and our President has been a mess since day one. We have seen all kinds of stories and scare tactics, name calling, mud slinging, fears of "losing our democracy"......SIX American flags falling in the wind behind a Senate candidate during his incoherent speech - he was hiding in his campaign until the lone debate revealed how bad his health is - and yet the party keeps him in the running. Former Presidents Clinton and Obama desperately trying to revive a dead horse - defending the indefensible. Their tactics in 2022 further revealed what happened in our 2020 elections - they not only don't hide - they basically revealed everything they did in 2020 trying to blame the opposition for their upcoming demise!

When Barack Obama said "never underestimate the ability of Joe Biden to F things up", that was literally the only piece of truth we ever heard from his whistling voice.