James

This article might just explain the "recent" underperformance http://gainspainscapital.com/2013/01/04/did-the-fed-lie-about-qe-3-and-4/

A fish rots from the head down From the 16.01.12 RM report: London’s Worst Performers January 2012 Monthly Change Kensington and Chelsea -1.7% BTFD?

Hi GF, Seen discussed elsewhere, best guess - Keegan Resources Inc? Hope this helps.

November 2011 Halifax Non-Seasonally Adjusted MoM: -2.1%

Excellent, explains last week announcement of lobotomization scheme for FTB.

Mortgage regulations can affect house prices European Union (EU) plans to regulate Britain’s booming buy-to-let sector could restrict mortgage availability, force landlords to sell and cause house prices to fall. The EU draft directive on Credit Agreements Relating to Residential Property (CARRP) says BTL should be regulated in the same way as residential mortgages for owner occupation. That could prevent lenders and borrowers – including existing BTL landlords seeking to remortgage at the end of fixed deals – from taking anticipated rental income into account when assessing how much mortgage is affordable. Instead, EU proposals would bring Britain into line with Continental practice and force lenders to assess BTL in the same way as mortgage applications by owner occupiers on their prime residence; that is, the main criterion would be the borrower’s earnings. More I really hope this directive is enacted forthwith to finish the "miracle" of BTL resilience.

Hi Dr Bubb, Thank you. Would this be of any helpEMF Quarterly Review - Q1 2011

Moody’s downgrades 12 UK lenders The rating actions include a one-notch downgrade of Lloyds TSB Bank plc (to A1 from Aa3), Santander UK plc (to A1 from Aa3), Co-Operative Bank plc (to A3 from A2), a two-notch downgrade of RBS plc (to A2 from Aa3) and Nationwide Building Society (to A2 from Aa3); and downgrades of one to five notches of 7 smaller building societies. The ratings of Clydesdale Bank were confirmed at A2 (negative outlook). As outlined in the May press release, we have reviewed the standalone ratings of all entities prior to concluding on the debt ratings. A separate announcement today covers the upgrade of the standalone rating of Co-Operative Bank to C- (mapping to Baa1 on the long-term debt scale) from D+ and earlier announcements cover the upgrades of the standalone ratings of Santander UK, Nationwide, Yorkshire, and Principality Building Societies. Sovereign CDS Pricing Name Level Change Time Spain 377 14 (3.9%) 12:00 Italy 457 3 (0.7%) 12:00 France 178 3 (1.7%) 12:00 Germany 101 4 (3.9%) 12:00 United Kingdom 955 (5.8%) 12:00 Will the mortgage rates stay this low for longer.

Yep, same here GF - buying & researching some junior miners which are currently on sale IMO. A view on recent SNB fiasco from Turd Ferguson: Quote: In what can only be construed as encouraging action, gold flew back higher today, nearly to the level it was before the blatant manipulation of Wednesday. I'll be very interested in the OI numbers tomorrow to see if today was primarily due to continued short covering by The Cartel. I'll find it quite amusing if it was. To think that the SNB deliberately tried to manipulate gold lower only to be thwarted by the greedy, frightened, short-covering Cartel is wonderful to consider. Sort of like having your two worst enemies declare war upon each other.

Some interesting read on manipulation tactics. Nice example: Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west - During the brief period of calm between wild rides up and down in price, headlines will pop up that make it seem like the bubble-talk is correct: such as George Soros selling his GLD ETF shares, while buried in the story lies the truth that he moved into gold mining stocks. Ancient warfare translates very well to business and trading today. The greatest contemporary battlefield is that of the gold trade: it is ground zero for the greatest transfer of wealth in human history. Within the past week, the Swiss National Bank dismissed the possibility of interventions to manage the Swiss Franc and then did a complete about-face on that stance. These are efforts undertaken during the latter stages of a battle, when one side starts gaining an obvious edge over the other. From the Thirty-Six Stratagems, the following is a brief outline of the primary methods being used by big players to keep the structure of our global finance alive... More from Noblenomads - My link

Thank`s for the link TrueNorth! Really nice article and the comments too, Deconstruction of Dogmatic Denialism at it`s best. Quote: "But after a certain balance is tipped, the rate of acceleration becomes exponential. Tired parallel or not, the Titanic’s loss still remains the best analogy: 67% of the submersion of the ship took place in the last ten minutes before it disappeared below the waves. To each physical data set, for example, one must factor in the effect of micro family bad news, macro economic bad news, and micro market bad news. This is never 2+2+2: more often the progression is (2 x 2) squared. So instead of six, the answer becomes 16. Very few people can think beyond the linear; but most case histories of market panic and economic slump show that such thinking is central to accuracy. After a certain time, the sheer weight of bad news acts like the steel of a liner that is no longer buoyant: the speed is so frightening, everyone is taken by surprise."

Biggest annual fall in house prices since Oct. 2009 More I have also read that the number of homes being put up for sale in the UK jumped 7.5pc in Feb., the biggest monthly increase for three years.

Endeed, US starting to look less unaffordable. Quote: "Housing affordability is critical to the welfare of families around the world. Since the highest single household expense is generally for housing, markets where housing costs form a greater portion of total expenditures means that households have less money to spend on other necessities. As well, housing affordability has changed in many markets around the world. House price escalation has outstripped household income in many areas of the world, making housing increasingly unaffordable in many markets in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom". Source:Demographia report

Quote: "Northern Rock has announced that it is to return to some level of riskier lending by offering mortgages of up to 90% of a property's value for the first time since it was nationalised. It is offering a two-year fixed rate home loan at 5.99%, a three-year loan at 6.49% and a five-year loan at 6.59%." House prices: All property types 'dip in value'