Jeremy

Where is/was The Greendale?

Seems optimistic matthew123... I follow your reasoning, but you don't seem to be factoring in consumer confidence, return on buy-to-let, etc. I would be surprised if prices started rebounding any time soon. Saying that, I don't quite share the bleak outlooks of benmorg, quids, lard, etc either.

georgia Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If the Wishing Well is the choice of most then The > Wishing Well it can be. Was only thinking it would > be good to do something a bit different for the > Christmas drinks and go somewhere maybe with a DJ > or some sort of music - but that's just me :) The one and only time I've been in the Adventure, that Toby chap was telling us that he was trying to encourage dancing and suchlike, although apparently he's not having much luck so far.

Aha... if you are referring to my previous objection : "We Are Family - Sister Sledge" to "Sisters of Mercy - Leonard Cohen"... The problem I had with this wasn't the pluralisation of 'Sister', more the fact that 'Sister' was part of the artist's name in the previous entry, and part of the title in the new entry. To quote the rules: LizzygotDizzy Wrote: > 1) Post another song by the same artist OR > 2) Post a different song and artist, however, the > new song title must contain one of the words from > the song title before it. Not from the artist, > from the SONG TITLE.

Lovers Rock - The Clash

Revolution Rock - The Clash

Clampdown - The Clash

I'm Not Down - The Clash

Exactly. Are you expecting them to re-route the flights? Reduce the number of flights in/out of London airports? I just consider it part and parcel of living in a major capital, served by 5 international airports. Although interestingly, I see there is a proposal to replace Heathrow with a new airport on reclaimed land in the Thames estuary. Presumably that would somewhat reduce flights over residential areas.

EDOldie Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hmmm, puzzled, it's a pub and it's in E Dulwich. > Can we only go to gentrified gastroenteritis pubs? It's not that it isn't "gentrified"... it's because it's a bit of a dump. It is possible to give a pub a lick of paint every 10-20 years (and dare I suggest an occasional clean) without becoming "gentrified"!

Was good to meet some people, even if I had to leave a little early...

Strange... I have never, ever been troubled - let alone woken up - by a plane, all the time I've lived in East Dulwich and Camberwell.

You wish.

Monkey Puzzle

James is gay? I never realised... why didn't he say something?

Mockney - I kind of agree with a lot (OK, some) of what you're saying, but the financial bail-out here and overseas is *not* a short term measure. Quite the opposite, it's a long term measure. If our financial foundations collapse beneath us, where will the money come from to invest in alternative energy (which I agree is of paramount importance), and other business ventures? You can't bite the hand that feeds. And let's not forget that the government didn't wave goodbye to those billions, they now own a portion of these banks, and at some point they will sell the shares on, maybe even at a profit (ok, lets not get carried away). I think you're right about the housing thing, I've never been comfortable with the idea of treating housing as a commodity... and for sure lessons have to be learned about consumer borrowing... but mortgages are really only one facet of what goes on within financial services. Brendan - I think you're in the majority - there certainly isn't much transparency in finance/banking, I felt exactly the same as you did before I started working in the industry (albeit in a peripheral role). Quite clearly investments banks, insurance companies, hedge funds etc don't "produce" anything physical, but they do all provide services. Whether it's helping a company go public and issue shares, whether it's providing loans, buying/selling stocks on behalf of clients, managing pensions, providing derivatives and structured products, insurance... they're all services which consumers, companies, or governments want and will pay money for.

I will pop my head in. But I may run away if I don't see anyone I recognise...

lard Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The financial service industry should be just that > - servicing the economy. When it creates it's own > wealth out of proportion to the underlying economy > then it is based on hot air. This is a classic > pyramid. There is of course still an opportunity > to service the "world market" which is what London > became, but like house prices this individual part > of the jigsaw became too inflated in comparison to > the rest of the economy in this country. But that's just it... financial services in London serves customers all over the world. Europe in particular, but also America and Asia to some extent. It's become a huge part of the economy (your 25% figure sounds about right), but I don't think we got there by re-selling things to ourselves recursively at higher prices. I can see how people may think that's the case in light of recent events, but there's much, much more to the investment services than CDOs and subprime lending. Ideally we should have more diversity in the economy, but I don't think it's *inherantly* unhealthy that we have one quarter of our income coming from one sector. It seems a lot more better than building an economy based entirely on oil or gas exports.

Keef I do hear what you're saying... but once an industry has been dismantled, it's kind of hard to put it back together.

Erm... rather embarrassing cross-posting there.

Thanks SMG. It's just because I'm bored at work though... so give the award to my boss. HonaloochieB has a certain way with words... probably gets my vote. I wish Louisa would come back though, I really miss logging on to find yet another strongly-worded comment which has got the whole forum up in arms.

I know quids is very proud of his pyramid-selling analogy, but it's not accurate. And while London's financial sector may not ever been as dominant as previously, the industry is far from over. I do agree that we need more diversification though, but I don't think that manufacturing is necessarily the way forward.

The idea of lower interest rates is to encourage spending and investment, get some liquidity in the market, etc. It will also make it easier for people to pay their existing mortgages, hopefully resulting in fewer defaults and reposessions... that has to be a good thing (for both homeowners and banks). I think digging the country out of recession has to be a higher priority than returns on savings. Some will inevitably disagree (ie those with large savings), but you can't please everyone, and sometimes you need to look at what's best for the country as whole. Anyway, as AcedOut says, inflation will start falling soon, because commodities are plummetting like a lead balloon.

Quiet music

I've had man-flu for at least 2 weeks... I'm starting to think it could be a particularly acute case.