By the way, Chomsky claims that gov expenditure to GNP rose under Thatcher. Anyone care to verify that? If that is the case which Thatcher are we talking about? The real one, or the myth? http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/04/how-public-spending-rose-under-thatcher According to this article,...

There is a good article about this on Marc de Messel's blog: http://europeanpermanentportfolio.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/american-or-european-permanent.html Anyone outside the US who uses a US PP is taking on significant currency risk. You may or may not get higher returns than if you invest in your ow...

I'd say the Britsh perspective on the second amendment is particularly irrelevant considering private gun ownership was key in the American revolution. This also comes from the Nation the saw significant sections of its Capitol engulfed in riots and flames. The U.S. hardly has the market cornered o...

There was a similar report about Starbucks in the UK recently. Basically they have barely paid any tax in the UK at all during the time they have been operating here. They are managing to do this (perfectly legally) by making payments to subsidiaries in other countries, so that the UK business appea...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/kenya/9589306/Britain-to-appeal-Kenya-torture-judgement.html What I find really disappointing is the lengths the British government is going to to fight this case. They don't deny that these guys were tortured, so surely the only appropr...

As an aside, of course even in the worst systems a few individuals will do well despite every barrier put in their way. I know someone who came from a family persecuted in Mao's China. He was sent away from his parents to work as a forced agricultural laborer when he was still a child. He bought sm...

Why do he have to tax them at all? What is so wrong with someone's last wishes if they don't meet everyone else's demand? What if I wanted the largest kegger ever thrown at my funeral? If the government gets to demand 75% of my estate, was it ever really mine in the first pace then? The government ...

If many wealthy people are against the moral injustice of doling out welfare money to people who have not earned it and created no value for society, why is it that it is morally justified to dole out inheritance money (often in vast quantities) to children and heirs when they haven't earned it eit...

Stone is referring to post war rationing I believe. Rationing in Britain didn't end until 1954!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_ ... er_the_war

That's a very dangerous position to take, IMHO. Why not just make everything illegal and trust that the authorities will only prosecute the bad people? Giving prosecutors a wide latitude will only lead to more prosecutions, not less. At least, that's what happens in the USA. You have it the wrong w...

These laws are frankly absurd, but at the time, you have to keep in mind that throughout history fathers have wanted to protect their daughters in absurd and unrealistic ways. What would be the alternative to an age of consent law though? No age of consent at all? It is notoriously difficult to con...

MachineGhost wrote: Its not balanced, its right-wing.  Try BBC UK or Al Jezeera for balanced.  Theres too much media censorship in the US.

Funnily enough, the right wing press in the UK constantly moan about the perceived left wing bias within the BBC!

Too many to mention, but for a start: The Smiths: The Queen is Dead Radiohead: OK Computer The Stone Roses: The Stone Roses The Doors: The Doors Bob Dylan: Bringing It All Back Home Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy Led Zeppelin released at least four classic albums, but surely Houses of the Holy isn...

I must be out of the loop, but what happened with Barclays?  They were caught fixing the LIBOR rate by lying about the rates they could borrow at. It's been a big story here in the UK. Bob Diamond resigned a couple of days ago and was hauled in front of parliament to explain himself yesterday. http...

UK 10 year gilt yields have reached a 300 year low this week. I'm assuming this is due to their safe haven status due to the ongoing problems in the eurozone. However, the price of the longer dated UK gilts in my PP is still down 3 or 4% on the price I paid when I started my PP in January. Does anyo...

Here is a table of UK gilt yields:

http://www.fixedincomeinvestor.co.uk/x/ ... ?groupid=3

As you can see, a 30 year gilt has a yield of 3.3% and a 47 year gilt has a yield of 3.34% - i.e. not much difference

Oh boy.  I was kidding.  It didn't occur to me that anyone would actually be talking about this right now. A government trying to balance its budget as the economy heads into a recession is not a smart thing to do. This whole "austerity" narrative is absurd.  Everywhere it is tried it onl...

Clive, If you are right then the UK PP should do OK though, right? A weakening GBP should push up gold prices, and more QE should push up gilt prices. Stocks will probably do poorly, and cash will lose to inflation, but it makes the PP a better investment than a more conventional stock heavy portfol...

The UK needs a huge tax cut.  Right now, there isn't enough money in consumers' pockets to get things going again.  It seems obvious from where I am sitting. What is the probability that this will occur? I'd say the probability is very low - the government is trying to balance the budget by reducin...

The UK PP is not doing as well as that unfortunately - only up about 0.8%. The UK stock market has not performed as well as the US (only up 5.7%), and the pound has strengthened against the dollar, so gold is only up 1.1% when priced in GBP. And since I jumped in at the end of January, it is actuall...

gizmo_rat wrote: Secondly if you purchase a mutual fund (e.g. Index tracker) don't forget they will be charging a hidden commission. 

What charges are there other than what's included in the TER? And is II different from other ISA providers in this respect?

Thanks very much, that's exactly what I needed to know - I was thinking of opening an account with II anyway, and if they now support direct trading of gilts online then that seals the deal for me.

I was just wondering if anyone based in the UK based has any experience of buying gilts within an ISA? I'm looking into a number of ISA providers for implementing a PP, but can't see much info about this. If anyone has and could let me know their experience it would be much appreciated. (I understan...

Yeah, that's basically the conclusion I came too. I think I will sit on the money until I can spend at least £1000 on an asset without taking it over its allocation

Thanks for the advice folks. Option one says add to cash until you reach a rebalancing band. Is that the preferred option? Isn't it possible to end up with a lot of low-interest cash until a band is reached? This is my concern with this option - and in my case it would actually be earning ZERO inter...