Wednesday 21 March 2012

No time to budget ....

Its amazing how 90% of things governments intend to make big statements about get leaked well before the day. Case in point: The UK budget. Nearly everything I've see we've known about for at least a week. Mind you I'm not complaining as it takes away the shock factor that can rattle markets and people. I just wish it wasn't always so obvious. I like a bit of subtlety in my life as I get older. I guess the least subtle thing that we saw in the budget was that stamp duty on properties over GBP 2m will rise to 7%. You average European must have been confused by that as they already have transactions fees at this level or greater. I was expecting that the introduction of said duty would apply from some arbitrary date in the next couple of months, but alas the Tories are on top of that. We all know what would have happened; a variable stampede to avoid a fee that in the world of big time property is about sweet FA of the bid offer spread. I'll miss the insanity of people paying over the odds to avoid some comparatively small amount, only to find out that their property devalued by 10 or 20% within months.

The UK's budgetary problems look pretty awful next to the Germans. The Fatherland is predicting a balanced budget in 2014, rather than 2016 as previously f/c. Now I reckon thats good news even though it's no doubt predicated on the rest of the PIIGs not looking to get bailed out. I wonder if the German finance minister factored in having to bail out their own banks yet again. I note DB is saying that their legal problems could cost them another E3bn!

So enough about the economy.HEre in Geneva I managed to thump out another 45k's today. Annoyingly the stats won't be fully accurate as I switched off the timer when I stopped to take a phone call and forgot to restart until 10mins or so later. Doh! 

Turn the timer back on or it looks like you got a lift on a helicopter!



No comments:

Post a Comment