Saturday 8 December 2007

Unseasonal gifts from America - # 316

Until this year my garden fence always blew out in October, and the leaves always fell in October, and it was generally dry and quieter in December.

This year we don't know where we are. The fence stayed up until last week before the gales blew it out, and the wind finally stripped the leaves and dumped them on the lawn for me to clear up.

The weather forecast shows massive swathes of rain (I mean, really massive) sweeping in off the Atlantic.

At the same time the American "sub-prime mortgage" scandal upsets our own financial markets and it all goes pear shaped. My advisor rings to suggest that we re-jig the investments and batten down for rough financial weather.

10 comments:

  1. I've given up on buying shares, now my technology plan is only worth £150, from my original investment of £750.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Have a chuckle at todays photo!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Chuckeroon...the weather REALLY has been beastly...

    Thanks for popping in...have been out of the loop again...my little girl is down with Chicken Pox!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Chuckeroon, financial pundits and advisors may mean well but they can only call a crisis with any credibility if they are backed up by the hard data, which unfortunately has to mean that a crisis has to have already occurred. So, if the train has already left, so to speak, the question becomes one of what path the markets will take from here. I have no idea, but it's sure reassuring to see the FTSE holding its ground despite all the the sub-prime, Northern Rock, property slowdown malarki thats going on in the UK...what with oil prices having almost hit a $100 (note the lack of news now they are down to $88) and everything else, you'd think the world would have collapsed by now. Long live the optimists!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good luck with your investments. I like your leaves. Turn them into mulch.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ah yes, gifts. Giftig offerings, eh?

    ReplyDelete
  7. And the Beckhams? they have gifted themselves to us...)

    (grin grin)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love the photograph - amazing the way it brings the conversation to the sub-prime mortgage problems in America! Clever stuff. Unlike all those silly people who loaned money to people who can't make the repayments. Grrrrrr.

    ReplyDelete
  9. We, in NYC, want to say Thank You to the British people for shopping in NYC.

    My friends who work in the departmental stores say the British are invading the city. They come into the stores, head to the 6th floor to buy suitcases, then begin to fill them up with shoes, bags, clothes, etc. Apparently, the British are feeling flush with the generous exchange rate.

    So if your financial markets are "upset", you can imagine how ours are like. I get a heart attack every time I see my investment portfolio. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. And yes, b.c. is right.

    We gave you the sub prime scandal, you gave us the Beckhams.

    I think we got the shorter end of the stick, don't you think?

    ReplyDelete