Negative Interest

Seems someone at the BBC reads my blog ;)

Mardy Old Bumhead

Call me a mardy old bumhead (I am nearing 30 after all), but I when I go to see the beautiful sounding (and looking:) Laura Marling I do not want to have to listen to three kids discussing their disappointing drugs score, nor the rest of the audience singing over the top of her. I did not come here to listen to you lot sing! That coupled with the fact she only played three or four songs and the high quality of the other seven or so bands on the Fee Fie Foe Fum line-up made her a bit of a low-light :(

In other news:

I didn't realise just how many Americans are in prison, 1% of the adult population! As stated in a boing boing article on a death row prisoner. An interesting point is made that the population has risen from "normal" to world record beating levels in just the last thirty years.

Continuing my thoughts on the evening up of prices here and abroad, hopefully we might be hearing less of the cries of "rip off Britain!" Though of course those cries will be replaced by complaints about not being able to afford so much while on holiday and that their dear old aunt can no longer afford a choritzo in her local Spanish supermarket on her quickly devaluing UK pension. Still, if she's bought the house she'll be quids in.

Save Me

I've never really had enough money to warrant opening a savings account. Now that I have I am considering the options, and it still doesn't seem worth it. A good rate on a savings account is say 6%, or £60 per £1000 per year. I'm not proud of the fact, but I went out last night and spent nearly £60. I could just not go out once a night per year for every £1000 I have and save nearly the same amount. It just doesn't seem worth the bother. And now that we all know that the banks aren't infallible it might be safer under my mattress. Note to thieves: It's not actually under my mattress.

Of course the closer we get to a zero interest economy the less motivation there will be to save. My house mate and I wondered what the position would be under a negative interest economy, where you get paid to borrow and penalised for saving. Every year you borrow your debt would go down, you would get paid less each year and your house would devalue with your mortgage.

I don't understand why the government is still trying to encourage banks to lend, surely that is what got us in this mess in the first place, if you ask me the best thing they could do would be to bring back student grants and get rid of student loans, which set people up for a life of debt and tell them that borrowing is a fine and normal thing to do.