Matt

The Basel III regulations have the potential to well and truly derail the attempts to pump-prime the economy via additional bank lending. No-one should be surprised that most of the additional liquidity in the system was simply used to increase capital ratios (and I'm staggered that anyone thought it would play out differently). Basel III is going to apply another layer of capital requirements on banks, forcing them to reduce lending and increase retained capital. Vince can say what he likes, if the BIS have their way it will hit businesses hard (especially as a bank will have to reserve the same capital whether a loan is drawn or not). Then you have the spectre of the Volker rules making everyone- banks and businesses-collateralise their derivative positions- that would be an economic disaster and leave huge amounts of cash sitting doing nothing- further prevent stimulus funds from actually doing their job. As for Cameron's plans, taxing expenditure is true to form. Will there be a corresponding review of ratable items to ensure that this is not simply going to make life more expensive for the less well-off? Unlikely. I fundamentally disagree with Cameron's overdraft analogy, this is a deliberate attempt to frame the nation's debt position. Long-term government debt is a permanent piece of our national capital structure. It may be high, but it's certainly not all on demand. And yes, the interest on that debt could be used on schools, but a lot of the debt raised WAS used on schools, whereas we all know the Tories would simply cut taxes and tell parents to fuck off and set one up themselves.

Diagree, more likely to replace permacrock Rosicky.

Yeah, he's just gone there on a full-time basis having worked at Northumbria Uni.

Barney doesn't seem to give a toss anymore. Used to like James Wade, but he's far too cocky since he won the PL. UK Open always has a few unkowns do well- wasn't it UK Open when that 65-year old from Northern Ireland got to the quarters or semis?

Any chance of a précis of Mr Hat's avatar?

Apathetic. Got a massive exam of doom on Saturday and struggling to keep myself motivated!

Is the BoS HQ run out of Gresham Street too? Otherwise it seems a strange choice for venue, I'd have thought most Lloyds folk need no reminding that their adopted brother is in a bit of a mess. I think they're a bit optimistic on the power of protest though- "Great news if they are aware that people are cancelling bank accounts they will soon change their ground sale negotiations." "Demand they take note of your call and your intentions remind them that if thousands of Crystal Palace fans change their bank accounts tomorrow it could result in a run on the bank"

Washed your hair or bought a Renault?

Fish is right for once, GCSE's are not worth the paper they are written on, at least A-levels serve a bit of purpose. By the time you start your first week of sixth form, everything you did before counts for absolutely dick all.

As they point out - those agencies rated the sub-prime shit in the US as AAA - then again GS and the rest would have had an influence on these "independent" agencies. I'm relating more to analysts than the agencies there. Plenty of analysts will disagree with the big agencies.

That's a rambling nonsense of an article. Budget deficit is the same as the USA but credit ratings are different, that MUST be an international elite conspiracy! Or maybe ratings agencies look at more than one metric. You don't just have to take ratings agency's views- you can disagree with them- plenty of analysts will- and there arwe thousands- each of whom will undertake work to assess the true creditworthiness of a piece of debt. It's quite clear what the overall conclusion is. So Greece is in revolt, but what is the solution? No mention of that in the article. Just a lot more huffing and puffing.

Paying up front and taking money in instalments is the total opposite of what any rational business should do. The whole idea is to hold on to cash as long as you can. I can only assume we have taken this policy because we are both comfortable that we don't need the cashflow for the operating cycle and that we can get a better deal out of other clubs by offering preferential payment stages. Either that, or they're really stupid.

In the long run of course the cash generated from supporter revenue will always be higher than Bolton et al, but you have to put it into some context. Say we have 45,000 season tickets at £550 a pop and we get twice as many as another club- that's £12.4m extra income a year- or £240k a week. That's roughly what goes out on Smith, Barton, Coloccini and Xisco. So for all our additional ticket money, we're getting an extra half-decent centre-half and not much else. Clearly a bit of a crude example, but goes to show that we are still suffering from ludicrous contract offers- all of which came about post-takeover. I guess all we can do is hope that somehow, some common sense will prevail and we get the bodies in that we need.

Utter shite. The Tory's have agreed to phase in the 10k tax band, levying it against non-business caital gains tax. They have also backed out of raising inheritance tax to 1m. The 6 billion pound cuts will initially be made in capital expenditure as apposed to jobs - this is to avoid the NI rise. You can't cut capex and not jobs. May not hit the public sector figures, but it has to come out in the wash somewhere.

Pity all the mugs who have paid up, I guess. We're back into the premiership for 5 minutes and they're already back with their ludicrous statements, leaving everyone even more confused than before. They haven't even used the term 'net capital outlay'- technically they could even pay a signing on fee if they stuck to the statement.

From the FT blog: 10.51 KS: And the first one goes to Labour, which gets a comfortable win in a safe seat. 19,137 to 8,147 for the Tories. Bridget Phillipson is currently the only MP in parliament. I guess that puts her in charge of the country right now.

Well done Bridget!

Halls owned >50% of the club throughout.

Depends if we get PR in place as a result of a hung parliament.

Most people don't- but they still see it as a better option than Cameron and chums.

Introduced to it when I was in Dallas last year- lovely stuff.

Azerbaijan are 3/1F on Betfair and I can see why. It actually sounds like a track you might hear in the charts. Don't fancy it much as the 1.4 I got for Labour winning in Blyth Valley.

I disagree that the fact the debt to Ashley remains is a sign that he wants it back. If Ashley converted his debt to equity and club went bust, he'd be at the back of the queue- as it is he has equal claim on pretty much all of the clubs assets (although I suspect the overdraft is subject to a debenture, so this would be paid out first). Debt also allows him to improve the tax position. On the off-chance we were ever likely to make a profit, he could place a reasonable commercial rate on the lending which would be paid to him as interest but not subject to corporation tax. If that ever occurs, expect our shares to ultimately be attributed to an offshore company. Chelsea only converted their position to keep UEFA off their case for the club licencing scheme. As for making it payable on demand, this doesn't make any material impact. He's not going to get much money back that way- he'll only earn it by returning the club to profitability then either repaying over a period of time or selling the club at that point. No-one is going to buy the club with £100m repayable on demand. It would have to be settled or restructured.

You shouldn't be so dismissive of those "wasted votes", they're what'll win you a bunch of Lab-Con marginals. Of course, as always, if everyone who says they'd vote for the Lib Dems if they didn't think it was a wasted vote actually voted for them... Its' shocking that the Tories have to use the threat of a hung parliament to get votes in. They've got a government which is as unpopular as Major's equally smug band in 1997 but there's no sign of the tides turning as it did then- not even close. It's been piss poor- relying on winning the election by default then deciding on proper policies once they were in government. They've been banging on to the electorate about Gordon Brown's failings, only to find those voters they were targeting going over to the Libs. Cameron should be romping away with it. A hung parliament is looking nailed on, will take something dramatic in the next few days to swing it.

Why would the Greeks cut themselves adrift now- surely they would only do that once they are bailed out in Euros, then leave the Eurozone, then default. The eurozone is too big with too many diverse economies- the UK has struggled to set interest rates that work for the whole of the country- trying to set rates for a dozen countries was always going to prove disasterous.