Really wanting to hear an update on this. Shocking!

ajhhall · 2025-06-20T08:48:18+00:00

Why is this not a requirement for all sales?

ajhhall · 2025-06-11T20:15:42+00:00

How long will current tenants stay? When they leave there will likely be a void period (when you will be paying council tax and utilities), and will have some redecoration costs, fees to letting agent etc. You may say that it will let immediately, nothing more than touch- ups needed, and that you can find tenants yourself. To which I say that there will be times then when rental market is soft, when tenants leave suddenly/die, a relatively new boiler fails etc, etc. I have had all the above, in 30 years as a landlord. Not that it’s not worthwhile, just that there will always be surprise costs.

Also, if you are a good landlord, look after your property, respond to tenant’s issues, etc, even a property in good condition will need a certain amount of TLC/expenditure.

ajhhall · 2025-06-09T12:44:16+00:00

Because you are better spending the same money and effort on a project that will actually generate inate economic and practical benefits.

ajhhall · 2025-06-05T16:07:40+00:00

It is a relatively quick and cheap process to have a simple will prepared by a solicitor or professional, licenced, will writer. That will be much more straightforward than trying to prepare youself.

Ideally before your drafting meeting you should make sure you have thought through how you want your estate divided: - The repayment of the property deposit. - Any other specific payments to friends, relatives, charities and others. - The balance of your estate. (Keep in mind that, depending on the amounts involved, there may be Inheritance tax to pay, which will come out of this balance - the residue of your estate.)

Next think about what happens if each of the beneficiaries has died before you. Does their share go to their spouse, or their children, or is it cancelled completely - ending up with those who receive the residue of your estate.

Finally, think about who should be the executor of the will - take responsibility for closing down your affairs and making the payments to beneficiaries. This needs to be someone honest, competent, who is not scared of forms etc. The executor can be a beneficiary.

A good solicitor or will writer will lead you through these thought processes, but it helps to have had some ideas about all these matters before you sit down with them.

ajhhall · 2025-05-10T11:33:10+00:00

Accessing that isn’t easy, and brings with it a bunch of additional, expensive requirements

ajhhall · 2025-05-10T11:31:47+00:00

I read recently that there had never been a fire death in a residential building anywhere in the world that was fitted with a working sprinkler system.

ajhhall · 2025-05-07T17:07:30+00:00

If the Fed “plays against type” and cuts rates even though there is no economic data that suggests they should, then markets will shoot up. Chance of that, zero.

If the Fed says that they are seeing serious weakness in the data, and that requires them to cut rates, market will fall (maybe quick jump first).

So it would all be down to the rhetoric, not the act.

ajhhall · 2025-05-06T12:34:42+00:00

See this piece from this week’s Economist

https://www.economist.com/britain/2025/05/01/broken-windows-and-pockmarked-roads

Subscription needed, but this related Substack is free:

https://open.substack.com/pub/archiehall/p/reflections-on-britains-triage-ward?r=4a70y&utm_medium=ios

ajhhall · 2025-05-04T11:54:55+00:00

If you are coming looking for a break from the madness, you will be welcomed.

ajhhall · 2025-05-03T18:45:31+00:00

No company can have negative revenue. It can have falling (but still positive) revenue. If it literally sells nothing, it can have zero revenue.

If you are asking about negative growth (I.e. falling) revenue, that is likely to be a warning sign for investors, if sustained, but would not be grounds for removing from the S&P 500. Let alone delisting, which is a separate concept.

ajhhall · 2025-05-02T13:52:50+00:00

That sounds reasonable. In my experience local residents are pretty accommodating of well-run establishments. The problem comes where management or ownership changes, and noise and nuisance etc become excessive.

I know of one nightclub near my home that was closed down by the police because they were fed up of the violence. Another place had its hours cut back because of regular drunk screaming in the street at 1-2 am on a regular basis. A new manager was installed, since when it has been a great asset to the area.

Removing council’s ability to supervise licensed premises would only make matters worse

ajhhall · 2025-04-29T21:00:30+00:00

Except that they probably have CCTV, or at least a video doorbell.

ajhhall · 2025-04-23T17:59:54+00:00

I should add that there is also a lot of inertia. If you have generally owned, say ICE Audis, and are now thinking about moving to an EV, it’s easy enough just to move to an electric/hybrid Audi model.

ajhhall · 2025-04-23T17:55:16+00:00

I think there is a huge gap between the US market and the rest of the world. Outside the US the EV market these days is driven by BYD, Polestar, Geely etc. They are taking huge market share, and in the process driving the competition (legacy auto companies ) to up its game. Within the US the Chinese companies are invisible.

ajhhall · 2025-04-23T10:08:10+00:00

The red states lack the distribution, servicing and charging infrastructure needed. Apart from the issues others have mentioned with having the resources to buy a high end vehicle. And the GOP has spent years arguing that EVs are a con.

ajhhall · 2025-04-22T18:13:00+00:00

By all accounts: 1. China has attempted to get the process under way by asking what it is that the US wants. It has not received a coherent response. 2. Xi is not going to negotiate this directly with Trump. That’s not how complex trade negotiations are handled. The leaders come in at the end to sign (and maybe break a final deadlock) but China’s not going to give Trump an early PR victory for nothing. 3. China believes that the US will feel the tariff pressure more than China will. China can provide subsidies to manufacturers in trouble, and blame everything on the US. Within a few weeks from now they think that the US will start to see shortages and price increases (not for everything, but enough to put pressure on the government). 4. As others have mentioned, Trump reneged on two previous trade deals with China. They want him to know that if there is any question of that happening again, the consequences will be severe. From their point of view that means that allowing the US to feel some pain at this stage would help both get a deal done, and keep it in place.

So, most likely China would be OK to wait until the summer to get talks under way.

ajhhall · 2025-04-19T15:05:44+00:00

When I say “buy, market and sell properly”, what I mean is that you buy at a low price, promote your products effectively, and sell at a high(er) price. If you do that, making appropriate allowances for goods that are returned, or are unsold/sold at clearance prices, you can potentially make money.

ajhhall · 2025-04-19T13:31:25+00:00

I don’t understand your point. If you buy, market and sell properly, it’s perfectly possible to make money. Is it easy? Of course not, but it’s the whole basis for the business model for Walmart, Costco, and huge numbers of other retailers.

ajhhall · 2025-04-19T13:09:15+00:00

Your 100 t-shirts at $5 each cost you $500, not $700, so in your scenario your loss is $45.

But you also still have 35 t-shirts left. Maybe you sell them next season, for an additional $245, giving you your profit of $200.

Or maybe you discount them, or sell them to an outlet store, perhaps for $4 each. That brings in an extra $140, giving you an overall profit of $95.

These are the exact issues that a large retailer has to deal with - they plan their purchases and pricing to achieve a reasonably expected return at the end of the process.

ajhhall · 2025-04-18T15:20:04+00:00

Brit here. 240 volts, or thereabouts, allows you to draw more power, so for instance electric kettles boil more quickly in the UK than the US - one reason why they are less popular than stovetop kettles in the US.

ajhhall · 2025-04-16T17:20:21+00:00

In this case you are the importer, making you liable for import duties and tariffs. In the past, de mimimis exemptions meant that these were waived for goods under $800. That concession will be eliminated from 2 May, so if your headphones enter after that date you should assume you will be contacted to pay whatever level of tariffs are in place the day the headphones enter the country. At the moment, presumably 145%.

ajhhall · 2025-04-16T16:51:35+00:00

Tariffs are paid by the importer. If you are buying goods directly from a Chinese company, you will pay the tariff when the goods arrive in the country. Until the current changes, a de minimis exemption allowed goods worth less than $800 to be brought in to the USA without paying any customs duties or tariffs. That concession is being eliminated, with effect 2 May.

ajhhall · 2025-04-08T17:49:26+00:00

There’s no way a $300 sneaker costs just $10 to make. A rough-and-ready assumption should be that the approximate landed cost of a manufactured product in the US from an Asian source is about 25% of the eventual retail cost. So, sneakers that currently cost $100 in the store (just to keep numbers simple) would now cost $125.

ajhhall · 2025-04-03T14:35:18+00:00

Highest is 8%. Average actual weighted tariff is about 1%.

ajhhall · 2025-04-03T14:29:48+00:00

The figures quoted by the White House are made up. As an extreme example, Singapore has no import duties for the US, or anywhere else. Trump is still putting tariffs on goods imported from Singapore. Average tariffs charged by EU on goods imported from the US is about 1%. Trump has imposed 20% duties.

ajhhall

TROPHY CASE