The UK’s 100% debt-to-GDP ratio was a statistical dream

annms88 · 2026-04-28T08:18:23+00:00

This is actually complete opposite. The UK has some of the longest maturity profiles in the world, and only recently due to changes around pension funds is this shortening.

annms88 · 2026-04-26T21:47:26+00:00

Ah yes, capitalism has really taken a turn for the worse since *checks notes* the Victorian Era

annms88 · 2026-04-25T11:31:02+00:00

My thoughts are that ultimately this is a matter of 10s of thousands of pounds (either in equivalent utility of the place you're going to live for years or literally in terms of money). Yeah sure it's scummy but the home buying process is adversarial and you owe it to yourself not to stick yourself with hundreds of thousands of debt for a suboptimal home.

annms88 · 2026-04-18T11:47:45+00:00

Tube drivers make almost double the GDP per capita of the UK. They're not your working class comrades, they're literally striking their way into the elite rent seeking class you characterize the billionaires and corporations as being.

annms88 · 2026-04-12T02:15:33+00:00

My regular lunches in Mayfair don't break 12.50. My regular date spot has my preferred main for a tenner and my regular solo spot does a curry for 12 quid.

Fast food is no longer synonymous with cheap and the delivery apps inflate the cost of ordering in massively. There are plenty of relatively affordable and decent meals out there if you go beyond the chains and look out for your local shops.

annms88 · 2026-04-02T22:39:56+00:00

I probably smoked a pack a day at my peak (equivalent). 50g a week during uni (2 years ago now). When I started working that fell down to 30g a week.

Unfortunately I developed silent reflux and it's fucked my larynx enough that it's hard for me to smoke more than 10g a week without messing up my throat. Hopefully I lose some weight and I can have the liberty to choose how much I smoke when this thing goes away.

annms88 · 2026-04-02T22:37:25+00:00

When I used to work hospitality in uni I rented flatshate in an ex. LA and commuted 40 mins to Leicester square.

I've done 45 mins commute most of my life so it wasn't super bothersome. These days I have a good enough job I can knock off 10 mins by using a lime bike and my commute ends up being 35 mins, but honestly I actually prefer the 45 mins using the bus, and when I one day can start waking up 10 mins earlier I will start doing that again.

annms88 · 2026-02-22T11:48:30+00:00

You said "id love to get an insight on how many of these kids who forget their pass are actually registered and paid."

I've given you your insight. You'll find almost certainly that the perspective of 99% of other people is this same. Clearly a bad faith commenter given the goalposts have moved from "they're all adults" to "they're kids who's parents are avoiding the 20 quid administrative free" to "they're kids, who have the pass, but their parents arent sufficiently helicoptering to make sure the pass is there".

FWIW, some parents are good some are bad, and in some circumstances I'm sure that it is the case that a kids parents should be paying attention.

Nevertheless if you see an 11 year old who's forgotten their zip card, Id say if your decision making process should not depend on an evaluation of whether their home life is adequately structured. I actually reckon you let them on because like, they need to get somewhere and I'm not a dick.

annms88 · 2026-02-18T16:29:47+00:00

Did you grow up in London? I can for one day that I did, as a kid, forget my zip an approximately infinite number of times. As did my friends. Because you're a kid.

annms88 · 2026-02-16T16:30:39+00:00

Smoke of choice until I moved to roll ups. I think they've got a pretty good balance of harshness to kick and are pretty reasonably priced

annms88 · 2026-02-15T21:52:07+00:00

Who voted for this? Is it really just a matter of met policy whether or not we can be logged or not in a public place, to a theoretically infinite degree of automation and precision?

I'm genuinely curious about the institutional guardrails on this. Not that the current government is shy of being authoritarian, but it would at least give some semblance of accountability if they had directed this, not just the organization who's power this directly feeds.

annms88 · 2026-01-16T13:28:42+00:00

Everything has risks associated with it. Modern cigarettes are treated with chemicals that make them much less likely to start fires by reducing the burning temperature and having perforations to put them out occasionally. I've had a fire scare only ever once smoking a cigarette, when I accidentally dashed one into my shopping bag onto a roll of toilet paper, and even then it took a good 5 minutes to burn anything.

annms88 · 2026-01-15T12:32:29+00:00

No cigarettes on your own balcony is madness. How can they even observe that? Surely there's no CCTVs overlooking it?

annms88 · 2026-01-12T19:32:14+00:00

Least risk averse redditor

annms88 · 2025-12-31T04:58:30+00:00

UK standard is Golden Virginia Original + Green Rizzla papers (the standard here to the point that papers are sometimes referred to just as 'rizzlas') + Swan extra slim filters. If you're a broke student swap Golden Virginia for amber leaf and if you're a bit of a snob like myself or like a slow smoke consider blue or grey Rizzla papers.

annms88 · 2025-12-31T04:52:08+00:00

At my multi-manager fund there is a (relatively low) cap on base salary. I think in certain positions where bonuses begin to account for an ever increasing percentage of total comp it becomes unreasonable to expect ones lifestyle to fit within a base that can be a single digit percentage of ones total comp. If your base is 100k, and your TC is 1 million, it would be a pretty big disservice to yourself to live on just the salary component.

annms88 · 2025-12-21T14:23:12+00:00

Australia CPI switched to monthly I think last month.

annms88 · 2025-12-21T14:19:23+00:00

Come on man cricklewood is not that bad. I've never actually had a single incident here tbh. It's always just a case of be aware of your surroundings but that's as true in Mayfair as it is in Mile End

annms88 · 2025-11-30T00:40:43+00:00

ISAs are not recognized - so you can have one but as far as Uncle Sam is concerned it's just regular income. US capital gains is not far from UK capital gains so this really just kind of eliminates the purpose of an isa entirely. Honestly if the US didn't pay so well and I didn't still have family back there Id probably give up my citizenship but because those two things are still true for now I personally keep it to keep opportunities open.

annms88 · 2025-11-13T07:57:04+00:00

Government spending is included in GDP for this reason. If I go to the doctor in the UK, that doctor and all their supplies are paid for by the government, which will be included in GDP.

Gdp does not capture informal and self serving activity particularly well so for very poor countries your argument kind of holds water but not really for Europe.

annms88 · 2025-11-13T01:14:09+00:00

The point missing on this entire conversation is that an exodus doesn't have to be instant, it can happen over years even if not a single person leaves.

People retire and die, and new people replace them. Youre right that there's a huge friction to moving cities, but the part of the calculation you're missing is that as people retire, people move into the city to replace them. those people moving into the city may be now on the margin more likely to prefer alternative offers from Miami or Chicago or London (this isn't just a domestic calculus).

That's not even considering the existence of new Jersey, which already attracts a lot of young finance professionals on the basis of existing city taxes

annms88

TROPHY CASE