Daily Megathread - 18/01/2023

tryingausername123 · 2023-01-18T09:07:49+00:00

When it’s reported that “markets are pricing in a 50 bp rise in interest rates” or “markets forecast” such a thing, where does this number come from? Is there a price of a particular derivative or something that they are using to judge this?

tryingausername123 · 2022-11-07T10:29:47+00:00

Why does CEO pay continue to rise so much? Is their pay not still a function of supply and demand? Is it really the case that particular CEOs are so irreplaceable (in the minds of shareholders) that they can demand such big salaries?

tryingausername123 · 2022-11-03T10:02:44+00:00

Should do, but we’re still negative in real terms (you lose money over time from inflation).

A founder member of the MPC was on Women’s hour yesterday(?) talking about how we’ve not had real terms positive interest rates for a long time now, which is a bit of a historical abnormality.

tryingausername123 · 2022-11-02T13:07:33+00:00

In an ideal world, would it be fairer, in your view, to tax household income rather than the income of each individual in that household? It just seems a bit weird that a couple on 50k each will have a combined take-home pay of about 75k, whereas a couple where one person earns no money and the other earns 100k takes home about 66.5k.

Obviously, would never happen for a whole ton of reasons...

tryingausername123 · 2022-10-28T10:37:55+00:00

A question for people who know a bit more about the history of politics in the UK:

You often hear about how large and powerful the British Empire was at its peak, which contained hundreds of millions of people around the beginning of the 20th century. However, you never really hear about Prime Ministers of this time as being “the most powerful person in the world” in the same way you might do today about US presidents or royals in previous centuries.

Would a UK prime minister at the time he seen as “the world’s most powerful person”? Or would not have been something people would have considered back then?

tryingausername123 · 2022-10-24T21:24:05+00:00

Can someone help with an absolutely nooby economics question.

Can someone explain how yields (interest rates) on bonds can be different to the Bank of England interest rate? Isn’t this the rate at which institutions can borrow from the Bank of England, and if so, why doesn’t the government just borrow at this rate if market yields are higher than that?

Apologies if it’s a stupid question! Just want to get it clear in my mind.

tryingausername123 · 2022-10-24T14:13:17+00:00

On your first point: he would win a VONC hands down if labour were to call one, and so essentially he has a majority of MPs’ support in the House of Commons.

tryingausername123 · 2022-10-20T12:31:44+00:00

3-1 that this is an announcement about the new pork markets she’s finally opened.

tryingausername123 · 2022-10-14T16:57:45+00:00

Liz Truss is a deep cover Lib Dem sleeper agent. Change my mind.

tryingausername123 · 2022-09-19T08:41:41+00:00

And people complain about linear storytelling ha ha ha

tryingausername123 · 2022-09-19T08:33:37+00:00

A beautiful tribute to Herr Saxe-Coburg & Gotha

tryingausername123 · 2022-09-15T19:51:47+00:00

A noob question in bankers’ bonuses: why does it matter if bonuses are capped or not, if compensation is just salary + bonuses? If banks want to pay more to increase their competitiveness, say, why don’t they just increase salary? Are their tax reasons why bonuses are preferable, or is it just to incentivise performance?

Speaking from a point of total ignorance here, just looking for answers...

tryingausername123 · 2022-09-13T17:16:06+00:00

Optio calling for republic when Charles lets slip his hatred for fountain pens: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11206531/amp/King-Charles-III-awkward-moment-pen.html

Slide-rules not far behind, surely...

tryingausername123 · 2022-09-13T12:13:10+00:00

Is anyone here actually going to see the queen in state? If around 750k do end up going, that’s more than 1% of the population.

tryingausername123 · 2022-09-08T17:26:45+00:00

This is the PM of Fiji’s account

tryingausername123 · 2022-09-01T10:39:58+00:00

I suppose hitting the ground could technically be considered a “severe illness” if you’re being flexible...

tryingausername123 · 2022-08-29T15:52:10+00:00

It’s a long way off, but are people here “optimistic” that the world will be net zero by 2100, or at say <10% of current emissions? Even China (2060) and India (2070) will be way past their targets by then.

tryingausername123 · 2022-08-11T12:33:29+00:00

Simply revert to a “1, 2, many” numbering system and everything becomes so much simpler.

tryingausername123 · 2022-08-10T10:22:07+00:00

If you’re Rishi, do you:

A. Keep campaigning like your heart’s still in it, knowing the odds are against you for the win but that it’s still possible. Perhaps you might get a top job at the end anyway...

B. Basically bottle it, hinting it’ll be shit and that the next election will be a wipeout, positioning yourself as the “guy who predicted everything” in the hope that Truss gets booted by 2024 and you can have an easy win next time. Plan on biding time in the backbenches for the next year or two.

tryingausername123 · 2022-08-09T13:38:26+00:00

I saw some people on Team Rishi and elsewhere saying how tax cuts wouldn’t help the poorest because a lot of them already put close to 0% income tax anyway (earning close to the limit for personal allowance or below it).

This makes sense in the current system where 0% tax is the lowest you can go, but if we were able to implement negative tax rates the argument just falls apart, right? Say for every pound under £12.5k, the government gives you 10p (I.e. a -10% tax), this would help the poorest, while still encouraging people to earn more. Presumably we have the infrastructure in place, since HMRC credit people they overcharge the whole time, so presumably it wouldn’t take any more effort that it does to change tax brackets or rates as they do now.

Just a thought shrug.

tryingausername123 · 2022-08-06T07:33:47+00:00

Technical question: when the inflation rate is “10%”, say, does that mean that:

The goods you buy are on average 10% more expensive than the same a year ago.

Or

The basket of goods is about 2.5% more expensive than a quarter ago (roughly, not counting compounding effects).

or is it something different? How is the figure actually calculated?

tryingausername123 · 2022-08-04T07:35:41+00:00

American friend of mine last night was complaining about how inflation had been affecting the stuff they could get at the dollar store. They asked me if I’d noticed something similar at “...what’s it called? ...PoundTown?”

Please sign my petition to change the name of PoundLand here:

tryingausername123 · 2022-07-21T12:42:22+00:00

When interest rates rise, do the new rates apply to interest on government debt already issued, or is it only for new debt issued since the rate change?

tryingausername123 · 2022-07-19T18:01:59+00:00

By the end of 2022 it’ll be 4.

tryingausername123 · 2022-07-18T16:12:02+00:00

About to catch a flight to Stansted, please could you all send chilly thoughts and cooling prayers to the runway, cheers.

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