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A Waste At Every Level

Next time you hear some-one spouting off about the perfect efficiency of the free market, spare a thought for the 'Hawaii Chair'. From the design, to the manufacture, to the marketing, to the shipping, to the near immediate disposal, this is a waste of resources at every single level.

Posted by Alexander on February 06, 2008 | A Waste At Every Level | Comments (1) | TrackBack

UK house prices, adjusted for inflation

So here's an interesting chart. It's UK house prices, adjusted for inflation over the last thirty years. Source - Nationwide Building Society.





Compare this to the non-adjusted for inflation values, again, same source.



What looked like a crash between 1989 and 1995 in the first graph, looks more like 'prices going sideways' in the second graph.

I'm no economist, but I am fool, so I still like to predict the future.

I'm expecting to see continued increases in UK inflation in the next few years to avoid the appearance of a house price crash. I'm also expecting trickery to keep the official inflation figures low. We might see house prices (while they are declining) reflected in the Bank of England's inflation target and/or a different remit for the BoE who are currently charged with keeping the CPI at around 2%.

Posted by Alexander on February 03, 2008 | UK house prices, adjusted for inflation | Comments (1) | TrackBack