Capo Boi's activity

sebastiano, not sure about your point (3). Brown initially wanted to take £ into the euro. Blair was unconvinced...referendum and all that.... When Blair wanted to go ahead, Brown-Balls were against. (if Blair's in favour we must be against). So not sure about your 20 years if the past is anything to go by but completely agree that whatever it takes, Italy will not leave or default on its euro obligations. 10 year btp yields have rallied 40bps to 5.60% in the last two days. Not really seen in the press about this upmove in prices. Tomorrow is going to be a big day but I would'nt like to be short 5 year Italy cds.

We have 15kw as well. Only electricity for all our power. 3 Air. con / inverters on at the same time plus scaldo bagno etc. you can easily reach 9-10 kws of usage at the same time.

Badger is spot on, but think he forgot to add per month. So for 15kws your standing charge will be about euro 17.5 per month as compared to euro 5.5 for 3kws. And as he says actual usage costs are the same. Be aware, however, that you may have to update your mains input cables. I must say that it always surprises me why more people do not go for a higher power input.

A very good post Allan. I did say "I could go on" If you have a sterling income and no euro mortgage on your house and no intention of  returning permanently to the UK then you will indeed see a big increase in your purchasing power in "new lire" as you point out. As you say you will be a "net winner" and good luck to you. I suspect, however, that you may be in a small minority of the people on this forum. Its very easy for the media and the markets to bash Italy at the moment. The Economist have been doing it for years and in my opinion with some very one sided analysis. Regardless, I suspect that many people on this or other forums have not thought through the implications on their personal finances of the euro folding. You clearly have Allan and again best wishes to you. ps you're right......its hot. 31c at 7.00am this morning here.

So  who on here wants the euro to fail with Italy pulling out? I'll kick off and only my opinion but speaking through my pocket. Anyone with a house here will see a fall in its sterling or dollar value of something in the region of 30%-40% overnight. Anyone with a euro mortgage will see a similar increase in the principal owing. (Going to make great tabloid-Economist articles). Anyone looking to buy a house, why do this now? Wait. Buy at 30%-40% lower "new lire" prices. Should kick start the property market but not good for estate agents now. I could go on, but I think thats its very important for the ECB to really get their act together now (assuming that they want the euro to survive). First step would to bid 10% over the current market price for the bonds of Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Would really squeeze buyers of cds and limit the supply of deliverable bonds forcing shorts to cover and driving down bond yields.

Its really interesting. In the last 48 hours, Greek bonds have recovered by 7%. Would'nt like to be short BTP's. Sterling at €1.05 is a real possibility now.

There are three main credit rating agencies. Standard & Poors, Moodys and Fitch. Moodys rating at Aa2 is two notches above S&P's rating (A+). The markets at the moment are reacting very nervously to the least bit of negative news but ultimately Moodys are playing catch-up. If S&P were to cut (and their rating is on negative) this would be more worrying. Sometimes it helps to think of a country's credit strength in terms of a personal mortgage. You borrow a lump sum and have to make an agreed payment each month. Italy's payments are easily affordable at the moment (less in % terms of income than France) but Italy has the second biggest mortgage in the eurozone. (No surprise there). Greece, Ireland, Portugal, well they couldn't afford their mortgage payments and found that they could'nt remortgage any further so they had to have their parents bail them out. The UK's mortgage payments in percentage terms of income are currently four times that of Italy. Its only really that the UK didn't have that big a mortgage to start with, thats its been able to increase its borrowings so much. If Greece is forced out of the euro, then maybe haircuts could be in the region of 50-60%. That is, for someone who's currency base is not the "new drahma" then the value of their assets would fall (overnight) by 50%. Think houses etc. The big fear is that a Greek default could see a contagian effect throughout Europe with Ireland, Portugal and Spain following suit. Is Italy the "maginot line"? Personally I think it is but it was circumvented in WW2. But the real fear is that contagian would lead to a massive recession/depression throughout Europe. On its own a Greek default probably does not have too big an affect but the impact on the supply of credit for the rest of Europe is a big unknown.

Slightly off topic, but its very easy to find out who owns an individual domain name. When it was set up etc. Ping, google hits, ranking etc. Should be private and encrypted, but not always......Members e-mail and addresses.......shouldn't be available.....but if you know what to look for........This site is properly encrypted so no fears here.

Sorry Allan, It was a very weak attempt to be funny. Completely agree with you. They are in no way dangerous.

Highly dangerous. The only real positive is that their presence normally signifies a large rat community which they do manage to achieve some sort of control over.