by The Investor
on August 10, 2009
You’re cooking dinner or walking in the countryside, when you get a whiff of some forgotten scent. Suddenly you’re transported back to another time, becoming for a moment the person you once were in the body of the person you’ve become.
Such flashbacks are the closest things we have to time machines.
The French writer Proust famously conjured up a lost past by biting into a madeleine cake. Scientists say the effect is due to the proximity of our oldest memories with the parts of our brain that process smells and sensations. They call it involuntary memory.
I had my own Proustian moment recently. It reminded me of how our perception of the value of money changes over time – or with a growing income and bank balance.
And it reminded me how I’ve tried to control my perception rather than have it control me.
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by The Investor
on August 8, 2009
This week provided plenty of laughs for those of us baffled, bemused and bored by the general public and big media’s approach to capitalism.
The cause of all the fuss were bank earnings, which in the UK has become a political football.
Commentators didn’t know whether to be pleased UK banks were making money, or annoyed that bankers hadn’t been lined up against the wall.
What made it even more complicated is that the greedy capitalists who own much of two of the biggest banks – Lloyds and RBS – are everyday UK taxpayers!
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by The Investor
on August 7, 2009
Investment trusts are companies that invest money in other companies, both listed and private, and/or other assets like bonds, property and private equity. They are in the business of trading and holding these assets for profit.
The particular kind of assets an investment trust holds depends on the mandate of that trust.
For instance, a trust may specialise in smaller companies, fixed income, overseas stocks, or one of a host of other themes, enabling investors to take interesting positions on the market.
There are also specialised property investment trusts that get tax breaks called Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS). These deserve a future article in themselves.
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by The Investor
on August 5, 2009
I have now seen a third debt go ‘bad’ at Zopa, the peer-to-peer lender. This time it was in the A market, whereas my previous two bad debts at Zopa were from the B market.
To be clear, when I say ‘bad’ I mean the debt was written off.
All my Zopa loans are just £10 in size, which means the impact isn’t too great.
The money thief bad debtor was even kind enough to pay back £1.24 of my hard-earned cash before he decided he’d paid enough.
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