Things you hate IV

Re an earlier post of mine about economists rarely getting any of their forecasts right, I see they’re at it again today.

They predicted the economy would grow by 0.1% in February. It grew by 0.5. Why does anybody ever take any notice of these incompetent people earning a living and reputation by making inaccurate predictions?

Every news report about their forecasts always contains the word UNEXPECTEDLY…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj0zz357532o

 

Spotify Podcast adds.

Years and years ago when Spotify first came out I had the free version initially, with the adds, it took about 5 minutes before I upgraded and I’ve enjoyed blissful add free music ever since - fantastic.

As I’ve been commuting a bit more I’ve started to listen to more and more podcasts, and I’ve noticed they’ve started getting filled with more and more adverts. If you start listening to a new one you really notice it, they start with none and before long you get two or three at the start and then a few in the middle.

Now I totally get that Spotify pay a pittance for playback, and the sole reason people launch podcasts is to make money off them - hence the adds, so I get it, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying when you’re paying for premium service which was initially to avoid adds.

Just another example of something constantly getting degraded round the edges and having to pay more for less as time goes by.

 

In fairness it’s a tough gig, I work in an area of Financial services where if you got a third of your predictions right you’d be doing incredibly well.

When you’ve got someone like Trump playing Russian roulette with the world economy every day, an economic forecast is just a guess, it’s not much different than betting on which horse will win a race.

 

That's all very well but how the hell am I supposed to decide where to invest if no-one can tell me what the GDP growth, FTSE, and ex rates will be per month for the next 24 months minimum with any sort of guarantee? Am I supposed to just guess ? That's ludicous.

 

Investing is easy. One of my friends made $2.5bn dollars yesterday. Another made $900m.

 

I’m talking about real money, not Trumps loose change.

 

We're going to make more money than we ever did before. 2 billion a day being made in tariffs alone.

 

I’m actually introducing a clothing and mobile phone tariff for anyone visiting my property. As soon as I get myself a friend I’m expecting this to pay off big time.
Also a food tax which I will apply to Sainsbury’s when they arrive at my door on Saturday. Ice cream, Lindor and crisps will all be exempt but the other 15% of the delivery will be subject to 90% tax.

 

I've already put a 35% levy on all my Amazon deliveries. They want to deliver to my house? Then pay for it. Of course, I just pay the driver myself, but I'm coining it in! I've not done the calculations yet, but I bet it's huuuuge.

 

I’m losing money at present due to the border checks and admin. For simplicity I may decide to remove the 50% tariff on MK and the complete embargo on anything from Luton/Dunstable.

 

Exactly. So I’m not sure why their predictions are given quite so much credence.

 

Huuuuge? Will be absolutely bigly

 

Football pundits who claim the 'atmosphere is electric' 45 minutes before kick off, whilst behind them is a stand that is 10% full. Rio Ferdinand does it every game in the CL.

 

CJNG.

Been annoying recently.

 

Once you realise Rio Ferdinand is a **** you’ll soon get over this.

He cheated on his terminally ill wife. Lowest of the low.

 

Blame the media. Any estimate presented without confidence intervals should be entirely disregarded.

 

See also - media reporting on weather forecasts.

 

What irritates me about media weather forecasts, specifically BBC, is that the outlet can be completely inconsistent with its own forecasts. For example very frequently the BBC will show several hours of >50% rain on a given future date. Drop down the page to their weather maps and the charts for the same day will show not a drop of rain. I pretty much ignore the daily hourly projections now and just look at their weather maps which are more accurate, accepting that anything after 3 or 4 days will be far less accurate.

 

What irritates me about media weather forecasts is the regular insistence that temperatures are going to be “warmer or cooler”. No they’re not, they’re going to be higher or lower.

 

OK but isn’t a higher temperature “warmer”?

 

What's that? Sounds like a logistics firm.

 

Google says it’s a Mexican Cartel

 

Clive, Jumbo, Nath , & GoingDown ??

 

I can see why that would be annoying.

Right up there with people who squeeze the toothpaste from the middle of the tube!

 

Martin Lewis.

What a pompous self-opinionated upstart.

 

Using the phrase "below par" as a negative.

 

Oh that's good. Well done. Something new for me to use to win friends by pointing out when used incorrectly.

 

That's the dictionary definition though? Seems golf uses it incorrectly...

 

Also, I believe some idiots use the term "eagle" to refer to a type of avian creature.

 

Such misuse has always been an albatross around the neck.

 

When asked how I am, I sometimes respond with " about par for the course" meaning that I'm ok!.

 

On a good day are you "3 over par" or "3 under par" ?

 

Very good question !!

 

Catherine Under Par was the final wife of Henery VIII