Things you hate IV

Wow !
The lack of self awareness is stunning !
It's like moving to central London and complaining about light pollution.
If he wants a good night's kip then go move somewhere that will meet his needs , is my advice .

 

My youngest daughter lives in Liverpool at the moment and the Radio One Big Weekend is happening in her local park this weekend. On her local Facebook groups there is a LOT of complaining that the park is being boarded off for the week, noise, disruption etc etc. Then someone pointed out that the same people were always complaining about Manchester getting all the concerts and events. It's been fairly quiet since apparently.

 

How much of it is attributed to the immense downward push on society. The least well off are just trying to keep their heads above water. The people in the middle think they should be better off than they are because the cost of things has risen faster and higher than their income. And so everyone is on the limit, just bumbling round wanting to get their coffee as quickly as possible.

Then you have the reduction in interactions. Go to the supermarket and scan all your own shopping, no need to speak to anyone, or make eye contact. Just stay in your own bubble. Go to a pub that serves food and order on the app using the QR code. No need to speak to anyone, no social contact whatsoever. Oh get in the sea!

So the reduction in human contact just worsens the isolation for some people, and the sense of entitlement for others.

It's manifested in simple things like delivery drivers. A certain ubiquitous website and its vans block driveways, pull up on grass verges, park in the road without caring they're blocking the pavement, or bounce up onto the kerb and block the pavement. Is this because they hire only selfish, inconsiderate people or is it because the pressure is on them all day, every day to hit targets determined by an algorithm?

Spoke to a friend of mine who lives in rural Italy a week or so ago. He'd been to the UK for a week and couldn't believe the insane pace of life, the anger on the roads, the selfishness on the pavements, the impatience in shops and cafes. I said he was exaggerating or over-reacting but I reckon he's got a point.

 

We want are country back. It's gone. 100%.

 

Breksit m8. It’s on the mend but the healing will take time.

 

I always enjoy your posts. Great writing

 

The independent recommendation for public sector worker pay rises are made public around April, but they’re rarely implemented until autumn.

The unexpected bump will surely be to do with private sector employers trying to pay more bonuses etc (and people therefore spending more of their money) before the NI increase.

This happens before every tax rise. It also leads to weird trends like tax intake falling the year after tax is increased. Which lower tax proponents jump on, but fail to see that the year after sees the tax intake jump up to higher than pre-rate hike as it can’t be avoided (albeit the intake is rarely as high as predicted by the treasury).

 

It’s so the sandwich contains as little cheese as possible.

 

He'd very likely say the same if he visited Rome.

 

Hopefully your reply was along the lines of ‘enjoy your walk home.’

 

Adrian Durham. Self-important, usually wrong, and ghastly.

 

Today’s big financial news and of course it contains the usual HIGHER THAN EXPECTED headline. Economists predicted 3.3%, it was actually 3.5%, so yet again this useless bunch of people messed up their jobs!

 

I do fully appreciate this is the things you hate thread, and you’re entitled to hate Economic Predictions and vent in here as much as the next person…

But I’ve been trying to wrap my head round what would happen, and what the implications would be if they simply didn’t exist, so I asked our AI friend to help us:


What would happen if we had no economic predictions at all?


Honestly, it would be a mess — especially for consumers and financial markets.


Economic forecasts (like expected inflation, interest rates, GDP growth etc.) might not be perfect, but without them, the whole system starts to break down.


For consumers, it’d be chaos.

People rely on forecasts — even indirectly — to make major life decisions. Think mortgages, car loans, pensions, even basic spending. If there’s no idea what interest rates might do, or where inflation’s heading, you’d get paralysis. People would delay big purchases, or panic when costs rise unexpectedly. Trust in financial institutions would erode. Price shocks would hit harder. Rumours and random headlines would move sentiment — and spending — more than actual data.


Most money in the system is confidence-based — and confidence would collapse.


Now imagine financial markets.

Without forecasts, traders and investors lose their compass. They can’t price risk. Markets become far more volatile, reacting sharply to every bit of real-time data, because nobody has any expectations to compare against. FX markets in particular would go haywire. Currency values are built on relative expectations — inflation, rates, economic growth — and without that, you just get wild swings based on sentiment.


Bid-ask spreads would widen. Liquidity would dry up. The cost of borrowing and trading would rise across the board. Markets would stop being a source of efficiency and become a source of fear.


Central banks would lose control too.

They use forecasts not just to make decisions, but to signal intentions. Without any forward guidance, monetary policy becomes reactive instead of proactive. Rate changes would be abrupt, inconsistent, and harder for the public to digest — which, again, means more consumer panic.


At a system-wide level, this would lead to poor capital allocation, fewer business investments, and governments constantly firefighting instead of planning.


In short: no forecasts = no stability.

And most of the cost would fall on regular people. Financial markets might seem abstract, but they’re built around expectations — remove those, and it’s consumers who get hit hardest.


So, (rather understandably, and obviously so) they are never normally exactly spot on, but would you prefer the alternative?

 

Away from the mic he's a nice bloke actually.

 

In uvver words they need a ball park figure or an indication of which way and how far the markets are heading ?.

 

Hate is too strong a word really (I wish this thread was called DISLIKE or THINGS THAT ANNOY US).

I don’t hate economists. Really I only started this topic light-heartedly. I know there are quite reasonable reasons why it happens, but nevertheless it is true that nearly every major piece of financial news contains the words HIGHER/LOWER THAN EXPECTED. And today’s is no exception. Economists get prediction wrong shocker! It would be way more of a news story to read EXACTLY AS PREDICTED one day!

 

If the experts predict growth of +3.5% and it is actually +3.3% then that is not a bad prediction whereas if +3.5% is predicted and it transpires that it is -2.5% then that really is a bad prediction.
A football anology could be predicting Sheffield United would attain 87 points and in fact they gained 90.
I don't think anyone would class that as a bad prediction. However I doubt if any football expert predicted Luton to be relegated so you are correct that the "experts" can get it spectacularly wrong !.

 

I have no problem with people far smarter than me pointing out I’m constantly wrong but really it was only meant light-heartedly. If economists are rarely right, why bother giving them any coverage in the first place?! That’s my tongue in cheek point!

 

I was in Rome last summer for a few days and it’s really bad there. The locals are rude, dismissive and treat you with thinly veiled contempt most of the time - a few cafes and restaurants on the back streets were ok but I won’t be rushing back.

 

You are not wrong !. Sometimes there are no right or wrong answers !!.

 

I was in Rome for Ryder Cup and loved it. It is busy but you expect so. As you mention the best places are in back streets and found them all to very nice people and very good food and drink. Won't go back as there are so many places to go and see in the world but would certainly recommend.

 

Pot holes in roads. I can't remember when they were worse. Hate to think what it's doing to my wheels on the car and for a motorbike rider it must be incredibly dangerous

 

Exactly. They really should put them somewhere other than in roads.

 

You are constantly wrong.

 

Rome is one of the world’s great cities.

 

You’re in good company then

 

Establishments who offer breakfasts without black pudding as standard. It’s a bloody staple

 

The marmite of fry ups!

 

They’re likely not “wrong” predictions. They will have confidence intervals around their prediction. The media will completely ignore them because it doesn’t suit their agenda or they don’t understand statistics.

It’s like you saying, “I think that person is about 6ft, but I’m 95% sure they’re between 5ft 10 and 6ft 2”. Then the media saying “hahaha wrong again, they’re not 6 foot they’re 5ft 11!”

 

Yes but just waiting for Malta reply to the effect of “well if they don’t know what it’s going to be and need to apply “get out of jail free” confidence intervals either side of their prediction then they shouldn’t make predictions”.

 

I think what Malts will actually say is: Well if they don’t even really know, and need to slap some ‘margin for error’ either side of their best guess, then what’s the point in pretending it’s a prediction at all.

So you shouldn’t bother trying to predict what he is going to say if you can’t get it exactly right.

 

The Chelsea Flower show. Not really a hate but after a single visit I wouldn't go again.

If you stop, at any point, you're literally jumped on by someone selling you something or talking endlessly about their display, and then trying to sell you something.
I was forced to listen to a 10 minute description of a South African mountain meets desert layout, (which was very impressive to be fair), after I stopped walking for a single second to point out something to Mrs D.
It was also too overcrowded so seeing the big displays is very difficult, and then they get you when you eventually get to the front!
You think the overwhelming smell will be flowers right? No, it's fish and chips, it's all you can smell everywhere, and it cost £18 a pop I was happy to find a place to stop, (away from anyone selling anything), and have my Tesco meal deal!

This sums the place up. There are 2 tents next to each other, one giving away free wine, the other free cider. Great we thought, we'll have some of that. When we got to the counter we were given 2 tiny glasses with even smaller samples, then given a 3 minute pressure sales pitch to buy a bottle of the stuff, AT £89 A BOTTLE.

Watch it on the telly and save yourselves a few hundred £.

EDIT: Just want to add that there were a couple of displays / ideas that we were really interested in and the people running them were delighted when someone actually wanted some extra information and couldn't have been more helpful, and they really did know their stuff. Hence why it's not a real hate.

 

I’m not going to write anything. I’ve had my say. It’s one of my pet hates and I won’t be swayed.

 

I have Andy Hinchcliffe to moan about today instead of economists.

 

1. it's ******* disgusting.
2. Up until the last few year, you wouldn't have found a single black pudding south of Birmingham. It's a northern slum food.