Chris Riddell on Greece’s Olympic – and financial – legacy

]]> http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/how-the-olympic-torch-could-ignite-europe.html/feed 0 http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/the-new-mid-life-crisis-%e2%80%a6-house-sharing-into-your-40s.html http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/the-new-mid-life-crisis-%e2%80%a6-house-sharing-into-your-40s.html#comments Sat, 19 May 2012 23:04:25 +0000 banez http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/the-new-mid-life-crisis-%e2%80%a6-house-sharing-into-your-40s.html [unable to retrieve full-text content]

The number of older professionals living in shared homes has increased by 2,000 in the past six months. Why have this new breed of first-time buyers been priced out of the market?

Sharing a house with friends can make sense when you’re in your 20s and 30s but it fast loses appeal once you hit your 40s. However, living in a multi-occupancy property and sharing a kitchen, bathroom and living space is the only option for an increasing number of professional fortysomethings.

Of those that rent a room in shared houses, as many as one in eight are in their 40s, according to a study by website Spareroom.co.uk, and that figure is rapidly rising. The number of older professionals – classed as 30 and over – searching for rooms within flat-shares has increased by over 2,000 from 12,000 in the past six months, says flat-sharing website Easyroommate.co.uk.

Perhaps it is no surprise when you consider that the average rent in the UK for a studio is £1,102 a month, according to the latest figures from Rentright.co.uk, a lettings agency directory site, whereas a two-bed property costs £1,218, or £609 per room.

If you share with more than one person the amount you pay drops considerably: a three-bedroom house is around £716 (£238 per room) outside London, and £1,212 (£404 per room) in Greater London, according to mortgage lender BM Solutions.

With demand exceeding supply, the situation is likely to worsen. Already the costs of housing have risen to such an extent that almost a million people have taken out a payday loan to help with their rent or mortgage, the housing charity Shelter has found. It claims the situation is reaching “breaking point” for many people up and down the country.

Kay Boycott, director of communications, policy and campaigns at Shelter, points out that, in many cases, renting is no cheaper than buying a property, but with rents increasing – by 7% in London in 2011 – it is virtually impossible for aspiring homeowners to save a deposit.

“Spiralling house prices and the expense of renting on your own mean that people are left with no other choice than to share a house or flat long after they would have expected,” she says.

Research carried out by Rightmove.co.uk for The Observer shows that 17% of first time buyers are now 40 or over. It also found, at the end of last year, that 27% of people who consider themselves to be “trapped renters” (those who want to buy but cannot afford to for a least another year) were over 40.

Aspiring homeowner

Audrey Dixon is a classic “trapped renter”. At 40, she’s living in a flat in the Ruislip area of London with a 22-year-old flatmate who she found through Easyroommate.co.uk. “Splitting the household bills, as well as the rent, is what helps reduce my monthly outgoings so much,” says Audrey. “But as everything is getting more expensive, it’s taking even longer to save for a deposit.”

Audrey, who works as a housing officer, adds: “Single people are basically priced out of the housing market at the moment, particularly in London, and doubling up is the only practical way to keep costs low. Fortunately, it works out fairly well for me because I happen to get on so well with my flatmate.

“But unless something dramatic happens in the housing market I’ll be living in shared houses for years because there’s no way I can afford to get on the property ladder.”

When they do come to buy, those in their 40s and over, face particular difficulties, according to David Hollingworth of mortgage broker London & Country. He says: “Older first time buyers age are looking at a shortened term in which to repay their mortgage and it’s hard to save for a deposit while you’re renting, yet many lenders demand at least 10% of the value of the loan, and more than that for better rates.

“While there are options out there, such as the government’s NewBuy scheme and shared ownership, there’s a whole generation who may actually never be able to afford to buy a home.”

Single but sharing

Shelter says that 235,000 Londoners have moved in with a partner for mainly financial reasons over the past three years – with 128,000 forced to continue sharing after their relationship ended. It’s a struggle for those that do decide to separate: being single is a major factor in forcing many fortysomethings to continue sharing.

Catherine Swan, 49, has lived in shared accommodation for the past six years since relocating to London. Her landlord is selling the flat so, reluctantly, she has to find another place, hopefully only with one other person. She expects to have to pay up to £600 a month.

“It horrifies me that I’m still looking for shared accommodation at my age,” says Catherine, who works in stage production. “By now, I thought I’d be living out of London, in my own home, and pottering around my garden at weekends. I didn’t anticipate that I’d be trawling through adverts for seven-bed houses in Clapham, where people just want to party all week,” she says.

“I wish I could afford to rent, or even better to buy, a tiny studio flat but due to the economic climate, I just can’t.”

Swan has one bit of advice for young people who are still fancy free: “It is being single that makes it almost impossible to either rent a place on my own or to buy a home to live in.

“My advice to any young person is to marry a wealthy partner as soon as they can, as it’s the only way to get on to the property ladder. Unfortunately, that advice is as true today as it was in Jane Austen’s era.”

Weekly commuter

A further factor forcing professionals in their forties into multiple occupancy is having to travel long distances to find work, says Ian Carlton, a HR consultant. While Carlton manages to maintain a mortgaged property in Staffordshire, where he returns to his family at the weekends, he’s not happy that the greater part of his week is spent in shared accommodation.

Working long hours in the City of London Monday to Friday means he needs a place to relax in the evenings and, at 46, he’d rather live alone. “But there’s no chance,” says Ian, who shares a flat in Rotherhithe with another man in his forties. “The cost is completely prohibitive. At first, I thought it was really sad of me to be sharing a place with someone I didn’t know.

“But it was the only way to get a semi-decent place and, as it happens, my flatmate works long hours, too, and fortunately we do get on well when we see each other.

“It involves compromise. One of us can’t watch the football if the other wants to watch The Apprentice. I didn’t think I’d have to be working out things like that with a flatmate at my age.”

]]> http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/the-new-mid-life-crisis-%e2%80%a6-house-sharing-into-your-40s.html/feed 0 http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/lg-optimus-lte-ii-goes-on-sale-in-south-korea.html http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/lg-optimus-lte-ii-goes-on-sale-in-south-korea.html#comments Sat, 19 May 2012 23:04:18 +0000 banez http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/lg-optimus-lte-ii-goes-on-sale-in-south-korea.html
World’s first Android phone to feature 2GB of RAM, the LG Optimus LTE II has just gone live in South Korea. The smartphone is now available for purchase through all three main carriers.

Although the handset has been made available only in South Korea, LG confirmed the Optimus LTE II will be launched worldwide, but more details on that will be unveiled in the following weeks.

With 2GB of RAM, LG Optimus LTE II offers an optimal multitasking at running large applications. In addition, the smartphone boasts an incredible 4.7-inch True HD IPS capacitive touchscreen display that supports HD (1280 x 720 pixels) resolution and is capable of emitting 550 nits.

The device is powered by a dual core Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.5 GHz, which is complemented by an Adreno 225 graphics processing unit and 2GB of RAM.

Furthermore, the Optimus LTE II embeds 16GB of internal memory, which can be expanded up to 32GB via microSD card.

Another strong point of the smartphone is the high-capacity 2,150 mAh Li-Ion battery, which is rated by the manufacturer for up to 250 hours of standby time or up to 10 hours of talk time.

LG also confirmed the Optimus LTE II runs Google’s Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system with the new Optimus UI 3.0 on top. The latter offers users a slew of convenient features such as face recognition unlocking, widget size control and easy-to-organize folder management.

It is also worth mentioning the smartphone comes with support for wireless charging, which means it can be recharged by placing it on a wireless battery charging pad.

“The Optimus LTE II is the most powerful smartphone technology currently available in Korea. With a faster LTE network, the barrier for downloading and running very large applications is no longer a significant one for many customers, which is why LG saw a need for more RAM on high-end smartphones,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company.

“That could open the path to growth. We could also negotiate a sort of European Marshall Plan for Greece,” Wolfgang Bosbach said in a magazine interview to be published on Monday. He said that a further aid package would only make things “more expensive, not better”.

The German chancellor’s refusal to bend on the terms of the “fiskalpakt” treaty signed by 25 EU countries in March – but not by Britain – has led diplomats to warn of a German government “death wish” that is pushing Europe’s economy to the brink of disaster.

The Sunday Telegraph has learned that the German attitude contributed directly to the collapse of Greek attempts last week to form a national unity government, sparking market turbulence that now threatens Spain and Italy.

At a meeting of EU officials 11 days ago Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, told his audience that after the success of anti-austerity parties in the first Greek election, contingency plans were being drawn up for Greece to leave the euro. “He horrified his audience by saying that, unless the Greeks toed the line, life would be made so unpleasant for that Greece would be left with no option but to ask to leave,” said one EU source.

Mr Schäuble suggested cutting off the EU financing on which Greece depends to prevent it going bankrupt, thus pushing it into default and out of the euro.

In the event representatives of the eurozone bailout fund decided instead on a less dramatic course: witholding €1bn of the €5.2 billion instalment of aid due to be paid to Greece on May 10.

But that signal backfired, however, when Mr Papoulias convened talks with all his country’s political parties last weekend. On the table was a secret deal from the EU that would have given Greece a breathing space to pay back its debts, and some new investment to help kick start its ravaged economy. He said, according to official minutes, that Herman Van Rompuy, the EU president, had told him that the election of Francois Hollande as France’s new socialist president meant “a new climate is forming in Europe and it will be a shame if we do not take advantage of it”.

Other European governments are sympathetic to the need to tone down the rhetoric, rather than aggravate Greek voters further. But Mr Van Rompuy’s promise was not enough to sugar the bitter pill of the aggressive German threat to push Greece out of the euro unless its politicians surrendered.

“Even the mainstream Greek parties could not swallow such naked threats, let alone the anti-austerity leftists,” said one diplomat close to the talks.

A senior European diplomat said: “There was a deal on table but the Germans made it impossible for anyone to take the step. It’s a death wish. Politics is about adapting to changes in order to manage them, not defying reality because it’s inconvenient for some EU deal that was a compromise anyway.

“Some European leaders and officials are so doctrinaire about keeping promises that they risk destroying everything.”

The debate will come to a head at an EU summit on Wednesday, which the new French government hopes will show backing for Greece. “All issues must be put on the table: finance, the banking system, growth, protectionism,” the country’s new prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, told Liberation newspaper yesterday. “We must send a strong signal to the Greek people and to all Europeans…. No subject is taboo.”

The Brussels meeting is expected to focus on new Mr Hollande’s call for measures to kick-start growth across the EU, especially within the 17-nation euro zone, while maintaining efforts to cut budget deficits. But Germany will demand that any such approach – including proposals, supported by Britain, for new eurobonds backed by the European Central Bank – is matched by moves to closer political and economic union, which will mean challenging choices for Britain.

Bankia released a statement in the afternoon saying that the deposit fall was simply a seasonal effect rather than a bank run. This served to stabilise the share price, but the lender still ended up losing 14 per cent of its value.

It rallied on Friday, but the bad news kept on coming.

The central bank announced late that evening that the level of bad loans on the books of Spanish banks was at an 18-year high, fuelling concerns about the financial sector in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy.

Then the finance ministry said late on Friday that the deficit could reach 8.9 percent of GDP after four of its 17 regions overshot their expected budgets.

And with Greece looking ever more likely to drop off the cliff and exit the eurozone, it is now Spain which has the unwelcome distinction of being in the centre of the euro firestorm.

As world leaders met at Camp David in the United States this weekend, Greece was officially on the agenda. But Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, was well aware that he too was in the spotlight.

“Sentiment towards Spain is deteriorating with each passing day, mainly because of a loss of confidence in the Rajoy government’s approach to tackling the problems in the banking sector,” said Nicholas Spiro of Spiro Sovereign Strategy.

Credit ratings agency Moody’s carried out a sweeping downgrade of 16 Spanish banks on Thursday, including Banco Santander, the eurozone’s largest bank.

Outside one branch of Bankia, on Madrid’s main street, Gran Via, there was a mixture of anxiety and resignation.

“It’s quite scary,” said a 25-year-old television producer, who didn’t want to give her name. “Some of my friends are moving their money to other banks, or even other countries where they feel safer, like Germany. But I haven’t really got any savings, so I’m not worried,” she added with a shrug.

“I don’t understand any of it,” said another elderly customer exiting the bank, flinging his hands up in the air in despair.

Others were more philosophical.

“My money is even safer in here than before, now that it is backed by the government,” said Eduardo, a 45-year-old advertising executive. “My wife said we should think about moving our money, but it’s all irrational fears. The government won’t let it all collapse.” Certainly Madrid is yet to show the outward signs of economic turmoil which blight the streets of Athens. Businesses are still open, the infrastructure is not crumbling, and the “indignados” protests against austerity measures were, last week, decidedly feeble.

What is new over the past year is the number of hawkers clad in fluorescent yellow tabards prowling the street offering to buy gold. As Spanish unemployment rises to 25 per cent – a eurozone high – with half of all young people out of work, many families are resorting to selling the family jewels to keep afloat.

At Bankia’s headquarters – a huge glass skyscraper in Plaza Castilla, north of the centre, there were few people in the office on Friday afternoon.

“Many of them leave at 3pm on Fridays,” the security guard said. A few besuited bankers with shiny shoes strode past, anxiously checking their Blackberries, but the black marble lobby with its bronze bust of the King was eerily quiet.

Around the corner, Arandio bar was doing a roaring trade – the discarded paper napkins and bread crumbs on the floor testimony to a thriving evening’s trade.

“The bankers still come here, despite the crisis,” said one waitress. “Our Friday happy hour beers are only a euro. So even they can afford that.”

Most were unwilling to discuss the situation, preferring to sit outside in the sun and talk about anything but the crisis. Yet others were deep in conversation, huddled around their tables with furrowed brows, some biting their nails.

“I think there is a lot of worry about,” said one financier, standing at the bar. “It’s like a dark cloud hovering over us and no one knows what is coming next.”

Fears about contagion from Greece have pushed Madrid’s stock market to 2003 levels.

Behind the bar loomed a second huge Bankia building, designed by Norman Foster and bought by Caja Madrid – one of the banks now part of Bankia – for €815 million in 2009. At 250 metres tall it’s the highest building in Spain.

And it is empty. Security guards sitting inside the vast lobby said that a few people worked in the building, but it is a powerful symbol of how Spain’s property boom (construction on the tower started in 2004) has led to its current economic crisis.

Further down the Paseo de la Castellana, inside Spain’s stock market – housed in a neoclassical palace – five or six traders leant against the pillars, looking at screens. The trading is done online now, but some of the more old fashioned traders still like to come in and work from there.

The world markets were in turmoil, but the screens kept on flickering in silence.

The traders just stood with their hands in their pockets and watched.

Outside, a beggar sat with a sign: “I am 54 years out of work and unemployed. Please help. Don’t laugh – it could be you.”

Greece claims German leader advised it to hold a referendum on euro membership – but her spokesman denies allegations

German-Greek relations were further strained on Friday after the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was heard advising Greece to hold a referendum on its membership of the euro.

Greek politicians reacted angrily, but Merkel’s aides insisted she had not suggested a referendum during a telephone call on Friday with the Greek president, Karolos Papoulias.

The Greek government’s spokesman, Dimitris Tsiodras, said: “[Merkel] relayed to the president thoughts about holding a referendum in parallel with the elections on the question whether Greek citizens wish to remain in the eurozone.”

A German government spokesman rejected the idea that Merkel had proposed a referendum. “This is false and we completely dismiss this,” he said.

Some commentators suggested that the misunderstanding was due to an error in translation. One said that Merkel had said that the 17 June elections in Greece would be like a referendum on the country’s membership of the euro.

But Greek politicians criticised Merkel’s perceived interference in Greek affairs.

Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the leftwing Syriza party that wants to renegotiate Greece’s bailout by the EU and the IMF, said: “Ms Merkel is used to addressing Greece’s political leaders as if the country was a protectorate.”

Antonis Samaras, a conservative, also criticised Merkel’s suggestion. “The Greek people don’t need a referendum to prove they’re pro-euro. Her idea is unfortunate, to say the least, and can’t be accepted,” he said.

The elections will take place amid confusion in Greece over which economic path to take. Opinion polls suggest that Greeks want to remain in the euro but do not want to abide by the austerity programme demanded as part of the international deal to finance Greece’s debt.

Merkel and other European leaders have told Greece they must continue the austerity programme if they want to remain in the single currency.

]]> http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/angela-merkel-caught-in-referendum-row-with-greece.html/feed 0 http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/euro-crisis-is-cyprus-next-for-the-grexit.html http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/euro-crisis-is-cyprus-next-for-the-grexit.html#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 23:09:15 +0000 banez http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/euro-crisis-is-cyprus-next-for-the-grexit.html [unable to retrieve full-text content]

Cyprus, with its out-sized banking sector equal to 835% its GDP, could be the next knock-on from the Greek euro crisis

One of the mysteries of the Greek financial crisis is that there are any deposits left in the stricken country’s domestic banks. Since 2009, it’s estimated that €2-€3bn has been withdrawn from Greek banks every month. The pace has picked up markedly in recent days; on Monday alone €700m was taken out of the banks, and the Greek president told reporters: “The strength of banks is very weak right now.”

A friend recently returned from a 600km trek across the countryside outside of Athens. Many roadside shops and restaurants were abandoned or locked. Locals were not willing to accept cards. Everything had to be in cash, and she sensed a fear that money tied up in the banking system would be lost should it go into meltdown.

Yet according to Greece’s central bank, total deposits held by domestic residents and companies stood at €165.36bn in March. Given the likely sequence of events should Greece leave the euro – accounts frozen, converted into new drachmas and then devalued by around half – it’s extraordinary there is any money on deposit at all.

I can add little to the pundits speculating whether there will be a “Grexit”. But the lack of focus on Cyprus is surprising, especially given the 80,000 Brits living there. It is, of course, an independent country with its own central bank. A blog for British residents I read this week tried to calm fears about a knock-on from Greece, claiming the island has a robust deposit protection scheme. So did Iceland. Cyprus’s out-sized banking sector is equal to 835% of the island’s GDP, says the FT.

More worryingly, the operations of the Cypriot banks in Greece alone are equal to 130% of Cypriot GDP. Some claim the island has benefited from flows out of Greece. But when one of the country’s leading banks this week required a £2bn cash injection, it doesn’t ring true. Economists who talk about contagion from Greece always point to Spain and Portugal. But surely it will be Cyprus next? And if the British in Cyprus have sense they won’t rely on articles extolling the island’s deposit protection scheme – although savers here with the Bank of Cyprus (UK) are covered by Britain’s compensation scheme.

]]> http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/euro-crisis-is-cyprus-next-for-the-grexit.html/feed 0 http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/motorola-defy-mini-goes-live-in-australia-via-optus.html http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/motorola-defy-mini-goes-live-in-australia-via-optus.html#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 23:09:06 +0000 banez http://truckingstartupauthorityandservices.com/2012/05/motorola-defy-mini-goes-live-in-australia-via-optus.html
The smallest smartphone in the DEFY family has just landed in Australia. Motorola DEFY MINI is now available for purchase for $199 AUD on pre-paid via Dick Smith and Optus retailers.

Customers who prefer to make their purchases from Kmart or Target will be able to grab the DEFY MINI beginning May 22 for the same no-term price.

Although it has been tagged as a rugged Android phone, the DEFY MINI is aimed at the entry level market, which is why it’s available for such a low price.

However, for a budget-friendly, Motorola DEFY MINI is quite alright, especially that it is shipped with Android 2.3 Gingerbread on board.

According to Motorola, the smartphone is dust- and water-resistant, so “whether it’s a downpour or a spilt drink, a sandy beach or a pocket full of coins, MOTOROLA DEFY MINI is ready for whatever life throws your way.”

To make things even more interesting for Android fans, the phone’s 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen display (320 x 480 pixels) features Corning Gorilla Glass coating.

In addition, it provides access to more than 450,000 Google Play apps and games. The handset comes packed with re-sizeable widgets and other innovative features, such as Social Graph and Activity Graph.

Another strong point of the smartphone is the high-capacity 1650 mAh Li-Ion battery, which is rated by the manufacturer for up to 500 hours of standby time or up to 10 hours of talk time.

Motorola DEFY MINI is equipped with a low-performance 600 MHz single-core processor, which is complemented by 512MB and 512MB of ROM. The internal memory can be expanded up to 32GB via microSD card.

On the back, the handset sports a 3-megapixel photo snapper with LED flash and video recording, while in the front, there’s a secondary VGA camera for video calls.

Via