According to a report by Nationwide Building Society, home prices in the UK have now been falling for six consecutive months and are now also year-on-year negative by 1.1%

During 2008, the price of the average home has been falling by nearly £45 every 24 hours.

Chief economist for Nationwide, Fionnuala Earler comments:

“The latest fall in house prices follows from the steep decline in house purchase transactions over the last half
year. As a result of falling demand from first-time buyers, higher mortgage rates and tighter lending criteria, the
number of mortgages approved for house purchases has fallen to record lows. The fall in transactions has pushed
up the stock of unsold property on the market and improved the bargaining power of buyers, thus pushing down
on prices.”

The last 10 years has seen an alarming asset bubble develop in the UK, a similar if not worse situation as to that which happened in America.

A merchantman, Westward Venture has fired warning shots at a small boats, thought to be Iranian in the Persian Gulf.

The Westward Venture is reportedly under contract with the US military.

On the approach of the Iranian boats, Westward Venture first attempted to raise them by radio, then fired a pyrotechnic flare and when the boats continued to approach, the ship’s security crew opened fire with automatic small arms. It is not immediately apparent whether the gunfire was directly toward the Iranian boats.

SS Westward Venture is a 17,500 gross tonnage 744 foot long freighter launched in 1977 and registered in Tacoma (US)

According to ULS, there would be a maximum of 45 people on board.

SS Westward Venture can be tracked online in near-real-time.

It is expected that the news of this tension-increasing event in the Gulf will apply further upward pressure on oil prices.

Via Documentally, here we have Martin Summers talking on the coming economic collapse sparked by the UK and the world’s debt mountain, war, poverty etc. He thinks it’s looking like the 1930s again, maybe even the 1940s.

Martin Summers, the Former East European projects officer for the New Economics Foundation talks about present day money matters as we slide down a slippery sope.

I read this article in utter disbelief that the West Northampton Development Corporation wants to tax new home buyers to the tune of £20,000.

The proposal is being billed as a tax on ‘developers’ but only an idiot would fail to see that developers will simply push the £20,000 tax straight on to the buyer.

I suggest all sane homebuyers cross the West Northampton areas off their lists of places to buy a home.

BBC is carrying a video which shows a Georgian UAV being shot down by what appears to be a Russian Fighter aircraft, probably a Mig 29.

The video shows the UAV on a reconnaissance mission which, according to an official, is over Georgian territory. The UAV is reportedly unarmed and looks like a low-speed, probably piston-engined type.

The Georgian UAV operator was apparently warned by Georgian ground-based radar that the UAV was about to be intercepted and commanded the UAV’s camera toward the oncoming aircraft. We see the intercepting aircraft lining-up on the rear of the UAV, rolling wings-level and then firing an air-to-air missile which hits the UAV terminating the feed. An English “Master Caution” message is then presented on screen by the UAV command software.

Video here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7359514.stm

The Georgia seem to be rather upset with the Russia about this.

If you use Google Newsearch just now and type in ‘bailout’, the headline story is from Forbes: Some Bailout.

Vidya Ram for Forbes laments the £50,000,000,000 ‘bailout’ where the Bank of England exchanged it’s high-grade government bonds for low-grade/toxic mortgage securities and possibly other assorted debt in order to shore up the private UK banks which had been operating with poor/failed business models.

Forbes notes that despite the cash injection, the FTSE 100 fell 0.2%

This is the second time in six months the British tax payer has found themselves bailing out private banks. Previously taxpayer’s exposure to Northern Rock reached up to £100,000,000,000.

A British taxpayer’s individual exposure to private bank’s debt could now be £5,000 each.