The “highlight” of the week was the Pre-Budget Report on Wednesday and by now you will be familiar with many of the key points. If you are a banker, then Christmas will not be as much fun as it has been in the past. But it appears for now that the tax on bonuses above the £25k threshold is a one off measure (we’ll see?).

The Report had all the hallmarks of Gordon Brown and did not tackle the main issue of the budget deficit. The figures for the borrowing requirement - £178 billion this year, dipping to £176 billion next year are mind blowing and I believe we are running the largest deficit this country has known in “peacetime” (although soldiers in Afghanistan would dispute we are in a period of peace).

There will be much pain after the next General Election which may be as early as March, but likely to be May or June. Either way, whichever party wins, difficult choices will have to be made according to the classic economic concept of the “allocation of scarce resources.”

I will hold off with my predictions for 2010 until the final newsletter of this year which will be before 18th December as the company will close completely for a well earned break from then until 4th January 2009.
If you have any outstanding business which needs a response before the first week in January, then please contact your account manager before next Friday.
We are now established in our new offices. The address for the group of companies is:

Bold Spirit House
10-12 Pall Mall
Liverpool
L3 6AL

Key departmental telephone numbers are:
InvestinCyprus.com Developers – 0151 243 5432
Distressed Assets – 0151 243 5431
Jet-to-Let - 0151 243 5430

We now have two Twitter accounts for the company.  The first one is a news reporting service for Distressed Assets and has a remarkable following of over 4000 people in a matter of a few weeks.  The address should you wish to follow is:
http://twitter.com/Repossessions

My own personal Twitter is a mixture of economics, politics and everyday life.  In the past couple of weeks I have gained over 1000 followers and if you wish to follow, the address is:
http://twitter.com/DominicFarrell

Have a great weekend