News / Amber Gold and other Poland's suspicious institutions [139]


That's plain common sense


Before any one intervenes, it's not a 50% drop but a 35% drop. Apologies. Still a sharp drop..

News / Amber Gold and other Poland's suspicious institutions [139]


KNF put severe restrictions on the distribution of CHF mortages around nov 2008. For the 2 years prior to this, sales of CHF mortgages had vastly outnumbered those in PLN, while CHF/PLN oscillated between 2.50 and 2 (2 being reached in July 2008). Even taking 2.50 as a reference, that is 50% below the 3.38 rate. A heck of a drop by any standard..


Well, if ever this story comes to and end and banks get sanctioned (in addtiion to Barclays), some people might be in for a shock. As the press reporting has amply shown (see FT), the BoE was, with a nod and a wink, pushing banks to lowertheir LIBOR estimates, in order not to show that they were having difficulties in getting interbank financing. during the height of the crisis So if redress is sought, the new estimates should be higher.. Guess what will happen to millions of people in the UK who have mortgages indexed on LIBOR??

Law / Largest Corp In Poland :Polski Koncern Naftowy S.A. [8]

and??

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

Well, Mr Kwiecien is wrong , there are logical justifications. When you consider that:

(i) in 2011, over 60% of all US debt was bought by the Fed (vs close to zero before 2008) thus reducing sustantially the volumes available for other investors

(ii) Germany, Austria and even... France are borrowing at negative interest rates for short maturities
(iii) the SNB is buying like crazy top quality euro denominated paper in its bid to keep the lid on the appreciation of the CHF

it shows that there are fewer and fewer places availables for investors to invest their liquidity if they still want acceptable credit risk. It seems logical that the PLN, with the underlying polish economy doing quite well at least compared to other countries benefits from it. Of course, as soon as the next stage of the euro crisis strikes and risk aversion return, investors will start selling again..

News / Amber Gold and other Poland's suspicious institutions [139]


No. Although the outcome would have been positive, because of the lower interest rates today, the amount of risk you take on initially is the same; your repayments depend on a parameter that you cannot master, the level of interest rates. The only mortgages that should be offered to the majority of the population are ones with fixed interest rates over the whole life of the mortgage; it is not the "average joe" 's remit to speculate on/hedge interest rates, that is the banks role


You must be kidding, with a CHF/PLN at 3.38 versus 2 at the time??

Law / Investment advice - my options in Poland? [50]


For those who, like me, are unfamilair with the US of A, could you please let us know what "a solid Roth IRA" is?

News / Amber Gold and other Poland's suspicious institutions [139]


Is that the guy dangling the bit of paper at the top of the thread? I wandered who we was. He does look like someone who escaped from the Grom ou the Mafia and just jumped into a suit..

Law / Investment advice - my options in Poland? [50]

How on Earth can he get into real estate with 15 k PLN??

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

I cannot imagine this happening. One of the very few assets of Warsaw compared to other European capitals is that it has a lot of greenery.. If that is sold off to developers and disappears, life in the capital will become really debilitating..

Law / The Stock Exchange - Poland (GPW ... or WSE). Do you invest? [34]

Have a look at the following link

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_trading_losses

There are 45 instances listed, of which 19 for over $1bn;

Most of the losses were brought by a lone trader; UBS has the privilege of appearing twice on the list (Ramy Goldstein for 430 M$ in 1998, Kweku Adoboli for 2 bn$ in 2011)

News / Amber Gold and other Poland's suspicious institutions [139]


OK, but they had several forewarning from Markopolos including the now famous 18 page report which he handed to them in 2005 describing in details Madoff's fraud. No action was taken

News / Amber Gold and other Poland's suspicious institutions [139]


As I said, it doesn't make any sense. If that's the case, they link their promise of high returns to the fact that they make money playing the gold market, which is just anything but a guarantee..

News / Amber Gold and other Poland's suspicious institutions [139]


Well, be I'd be interested to hear the detailed explanation. I doubt whether it would make any sense at all

News / Amber Gold and other Poland's suspicious institutions [139]

I just had a look at their website, which is still active.. They are offering 10% return on deposits, and up to 16,5% if you make a 5 year deposit. How can anyone be so gullible as to believe such crap is just beyond me..

Law / The Stock Exchange - Poland (GPW ... or WSE). Do you invest? [34]


Here is a list:

Barings
Sumitomo
AIB
Socgen
UBS
JPMorgan

and if one includes the with the 2 latest scandals:

Barclays (Libor)
Standard Chartered (Iran)

Law / Why are the Poles following the Swiss Franc? [17]


If one looks over a short period yes, but not if ones takes the long view, as one should . In fact, the "stability" of CHF has been an exception rather than the rule: 1$ was worth a tad over 4 CHF in Aug 1971, today it is less than 1 CHF... So the CHF has gone up over a long period , or the $ down depending which way you want to look at it (and currency appreciation is the chief reason why salaries and prices in Switzerland appear high to foreigners)


No longer the case, you can pay direct in CHF

News / Poland at International Mathematical Olympiad [13]


I agree. Taking the point even further, certain fields of mathematics, like topology, can even be viewed as art

Travel / PKP (Polish National Railway) is a turn off [47]

Interesting. I've calculated the price per km and the time it takes taking the first leg today and the return journey tomorrow (best time available via respective internet sites). To make it more "international", I've also added for comparison sake 2 train journeys that I travel from time to time in Switzerland and France. Here are the results

PL Warsaw Gdansk distance 344 km (road distance) best time 5h4mn price (return trip, first leg today, 2nd leg tomorrow): 116 PLN
UK Bristol York distance 371 km best time 3h59 mn price: GBP 102.70 (PLN 529)
CH St Gallen-Geneva distance 360 km time 3h58 minutes price 100 CHF (PLN 339)
F Paris-Lyon distance 465 km time 1h57 minutes price 158€ (PLN 641)

PL Cost per 100 km 34 PLN average speed 68 km/h speed weighting 1 cost per 100 km weighted 34 PLN
UK cost per 100 km 143 PLN average speed 93 km/h speed weighting 1.37 cost per 100 m weighted 104 PLN
CH cost per 100 km 94 PLN average speed 91 km/h speed weighting 1.34 cost per 100 km weighted 70 PLN
F cost per 100 km 137 PLN average speed 238 km/h speed weighting 3.5 cost per 100 km weighted 39 PLN

So Poland is by far the cheapest with France and the UK the most expensive. Even if ones weighs the results taking into account the average speed, PL ends up as the best value for money, with 34 PLN per km vs France at 37 PLN per km!!

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]


In Zûrich, a primary school teacher would get 70-90 k CHF annually (that's roughly 5-6k€ per month.;)

Love / How would you describe Polish girl in one word only? [37]

Yummy!

Real Estate / Poland's flat rental agents and the anger they brew in me.... [60]

a company called Hestia used to run a similar business/scam (lists) in France and other countries. It is altogether different from the Polish Hestia, which is indeed an insurance company

Real Estate / What do you pay in rent/mortgage in Poland? [144]


Here are some details of why the economics are not the same:

1. Cost of buying in Poland (notary fee, valuation) are at least twice higher as in the UK
2. The cost of variable rates loans is much higher in Poland than in the UK: 3 months WIBOR stands over 5%, whereas 3 months GBP LIBOR is below 1%,

Last but not least, being a tenant in Poland is far more comfortable than in the UK: in Poland, like in most of continental Europe, laws are skewed towards protecting the tenant, whereas in the UK the landlord gets the upper hand

Travel / Ryanair travel by air - subtle scams to be wary of [98]


Do you have the faintest idea about client money and accounting rules?


That applies first and foremost to you, my good friend

Real Estate / What do you pay in rent/mortgage in Poland? [144]

nope, the economics are not the same

Travel / Ryanair travel by air - subtle scams to be wary of [98]

While I overall agree with your post, it is factually incorrect on 2 points


In fact, Ryanair's value (market cap) is larger than that of most "traditional" airlines


That isn't specific to low cost airlines. In fact, despite my dislike of Easyjet (see my earlier post), I have to recognize that they don't do it, whereas Swiss imposes a maximum (8 kg fgs!!)

Travel / Ryanair travel by air - subtle scams to be wary of [98]

Easyjet is not any better.. They are very quick at debiting your card a soon as a booking is done but use all sorts of fall pretences (they call this "security") not to reimburse monies owed.. I have been fighting with them for more than a month to get a refund for Air Passenter duty following a flight I did not use..

Food / Your favourite Polish foods! [180]

that exactly describes it...

Life / Which services is Poland still waiting for? [218]


Last time I was in Poland I tried to drive on the wrong side of the road. When stopped by a policeman, I said that in Britain we don't do right hand side, and we all drive on the left hand side..He wasn't impressed

Joke apart, as a foreigner, you are obliged by law to carry an ID at all time with you while in Poland.

Law / Poles think that Germans are the hardest working in Europe... [30]


Indeed, but many dream to go and live in France. There is a German saying which goes " gluecklich wie Gott in Frankreich" eg.. happy like God in France..

Real Estate / What do you pay in rent/mortgage in Poland? [144]


Can you clarify?