oracle saint

For those undecided whether to go with the Keynsian or Chicago schools of economic thought this could make the decision much simpler. THE TAX SYSTEM EXPLAINED IN BEER Suppose that once a week, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to £100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this.. The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay £1. The sixth would pay £3. The seventh would pay £7. The eighth would pay £12. The ninth would pay £18 And the tenth man (the richest) would pay £59. So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every week and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until, one day, the owner caused them a little problem. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your weekly beer by £20." Drinks for the ten men would now cost just £80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free but what about the other six men? The paying customers? How could they divide the £20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share? They realized that £20 divided by six is £3.33 but if they subtracted that from everybody's share then not only would the first four men still be drinking for free but the fifth and sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fairer to reduce each man's bill by a higher percentage. They decided to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay. And so, the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (a 100% saving). The sixth man now paid £2 instead of £3 (a 33% saving). The seventh man now paid £5 instead of £7 (a 28% saving). The eighth man now paid £9 instead of £12 (a 25% saving). The ninth man now paid £14 instead of £18 (a 22% saving). And the tenth man now paid £49 instead of £59 (a 16% saving). Each of the last six was better off than before with the first four continuing to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got £1 out of the £20 saving," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got £10" "Yes, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved £1 too. It's unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me" "That's true" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get £10 back, when I only got £2? The wealthy get all the breaks" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next week the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important - they didn't have enough money between all of them to pay for even half of the bill. And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy and they just might not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier. of economic thought this explains everything.

I think Sterling's depreciation is reasonably predictable - certainly against US dollars. My company earns dollars; 2 months ago the USD/GBP rate was above 1.60 and I held off selling the USD waiting for GBP to weaken. The rate is now 1.51 and I've started selling - a GBP depreciation of over 7%. Owning shares in say Glaxo or Shell (I think both declare dividends in USD) will put up your GBP dividend receipts by the same 7% plus. And of course there's always gold; the USD price has fallen recently but it's up when expressed in GBP. After a while your brain starts to hurt though.

I looked into bond purchase recently but found they are expensive to buy - bond funds are much cheaper. A couple of other points to consider. If buying a bond fund make sure you factor in the potential tax deduction into the return. I own a couple in my pension scheme and unreclaimable tax is deducted from the headline rate of return. I still receive about 5.2% return though so it beats inflation. You might also like to consider infrastructure investment funds. I own 2 and they return 5%+ with very little movement in the share price. You could also consider high yielding utility shares such as National Grid or SSE yielding 5 - 6%. Again the share price isn't volatile and they might also give you a hedge both against inflation and currency risk exposure (given that Sterling is almost certain to devalue against other international currencies - that's what happens when you print money). If you do invest heavily in fixed interest then the big risk is inflation. If it starts going up then the price of your fixed interest investment will fall and you'll suffer a capital loss. Personally I'd spread the risk with a combination of bond funds, utility shares and infrastructure funds. Qualifications? been running my own pension fund for 22 years. Compound return 7.2% (FTSe return over the same period 4.8%). Good luck!

Only the first £30k, I think. In fact less tax will probably be paid by being paid monthly. if a lump sum was paid 2012/13 then the top tax rate is 50%; payments in 2013/14 will be subject to a top rate of 45%; as well as this NA would be entitled to a new set of personal allowances.

How about "Morgan Schneiderlin Ooh Lah Lah Lah Lah" and ending with "Sanité à Morgan Schneiderlin (Ooh Lah Lah)" particularly as he's started scoring goals now we're in the Prem. Thinks... how come he didn't do that in L1 or the Championship?

I noticed 2 differences - we pressed higher up the pitch particularly in the first half - when the centre backs were bringing the ball out the full backs moved higher up the pitch than usual. This meant that the Everton defence was pulled wider and allowed more space in the centre of the pitch to play a pass. This meant less sideways passing than usual. Work rate seemed higher in the first half - Gaston and Guly particularly noticeable. Gaston was MoM first half - his best all-round performance to date. Interesting to see what seemed to me to be these subtle changes. Also for someone whose English is allegedly not good the manager spent a huge amount of time communicating with the players. Good first impressions for me.

Excellent suggestion. I've been a great believer in Nigel and his obvious passion for the club - but he has made significant errors this season and I can understand Cortese's action. Given that he probably made this decision several weeks ago when we were in the bottom three and haemorrhaging points from naive decision-making the timing appears odd - but it wasn't a knee-jerk reaction; it's been carefully orchestrated to provide continuity and credit to NC for that. Having said that, on a personal level, I'd like to say thanks to Nigel but also to let Pocchettino know that that we welcome him to SFC and bear no personal animosity against him. Ultimately we're all SFC supporters; we and/or the next generation will still be supporters when Cortese is long gone. We've also got to send a message to the players that we're still behind them - so I'm up for this excellent suggestion.

A few observations from the Itchen stand. It's no coincidence that Saints looked far better once Puncheon came off. Time after time he drifted inside to leave Clyne exposed and allowing the Spurs LB to advance. Not once did JP take on an extremely slow and bulky spurs LB. Saints' best move of the first half came from Clyne getting on his outside and putting in a good cross (I'd have liked to see Adam move across to try and put the LB under more intensive pressure). It was obvious that part of JP's rôle was to stay wide and offer protection - NA was furiously gesticulating at him in the first half as JP was obviously not carrying out the NA game plan. JP got the message; shrugged and spread his arms; if I'd been NA I'd have substituted him on the spot! Time after time the game passed JP by as he was too far infield - totally ineffectual. I'm amazed that NA brought him out for the second half. I would not be too surprised if he rarely features from now as Mayuka offered caviar and champagne after JP's tripe and onions. On today's evidence Mayuka can play wide right and if that's consistently the case I think we might have solved one of our problems. Though why has it taken so long to try out Mayuka? Davis was a major disappointment and seemed to avoid positions where he might receive the ball. On several occasions he drifted away into poor positions instead of offering himself as an outlet for a pass. This meant that the Saints defenders tended to have to resort to lumping the ball up to the forwards as there was no midfield to pass into. Things worked slightly better as Morgan and Davis seemed to change positions with MS moving forward and Davis dropping back. It was no surprise though that both JP and Davis were substituted - two pretty poor performances. Saints had a very weak bench although Reeves played well - another confident youngster eager to get into the game. I look forward to Cork and Morgan resuming their partnership and I'd like to see one of Lambert/Rodriguez playing with Lee/Mayuka purely to add pace and variety to the forward line. Add Ramirez into the mix and I think we'll see Saints' results start to improve. I was behind the Bale header - it was excellently placed (though disgracefully unchallenged) and I did wonder whether a slightly more agile keeper (Gazzaniga?) might have saved it.

This ad. appeared as I read the thread. Appropriate? Bedwetting Problems Everything You Need To Know About Child Bedwetting&how To Approach It http://www.drynites.co.uk Udinese very impressive -pace, power, commitment. Two superb strikes and clinical finishing. Having said that we didn't play badly and held our own for much of the game. However we didn't create much despite some neat build-up play. I was impressed by Clyne and thought his partnership with Puncheon worked well. Our left hand side (Fox and Rodriguez) didn't work at all - Fox constantly looking for cross-field passes rather than playing the ball down the left. During one break Rodriguez seemed to be making the point to Fox who did then play more balls down the left but to little effect - often his passes were misplaced or to a player under pressure. Why SFC would spend all that money on a player (Rodriguez) and then play him in a position where his abilities seem to be wasted is puzzling. Ward-Prowse caught the eye - he played with much energy and obviously has a bright future. We looked better in the second half - I was impressed by the pace of Shaw who on one occasion outsprinted di Natale over 30 yards - and di Natale is quick. Puzzled by earlier disparaging comments about Guly - personally I thought he played well particularly when he briefly appeared at inside left! Sharp looked more effective than Lambert; displayed greater mobility and tenacity. And all those requests for new centre backs? I thought Jos and José both played pretty well. In summary I think there are many question that remain unanswered. Were Saints playing flat out? Are we really going to use Rodriguez as a left wing? Is our midfield going to track back more effectively than they did last night? And (this is conjecture, not criticism) has Nigel adequate awareness of the quality we'll be facing this season and how to deal with it? And is he a fast learner?

Maybe this is what Nicola has in mind when he floats the possibility of a new stadium. An interesting article on how modern designs can boost revenue. [url="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17977841" I'm sure those of us who have to endure the journey from the north or who queue to cross the bridge would happily forgo those experiences as well!

I was directly behind the shot for Pompey's first goal. I think Kelvin thought it was going wide as he seemed to pull his arm out of the way. A surprising error of judgement from a normally reliable keeper. A question that's puzzled me for probably three or so months. Why have we progressively reverted to the long ball game? We were bereft of both ideas and imagination today and demonstrated this by constantly bypassing the midfield with long balls. Presumably this demonstrates some sort of evolution in Nigel's tactical thinking but I'm left baffled. Could it be that Chaplow was essential for this to work and we changed our system during his injury? Adam has come in for some criticism but he ran his socks off today and worked exceptionally hard. I'll be amazed if he lasts another 90 minutes on Monday I thought Jack also played well. Normally a Guly fan but he contributed little today. He definitely works better playing with Rickie in the centre but I suppose now we've splashed out on Billy it's unlikely that Nigel will play him there. Hey ho I know it's only a game but it would be depressing to falter at the last hurdle. However we still control our own destiny and hopefully Nigel can demonstrate his motivational skills over the remaining games.

The loan would have been a liability and therefore reduced shareholders' funds by £33m. After the conversion to equity shareholders would be £33m better off in terms of book (or enterprise) value. In theory they are no better or worse off. Anyone know if interest was being paid on the loans? If so this would disappear reducing the burden on revenue. There might be a taxation angle on the conversion of loans (repaid from revenue) to equity (capital). Dividends might be paid instead of interest/loan repayments that would qualify for a different and possibly more beneficial tax treatment. In any event it strikes me that it can probably be viewed as a vote of confidence by the shareholders in the Club.

anyone know what Saints do for integration I vaguely recall several years ago the Club was advertising a TESL appointment (teaching English as a second language) with emphasis on assisting foreign players/Scholars integrate. Possibly under the Rupert régime?

anyone know what Saints do for integration I vaguely recall several years ago the Club was advertising a TESL appointment (teaching English as a second language) with emphasis on assisting foreign players/Scholars integrate. Possibly under the Rupert régime?

Have tried both silver and bronze. If it's bronze and a popular match it's almost impossible to get a drink until after the match - the last bronze I did was Brighton and the pre-match bar queue was about 6 deep. Silver tends to be a bit more relaxed as you place your drinks orders at the table. However the food - although not bad - isn't really worth the extra. On the plus side the seats and the views are good and if your boy is a Saints fan one of the players appears after the match and he'd probably get an autograph. There are usually a few families attending so it's not exclusively corporate suits. Note there's a dress code - no denims (theoretically anyway) although I managed to get my USA guests in wearing jeans and as a result we now have another 2 Saints fans in California.

"They play on the left; They play on the right. Lallanna and Falqué Make Messi look (quite interesting)"

Apologies; this should read "peripatetic" thesaurus defines it as itinerant, nomadic, travelling, drifting, rootless, roving. See what I'm getting at?

A very competitive game. Stand-out players for me were Davis, Guly and Lambert. Davis took charge of the 6-yard box and made a couple of great saves. Lambert was a great outlet; controlled the ball well and passed intelligently. Guly was terrific although I wasn't entirely certain what position he was playing for large portions of the game. He took his goal well though the fact that he was on the left inside forward position was symptomatic of his peripetetic positioning. On several occasions he and Lambert seemed to swap positions - maybe NA should try this formation as it struck me as pretty effective. Saints were particularly good in the first half; played a high tempo game and were very competitive in the midfield; the defence was not unduly exercised. This very much changed in the second half mainly, I think, because we passed the ball less well and often played it to Millwall or a man under pressure. I was surprised by Hammond's substitution and we seemed less effective as a result. I was less surprised by Adam's substitution; he had been fairly subdued and didn't seem to be providing much attacking threat. I enjoyed the de Ridder cameo and thought Saints retained possession intelligently towards the end. Defence - I thought the centre backs coped pretty well and demonstrated they could cope with a pretty robust direct attack; Richardson provided a few nervous moments but Harding was fairly solid. All in all a pretty good Saints performance. This may be a somewhat provocative view but I thought the ref. put in a good performance; he was pretty even-handed but allowed a fair amount of physicality which I quite enjoyed. I also appreciated the fact that the players themselves played fairly; refreshing to see a player on the wrong end of a physical challenge just pick himself up and get on with the game. The bubble will inevitably burst at some stage but I think credit to NA - I think he's managed something very special in moulding such an effective team; I suspect on the evidence thus far we'll be top 6 after another 42 games.

And to think that last year it took us 9 games to register 9 points. In 43 years of turbulent Saints support I'm not quite sure when we entered dreamland ..... but I like it here.

From the view of an occasional attendee at St Mary's I like this notion. I think it would attract significant additional numbers of the more irregular visitors while maintaining the numbers of core season ticket fans. From the club's financial viewpoint the increased numbers of buyers could well compensate for the lost - higher unit cost - season ticket revenue although presumably people wouldn't buy their membership until early July - a revenue lag of a month or so for the Club; probably not hugely significant though. There might be a couple of possible drawbacks for the Club. What if we started losing games? Season ticket holders are (by definition) committed for the season irrespective of team performance; under the membership system attendances might well drop. Conversely though if the team is successful then memberships might increase. A final point though is the one factor that would make it a great success is the stadium being filled to something approaching capacity - then there would be pressure to buy a membership to get to see the Saints. At present it's easy to buy a ticket a few days in advance. I suspect many people subscribed to the old membership system in order to get preferential access to tickets - that and to support the club (both of these in my case). I am unlikely to buy a season ticket but I'd definitely consider the type of membership scheme you have floated.

The following statistics might help: Record of last 19 games (period October - Feb. to date P19 W12 D3 L4 Av. points per game 2.21 Assume the next 18 follow the same pattern then we would generate 40 points. Total points for the season 88. Probably enough for top two. Based on the historical trend we would expect to lose four games. The first 9 games of the season in August/September generated 9 points (along with much gloom and despondency amongst the faithful)

Here's another: To the tune of "My Old Man's A Dustman" (remember it?) Oh Pompey is a football club Where the players don't get paid And the High Court's going to wind you up While Avram's getting laid You're trading whilst insolvent But don't you wail and blub You can come and support Southampton It's the world's best football club OH