Possible run on the Banks Again

[Ardun]

Well, I bought farmland and so apparently are a lot of investors. Gold would have been a good idea a few years ago, no its a ridiculous bubble.

My plan is to keep buying more land.

Sound investment. With an ever increasing population and needs this cant go wrong.

I bought woodland? since farmland is quite regulated here.

[GarySFBCN]

May 17 (Reuters) - Customers of troubled Spanish bank Bankia, nationalized last week, have taken out over 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) from their accounts over the past week, El Mundo newspaper reported on Thursday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/bankia-idUSL5E8GH0AC20120517

Edward Hugh on Facebook: In an attempt to manipulate the stock price Bankia was systematically buying its own shares, even as it was being nationalised. So now, among the many "jewels in its crown" the bank has a a 4.3% holding in itself.

Now tell me that regulations are not necessary.

And until the criminals in the financial industry are jailed and forced to give up all of their personal holdings to begin restitution, do not even think of cutting one pensioner's meager income.

[Ardun]

It's regulations, subsidies and a faulty system that got us here. If we keep on bailing out banks that have made reckless decisions the banks will never learn.

[peterhun]

Sound investment. With an ever increasing population and needs this cant go wrong.

I bought woodland? since farmland is quite regulated here.

Actually its a bit harder to buy woodland in Poland I believe, but farmland still needs a permit til 2016 for non-Poles. Its not really cheap either (its too easy to convert to building land worth 10x as much), but fertile. They reckon 10-20 ha is enough to basically be a rich farmer. Owning over 3.5ha removes planning restrictions for building (similar to Spain?).

I heard its not unusual to buy lakes in Sweden - but the upkeep is expensive.

[Ardun]

peterhun interested lecture about commodity money and FIAT-money http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt-6lHTpefU

It's a little bit weird in our country since we have something called "allemansrätten and strandskydd".

Allemansrätten = the right for anyone to walk around on anyones land basicly and you can't really fence it off. You are not allowed to walk around in someones garden though. You are allowed to pick wild berries etc as long as it's in a none commercial way.

Strandskydd = protection against people who want to build to close to lakes/water which would mean that not everyone could use them.

You can't really own a lake but if you control all land around it you could "wrongly" say that you own the lake though you don't. The only lake you can own is if you make one yourself.

I meant that it was easier to buy forrestland here than for example farmland because you need to buy whole farmlands at once and not small pieces. They don't want the farmland split up since it would mean less productive farming... thats the idea at least.

I love Poland. Usually go and visit the area of Poznan once in awhile to stock up on certain chemicals. My mother has a lot of friends from Poland since she spent a lot of time playin handball there when she was young.

[peterhun]

"I meant that it was easier to buy forrestland here than for example farmland because you need to buy whole farmlands at once and not small pieces."
Thats the one difference, in the UK a farm would a hundred Ha, in Poland you can buy individual fields of a couple of acres. There are millions of farms so you build up a bit by bit. All my neighbours want to sell land, they have grown up children who want city life not working on a farm like their parents.

Have you ever been to Lithuania? I crossed over from Poland and was shocked at the desolation. Just over the border, most of the land is just abandoned, with trees beginning to to take back the fields. Its depopulated.

[Ardun]

"I meant that it was easier to buy forrestland here than for example farmland because you need to buy whole farmlands at once and not small pieces."
Thats the one difference, in the UK a farm would a hundred Ha, in Poland you can buy individual fields of a couple of acres. There are millions of farms so you build up a bit by bit. All my neighbours want to sell land, they have grown up children who want city life not working on a farm like their parents.

Have you ever been to Lithuania? I crossed over from Poland and was shocked at the desolation. Just over the border, most of the land is just abandoned, with trees beginning to to take back the fields. Its depopulated.

It's the only one I haven't visited of the baltic states.

[peterhun]

Maybe its better towards the coast or capital, but you might not want to bother.