Be Excellent To Each Other

https://www.engadget.com/2017/02/13/son ... uk-brexit/

Sonos prices rising by up to 25% due to fall in GBP. Ouch.

Whether it's the fall of the pound or capitalist opportunism it's still terrible for consumers.

25% is a fucking huge jump.

It's perfectly in line with the decline in GBP:USD though. That spent most of 2015/16 at about 1.55:1, and since the referendum it's been around 1.25:1. You're kidding yourself if you think retailers and manufacturers can afford to eat that sort of price movement on the vast array of consumer goods and foodstuffs we import.

Of course they can, just their shareholders wouldn't allow it.

What the fuck

Oh no, their profits are slightly reduced. Cry me a river

Are you an anarcho-communist now?

That's a dumb attitude. Like, 'my first 14 year old marxist' dumb.
Firstly, their profits aren't slightly reduced. Electronics manufacturing doesn't have a 25% profit margin - so they'd most likely be making a loss.
Second, Sonos are one of many tech companies that have a pretty well established corporate charitable giving programme. If they're losing money on sales, how likely is it that they are able to keep up with funding charitable programmes?

On which planets does 25% count as "slightly reduced"? Would a 25% reduction in your salary count as "slightly reduced"?

I think if anyone were going to run at > 25% it would be Sonos

I've forgotten where we're up to now, what possible ways are there that article 50 could not be triggered should May want to go ahead and do it?

Also regardless of your view of free market capitalisation, telling a US company that they should make lower margins than planned because the UK made a dick move in the referendum and the currency tanked is a little ludicrous.

It's not 25% reduction in pure profit though. It's profit minus operating costs and materials etc. Would be less.

They could eat it. Just get the directors to buy fewer Jags this week.

House of Lords amendments to the A50 bill, but I suspect sabre-rattling from the Commons about reform plus a lack of numbers in the upper House will ultimately defeat that. After that, nothing, I think.

My view of free market capitalism is that I should be allowed to buy £450 speakers but people should not be allowed to sell £500 speakers.

You're right. If sonos mark up is 33% on cost then losing 25% of revenues on fx translation is a 100% reduction in profit margin.

That's fine. Companies don't need to grow. They could easily carry on being a company providing services at that level. I'm sure they have plenty of cash reserves.

Mind you, considering myps employer I can understand why that calculation may not make sense. See also, autonomy.

Capitalism iz dum

What?! That's completely backwards. It's a 25% reduction in REVENUE. That's guaranteed to be a significantly higher hit to profits, likely making the product loss-making.

Why would they "eat it" instead of just increasing prices and maintaining profitability?

Referendum voters and (most) politicians may be dead set on economic suicide, but there's no reason for foreign companies operating in/selling to the UK market to do the same.

Bro do you even capitalise? Revenue would increase as more people want luxury speakers and they'd take out expensive credit agreements to spread the payments. Cogito ergo sum there would be an increase in profits probably.

I can't tell at what point Myp segued from "saying dumb things" to "saying trolling things", but I'm sure the "claiming he was trolling all along" phase is coming soon.

Now you'll never know.

A50 is quite clear that you just fall out if no stay of execution can be agreed. There's a court case in Ireland that's hoping to get a referral to the European Court on whether it's irrevocable or not. Our Supreme Court didn't touch the issue in the recent case because both sides agreed it was.

The most likely outcome would be a political fudge, in the best EU tradition.

I think it was somewhere around post 12,000.

It was such a transparent attempt to get me to admit I was trolling. I did not fall for it.

That ship sailed so long ago that it hadn't even researched optics yet.

...on WoS.

I have been meaning to ask about this. I'd like to hear more about the time you set up disco-gear in a minibus.

The SuperVengaBus already has a sweet head unit and a bass bin in the back (why not, with all that room?), so we used a combination of a big chunky inverter and existing 12V amplifiers to plug in all our disco speakers for a long trip to a gig near Hunstanton (the one which Anneka Rice was at, if I've mentioned that maybe before perhaps).

We turned it on, it all worked well. We turned it up, and the combination of WALL OF SOUND and the Christmas tree of warning lights on the dashboard made us think that maybe it wasn't the best idea in the world.

NOOB QUESTION: would the heavy draw of all that kit run the battery down, even with the engine running?

Yes. The alternator only charges at a certain rate (it varies wildly depending on the vehicle).

That's why in campers and RVs you should have a leisure battery.

Hence the warning lights, I guess?

Actually, probably not.
Electronics on modern (ie 1995 and onward) cars can behave really oddly if the voltage suddenly drops.

Computers in general are not fans of inconsistent power.

“The sovereignty of Parliament is a fundamental principle of the UK constitution. Whilst Parliament has remained sovereign throughout our membership of the EU, it has not always felt like that.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... CMP=twt_gu

Reals not feels
Reals not feels
Reals not feels
Reals not feels
Reals not feels
Reals not feels
Reals not feels
Reals not feels
Reals not feels

And more seriously, UK inflation is creeping up because of food and (predominantly) petrol being more expensive. So far it's very small, though.

Thanks to our "broken housing market", there's a lot of people mortgaged to the absolute hilt. I wonder how far inflation can rise before triggering significant numbers of repossessions.

There was an article in Grdauird about car finances being lossibly tne next consumer bomb to go off.

I don't think we've seen the last of food price increases yet.

Just read the transcript of Mr Blair's speech (Speccie link).

Agree with much of it, and it's a shame that too many people will look at the messenger rather than the message. Will probably review it again later.

. Ouch.

Tony Blair telling people to 'rise up' against Brexit when one million people rose up against the Iraq War and made no difference is just too much for me to take.

Very surprised he bothered with this, last thing I read on him was that he was backing out of a return to politics as he felt the fact he was so unpopular would hinder anything he tried to do.

Looks time some time away has thickened his skin

...

It's counter-productive though, as asfish has said. He is deeply unpopular with much of the country. He is the last person we need standing up for the Remain side.

Can't blame him for looking for a fresh challenge after achieving his goal of peace in the middle east.

Other than Ken Clarke, are there any other senior politicians making newsworthy speeches on this?

I didn't expect Mrs May to go full throttle on a complete, hard, burn the bridges exit: the result really suggested to me that something akin to being in the EEA and getting navy passports was about all that was politically possible but then I underestimated both the drive in the Tory party for a complete extrication and the utter uselessness of the opposition.