Electric cars a step nearer mainstream?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well we used to regularly fit at least three sizes of tyres to the same car..

145s gave good econnomy, 155's gripped better, and 165's fouled the chassis at full lock IIRC. If you wanted low profile RipSpeed did some nice replacement bigger rims...

Most cars will take quite a variety: its only when you get to exotic brands that there is only one tyre that works. Or even FITS.

Of course the manufactures do deals with te suppliers, and fit something and the tyre people supply them cheap to the manufacturers in the hope that the punter will want the same expensive tyre over and over again.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 20:29:29 on Fri,

6 Jun 2008, Adrian remarked:

They aren't a regular replacement.

If you wish.

There are sill way too many different sorts.

[Roland Perry]

In message , at

23:26:05 on Fri, 6 Jun 2008, Andy Champ remarked:

My car's got the "wrong" size wheels on it. Causes no end of problems because the model they've been swapped from is apparently top of the range and needs a speed rating that's inappropriate for my much more modest model. Some tyre places simply refuse to get involved at all because the combination isn't in their ready-reckoner.

[tims next home]

Eh,

I've never bought a tyre on the basis of the car it's on. I just ask for an XYZ-1234 to be fitted (CBA to look up the correct format and I'm not sad enough about cars to keep it in my head).

tim

[Roland Perry]

In message , at 15:53:09 on Sat, 7 Jun 2008, tims next home remarked:

The tyre places I've used recently seem to be under the impression that they aren't allowed to sell me tyres with a "too low" speed rating. But when they look up my car, and that tyre, all they get is the top-of-the-range boy racer variant. But if they looked up my model (with the correct size wheel) they'd see it has a more modest performance and can take a lower (and significantly cheaper) speed rating.

One place refused to put that particular two-and-two together and another did it only grudgingly.

[Adrian]

"Dave Liquorice" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

OK, so some central authority starts to control design and production of cars. What after cars? Power tools? After all, there's far too many different designs of electric drill available. Nobody needs more than a basic drill, do they? How about wall tiles?

Isn't it starting to look just a bit centralised command-economy to you?

[The Natural Philosopher]

which is exactly where you end up when you start saying what the world SHOULD be like, instead of merely addressing the places in which it clearly and consensually broken.

Theocracy, military dictatorship, Soviet style communism, all these star with a preconception as to what is right and will work, and attempt to create people to fit the perfect system,and thise ultimately end up being totally repressive.

Market based economies at least do not second guess societies shape: what works tends to flourish and what doesn't falls by the wayside.

Its not perfect, but it possibly is the lesser of all evils.

Like evolution, it doesn't guarantee perfection, or even the optimal solution: merely the removal of inadequate solutions.

[Dan Sheppard]

I agree with this,

But I'm not so sure about this. Isn't this what futures and hedge markets do?

Dan.

[Paul Treadaway]

The same would apply to them - if they stopped being profitable they would disappear. But in market based economies there is in fact an ideology (usually something like less government regulation = Good Thing) that is imposed. People aren't always happy with the results of such a system either (hence all the complaints about fat cats, people being rewarded for failure, the failure of the market to provide pensions, cheap fuel etc.) And when things would fall by the wayside (e.g. Northern Rock), it often isn't politically possible to let that happen. As with the other ideologies mentioned, the reality is usually some kind of messy compromise. In fact more or less every society ends up that way in practice, suggesting that messy compromises that don't give one group too much power are actually the normal state of human society, so a monarchy might talk about ruling by divine right, but still end up making concessions if the peasants revolt.

[Huge]

No. Futures are a bet on which way the market will move, not an attempt to move the market in a specific direction.

[Paul Treadaway]

That can be a side-effect of them though. So they can perform that function, whether or not that was the intended purpose. They could be seen as a mechanism for ameliorating large fluctuations in prices, regardless of whether someone designed them (for that or any other purpose).

[Andy Hall]

Sort of like a red braces version of Ladbrokes........

[Huge]

Err, no "sort of" about it. That's exactly what the City is.

[Dan Sheppard]

Is betting on society's shape not "second guessing society's shape"? I'm not a betting man, but I imagine that if I were to put my money on a horse, I'm trying to second guess which horse will be fastest?".

[Of course, it's easier in futures. The futures market helps determine where investments are placed, which is the life blood of many businesses. Which is like a race where every bet on a horse removes a pound of handicap.]

Dan.

[Dan Sheppard]

Paul Treadaway wrote: [Hedges and Futures]

I can assure you that the same thing regularly happened in the USSR.

On recent evidence of quite a few datapoints, they'd most likely be bailed out by the relevant central bank. Even macroeconomics jiggled to give them breathing-room.

Dan.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Almost the reverse. They attempt to secondn guess a what tbe future economic shape of the economy will be for sure, but their actions usually tend to make things if more volatile, ultimately act against their expectations.

i.e.todays oil futures account for and etsimated 20% of the price RISE (Barclays Capital).

That means that oil prices are higher, and therefore arguably consumption lower, than if the hedge funds had not interfered, thus providing a net downward pressure on prices.

Futures both amplify volatility and swings, and act to bring on the more fundamental market negative feedback, quicker.

Its a sort of feed forward system: Can lead to instability, but can also make changes a lot less sluggish.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I think the FSA would argue that a *neat* compromise is the intention. One wants the market forces to control economic evolution,but without unneccessary instability, panic and loss of faith in the financial systems.

The correct way to handle a Northern Rock would be to implement insurance that all banks must pay to safeguard depositors deposits: if that had been in place, Northern Rock could (and should) he gone to the wall with scarcely a ripple. Fat cats, employees, and all.

That is the necessary line to draw between investors on small returns, nad the organisation and its investors, working on hoped for much higher rates of return.

[Andy Hall]

So it *is* like William Hill....

[Roland Perry]

In message , at

16:40:01 on Sun, 8 Jun 2008, Paul Treadaway remarked:

I'll add Railtrack to that. In theory such "rescues" distort the market, but people generally aren't very happy dealing with the consequences of simply letting the market solve the problem.

[Huge]

Err, yes. Apologies.