Head in the coat © fintag

News comments:
The Chelsea FC megastore has a 20% off sale. You know times are changing when one of the English Premier League's top clubs offers discounts before Christmas. Of course London is booming retail wise (bloomberg) because it has the best shops in the world, is easy to get to and a currency that is worth less an old Italian Lira but nobody is interested in plastic shirts made in China.

2011 will be a shocking year. Unlike the predictability of Matt Cardle winning X Factor, ITV having a super bowl ad-fest, or bankers learning that only 20% of their bonuses will be cash and that this will be used to pay the tax on the non cash bonus element, 2011 will be a year of uncertainty. And as you know the markets hate / love uncertainty.

Here are some predictions:

Dow is up 3.4%
US House Prices down 16%
US Interest Rates go up to 1.5%
Gold increases 35%
English Premier League will go bust.
Italy leaves Euro
UK police are fired and replaced by the Army (borrowed from France)

Today's shorts:
Banks are too big to be useful (telegraph)

Today's longs:
The Euro is guaranteed never to die (bloomberg)

Gossip:
JG Ballard's Millennium People comes true.