Have the Banks hit Rock Bottom?

I just noticed Barclays PLC hitting an astounding P/E ratio below 5, where long term PE ratios sit around 16 and an undervalued company would be somewhere around 10. Given the price has sunk to historic lows of around £3 (used to trade around £8), this now means that if you buy a Share in Barclays PLC you will get around 10% of your money given to you each year in the form of Dividends. Thats 5% more than a savings account.

Major british bank at PE ratio of 5? Dividend yield sitting over 10%? Either the earnings are grossly understated or we have parted basic investment logic. And so one thing comes to mind: Is it that the banks hit rock bottom or is there more drops to come? Since economic fundaments change slowly this is probably due to investor irrationality. Under normal conditions I would say run to the nearest broker and buy. But market forces are not moved by pure rationality, from where I'm standing it seems unlikely but there may be further drops to come.

Santiago de Compostela

Hola boys and girls, I've been spending a bit of time in Santiago (de Compostela) in Galicia lately. I kinda liked it after doing the Camino last month so decided to spend more time soaking up the student and backpacker atmosphere in the place.

Its a lovely place full of old buildings. I've even been thinking wouldnt it be nice to have a little apartment here to retire for a bit of "Ooohhmmm" in between freelance jobs, so I dipped my feet a bit in the real estate market to see if it made sense to buy and I could afford something small.

This is a shot of my breakfast view in a lovely old walled garden that must be at least a couple centuries old. Thankfully my cafe y tostas were freshly made and very cheap since the restaurants and coffee shops cater to poor pilgrims who arrive desitute at this beautiful destination.

Athena's Birthday at Kew

Saturday was Athena's birthday, and its now been over a year since we met. I got back to London and we spent the day eating yummy food and drinking wine and then we borrowed an ice-cream van and drove it far far away into the horizon like they do in the movies. Well... nice thought but neither of us can drive so we had to walk far far away into the horizon instead, but we only made it round the Kew gardens river bend down to Richmond. It was a lovely weekend, sunday we had a picknic at Clapham Common too.

Fluoroman Cycles round London

Hello! This is me standing next to Boris' office (London Town Hall). I came to see him about the appaling situation for londons cyclists, "HI BORIS!.. I loooove your hair! ;)"

In the meantime I've been taking to riding around the streets of london wearing my other superhero outfit: FLOUROMAN.

You cant see it in that photo but I have a tight T-shirt with a big "F" plastered in the front of it underneath my flouro cape and I fly around highlighting the streets behind me. If you dont see any more posts in this blog its probably because I plastered myself against the back of routemaster bus and I'm wearing leg and arm casts instead for the next 3 months.