1st May 2014

Dealing with Debt Bubbles: Rethinking Financial Services in a Post-Crash World

19.00 - 21.00 12th May at the Kings Fund 

11 Cavendish Square, London

Could YOUR customers benefit from a paradigm shift in financial services? Would you support the introduction of ‘safer’ financial products in the UK?

The Macro Economic Design Group is a volunteer group consisting of a pool of experts with a depth of experience from across the Financial Services Industry. We would like to invite you to a workshop to discuss new ideas which we believe can instil confidence in our savings, pensions, investments, and borrowing contracts – an issue which impacts on all of us.

What does the recent press coverage of potential debt bubbles in the UK mean in an economy with a cost of living crisis, where interest rates are at historic lows and property prices are at highs of multiples of earnings?  The Independent recently wrote about Vince Cable’s concerns in this area – is he right to be worried?

What if debt in the UK could be made safer for both parties? Edward Ingram, an experienced speaker in South Africa, will be presenting his ideas for how financial engineering can be used as a tool to make the whole of financial landscape safer for both investors and borrowers. He will show how new mathematical models for safer debt can be used to:

  * Create safer mortgages

  * Stabilise the property market

  * Make pension funds safer

  * Remove volatility (up to 100%) from managed funds

  * Provide annuities which keep pace with income

We are currently lobbying the Government in the UK to set up a working group to investigate the feasibility of these ideas – come and add your voice to the debate.

Further details about the speaker:

Edward Ingram is a former Independent Financial Advisor who has been actively campaigning for a ‘safer’ design for financial services in order to benefit his clients since the 1970s. He has presented his ideas on numerous occasions to regulators, members of the finance profession and academic economists. More recently he has published a series of essays explaining his ideas in the leading South African financial journal ‘Fin24.’^[1] http://ingram-dropbox.blogspot.co.uk/p/fin24-south-africas-leading-financial.html  

Further detail about his proposals is also available on his website ‘Macro Economic Design.’^[2]http://macro-economic-design.blogspot.co.uk/

Further details about the vision:

The vision is that the Government will issue Wealth Bonds of various maturity dates, and repayment rates, whose capital value will be index-linked to an agreed index of National Average Income. These will create cash flow for annuities and managed funds as required. The Treasury will not be confronted by stop - stutter - go sales of government debt because we believe that demand for these bonds will be huge – everyone wants financial security. Government borrowing costs will be smooth, well organised, and above all, cheap.

Corporate and housing finance can be funded by the private sector issuing Wealth Bonds, but at a higher rate of interest above the benchmark set by the Government. The cost of repayments will be income-linked and graduated, to lower the cost on a yearly basis.

Managed funds can be too volatile for some and especially for people nearing retirement or after retirement. Managed funds will be able to calibrate their volatility profile and invest a proportion of the fund in wealth bonds accordingly. This raises investment security and reduces management costs.

These proposals have been developed by Financial Services Professionals with personal experience of some of the most extreme stresses that can be experienced by modern economies, and who fully understand the desire of most people to insulate their fundamental financial needs from the casino. We believe these proposals are viable and the potential demand is huge.

We also believe that the appearance of such safe financial services will solve some of the most intractable problems that economists have ever faced and seem unable to resolve – how to make the economy itself more manageable. 

This workshop will be taking place on Monday the 12 May 19.00-22.00 at the Kings Fund, 11 Cavendish Square, London.

More info 

Mortgages