A case study module in comparative economics for Trump University (deceased.) As imagined by Robert Sutherland Smith. George, Gideon Osborne of this parish is a dude that pursues bad economics; or so we are told by the famous Ernst and Young Item Club of economic forecasters. That is no exciting, left wing, “pinko” outfit but a…
British American Tobacco at 4,006p following the annual results for the year to 31st December 2015. The share price has broken into new territory and is now towards the ceiling of its share price corridor of upward and downward share price swings around the central trend. The shares look good value in dividend yield terms and…
Investing is not another science. It is not physics where actions can cause pre-determinable reactions. Some people would like to persuade you that it is; but they are wrong. If you wish to compare it to anything, it is more like tracking in a great wilderness of possibilities. There are fundamentals and market sentiment! Occasionally…
Lloyds Bank at 72p after the annual results for the year to December 31st 2015. The shares are essentially now an investment in the end of PPI claims and provisions leading to big annual dividend payouts this year and next. Lloyds Bank shares: are they cheap or dear now that the share price has burst…
THE TRADITIONAL MACRO ECONOMIC MODELS OF THE WEST ARE SPLUTTERING. CAN ALL THE KING’S HORSES AND ALL THE KING’S MEN PUT THEM BACK TOGETHER AGAIN? Markets are such things as dreams are made of, to misquote the Bard. Much of the time, they seem full of apparent meaning (appearances, of course, often being deceptive) whilst…
HSBC (HSBA) was one hundred and fifty years old in 2015. It has celebrated its birthday by putting in place capital rejuvenation plans through a restructuring, which last year produced an extra $11.3 billion of capital with which to improve capital ratios and increase the dividend. This year will see more restructuring costs, and bumps…
Back in mid October 2015 I penned a piece in which I posed the question of whether it was then better to buy the users of the engines that Rolls-Royce (I selected AIG to represent the airlines) made or Rolls-Royce itself. Its share price had by then already come down from 1,046p last May to…
Rio Tinto mining at 1,705p, after publication of the annual figures for the year to December 31st 2015. The final dividend was maintained but a more pragmatic earnings related dividend policy – with a minimum dividend guarantee – comes in, putting a floor under the share price. The shares are lowly valued and therefore look…
The return of Banking fears! The news that the mighty Deutsche Bank is under suspicion takes us back to the psychology of seven years ago when most us, including central bank chairmen, realised that we had banking crisis and disaster on our hands. This article attempts to differentiate between the circumstances then and the circumstances…
AstraZeneca at 4,109p, after the annual report for last year to 31st December 2015. The shares tick a sufficient number of boxes for to make an attractive investment at this level, including maintenance of the dividend and the fact that the share price is towards the bottom of its recent trading range. The big attractions…
