UK government finances are under extreme pressure. But there is no need to panic – yet. Chronicle of a death foretold Mr Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer, rose to the despatch box on Wednesday like a condemned man given one last chance beneath the gallows to plead for his life. It would have to be…
Has anyone invited you to invest in bitcoin recently? Do you really know what it is? And why did the Chinese ban it? The future of money My lead article in the December edition of the Master Investor magazine will be entitled The Future of Money. Not very Christmassy, you might think. But we need…
“There are certain things that cannot be adequately explained to a virgin by either words or pictures. Nor can any description I might offer here even approximate what it feels like to lose a real chunk of money you used to own.” – Fred Schwed, US Investor “The only difference between the taxman and…
Exactly one year after Mr Trump’s election as 45th President of the United States, what evidence is there that Trumponomics will work? Happy anniversary! This first real week of autumn has been one of anniversaries. First, we marked 500 years since an academic friar by the name of Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to…
On paper, the earlier an individual starts contributing to a pension, the better. It allows more time for compounding to have a positive impact and generally means there is a better chance of a higher value pension at retirement age. However, for someone in the earlier part of their career, there may be a more…
I’m on an Emirates A380 over the island of Goa, en route to Dubai from Melbourne. For the past ten days, I’ve been on a whirlwind visit to Hong Kong, where I spoke at the Economist Longevity conference, and to Australia, where I discussed, inter alia, lithium and more Juvenescence. In less than two weeks,…
I appreciate that for most of us financial planning is like watching paint dry. And after all there’s plenty of time to start thinking about all that stuff. But is there? Have you ever sat down and given any thought to what happens if you live too long or die too soon? There’s a fair…
Many British investors are buying property – sorry, real estate – in America. Houses and apartments in the Land of the Free are generally extremely appealing and offer the potential for decent rental incomes and capital gains. But America is not for the low-budget buy-to-let investor. Today I’ll share four US Property hot spots where…
If what you were ‘taught’ about the Great Depression is anything like my school time experience, it will go something like this: There was a Great Crash in 1929, which ushered in hard times, notably in the US. Someone called Franklin Delano Roosevelt then rode in to the rescue, and set up a bewildering array…
As Hallowe’en approaches, Americans are tricking and treating. But what is the US stock market doing? The smiling economists of 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue At its AGM in Washington last week the IMF reported that the global economy was humming along nicely with every region of the global economy set to record GDP rises for the…
