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…
So people are going to live longer. And old age will not necessarily mean infirmity. The demographics are already changing rapidly: by 2045 over 65s will make up one quarter of the population in the UK – that will be nearly 19 million citizens. This trend is even more pronounced in Japan and Germany. Companies…
The Brexit talks will run into the sand soon. That may be a problem for Britain. But, for Europe, Brexit is only one of many problems. Dangerous October Beware: all the major stock market crashes of the last century have occurred in October. The 1929 crash occurred on Tuesday, the 29th. The 1987 crash was…
What to write about this month? Victor Hill has already – and brilliantly – covered Catalonia, and I have banged on about Longevity long enough (pun intended). But the latest book (Juvenescence) is now out – at last – and the launch party for journos, collaborators as well as friends and family, at the Oxford…
What happens in Catalonia this Sunday could, even more than Brexit, cause massive headaches in Brussels… 2014 reimagined… Imagine, if you would, an alternative history of the events in the UK in 2014. The Scottish Parliament votes to hold a referendum on Scotland’s independence from the UK. The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, condemns such…
Over the past decade, the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending sector has gone from strength to strength. A number of government measures have shown just how much they are behind the idea – not least with the introduction of the Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) from April 2016, for the first time allowing tax exemption on interest and…
In recent decades, governments and central banks have come under fierce criticism for the way they manage our most important commodity – money. Money is supposed to be a simple and neutral way of facilitating the financial interactions necessary in all our lives; but it has become somewhat of a burden, and has often been…
This missive is being written on the Edinburgh to London train, as I return from a full week at the Edinburgh Festival. My friends Alan and Fran Steel of Alan Steel Asset Management, Scotland’s most successful IFA (Independent Financial Adviser), asked me to speak to a selection of their clients during my visit, which I…
One of the most intriguing investment books I have ever read is Forty centuries of wage and price controls: how not to fight inflation. You can download a free PDF copy of this highly recommended book here. Forty centuries is a history of market rigging. As its title suggests, governments try their hand at this…
Is the Trump Bump over? President Trump’s Washington is paralysed. It has proven impossible to repeal Obamacare and to replace it with something more amenable to America’s skilled working class who resented paying more for medical insurance. These were the people who propelled Donald Trump to power. Top personnel are being hired and fired with…
