Economics & Markets

Mellon on the Markets

Mellon on the Markets

5 mins. to read

Juvenescence, Bill Gates and the markets It’s been a month since the Master Investor Show, and it’s been a busy one. Markets have basically gone nowhere, except for the post-Macron relief rally which, if you ask me, will soon peter out. I’ve been busy getting the Juvenescence book done, and I think I am now…

Is there any upside in oil?

Is there any upside in oil?

5 mins. to read

Far from memory is the time when Saudi Arabia and OPEC were in control of global oil prices, as are oil prices above $100. A nascent fracking industry in the US, deteriorating social conditions in some oil producing countries and a desire in Saudi Arabia to retain market acted like an explosive mix that changed…

Fair Blows the Wind for France (Or maybe not…)

Fair Blows the Wind for France (Or maybe not…)

12 mins. to read

France goes to the polls this Sunday for the first round of a presidential election of existential importance – both for France and for the European Union as a whole. If La Belle France has a bout of flatulence (the triumph of the far left and the far right candidates) there’s going to be an…

How to make sense of bond madness

How to make sense of bond madness

6 mins. to read

After some initial enthusiasm, investors are now having second thoughts about the reflation trade and once again pouring more money into bonds, as inflation is expected to remain low for longer than first appeared. But, when yields on a 70-year sovereign are at 1.65%, something must be seriously wrong and it can all only end in tears. Financial markets…

Where will Sterling go from here? Here’s a prediction…

Where will Sterling go from here? Here’s a prediction…

8 mins. to read

At the Master Investor Show in London on 25 March, which many of my readers will have attended, one question came up again and again to the various luminaries gathered to dispense their insights and knowledge. Where do you foresee Sterling going? Overall, most of the assembled experts, including my friend Evil Knievel, were Sterling…

Stay young, get rich – why longevity science is the next money fountain

Stay young, get rich – why longevity science is the next money fountain

3 mins. to read

At the latest Master Investor Show, Jim Mellon, one of the UK’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs, revealed his current passion and new investment focus: longevity science. Jim truly believes that longevity is the next “money fountain” and that in 30 years’ time, life expectancy will easily reach 110 years due to cutting edge technologies…

Revealed: What history teaches us about Brexit

Revealed: What history teaches us about Brexit

10 mins. to read

The constitutional historian Professor David Starkey has compared the invocation of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty on 29 March with King Henry VIII’s break with Rome in the 1530s[i]. As Professor Starkey describes in his numerous books, that event had momentous historical consequences for Britain. Politics in those days moved more slowly – and were…

The slow death of the Anglo-Saxon stockbroker

The slow death of the Anglo-Saxon stockbroker

1 mins. to read

Back in 1998, the author Michael Lewis, then a columnist for Bloomberg, wrote as follows: “When historians of everyday life look back on 20th-century American capitalism they will be astonished by the role played by our stockbrokers. Certainly, it will be hard for them to explain to their readers the willingness of a prosperous American…