I hesitate to call Heseltine an idiot but he is certainly deceitful. He keeps going on about Brexit being a disaster when he must know that many Brexiteers so voted simply to allow us to govern ourselves – Britain has developed our preferred democratic system over this last 1000 years. It might have been different…
For buy-to-let landlords, void periods – those gaps in between tenancies where you receive no rental income from your property – can be both inevitable, and a recurring problem. Research by Direct Line last year revealed that the average loss to a landlord due to void time is just under £550 every 18 months. Over…
There are mixed views about the peer-to-peer finance sector – where those with spare cash can make direct loans to those who want to borrow − with some investors believing that it is a bubble waiting to burst, while others see it as a viable alternative to the banks and an attractive source of returns.…
The most important problem facing the UK government in 2018 is that wage growth has stalled. Mrs May needs to give ordinary people hope of a wage rise in the New Year. The Productivity conundrum revisited Productivity is the output recorded per hour worked by the workforce. Successful manufacturing nations like Germany boast high levels…
As a UK investor I am mostly interested in UK stocks. However, Master Investor’s focus last month on the US prompted me to look across the pond. Specifically, I wanted to see how some of the biggest and safest dividend payers in the US stacked up as long-term dividend investments. To be honest, I wasn’t…
Easy money: Caribbean Investment (LON:CIHL) reported some stellar results this morning. They are not a fluke and can be taken as representative. EPS for the six months to 30th September 2017 is c. 6.8p. This can be doubled to go to the full year and means that at 20p to buy CIHL is on a…
Brexit has had a dramatic impact on the returns from the UK stock market with many companies that derive the majority of their earnings from the domestic economy struggling to make any headway, whereas those whose business is mainly abroad have surged ahead. In order to measure and monitor this effect the index provider, Bats,…
It’s that time of the year again: when the pundits look back and either tell you “I told you so”, or “mea culpa”, or some variant in between. I don’t really like looking back – except where the past holds some lessons for the future – but it sure has been an “interesting” year. Bond…
The UK housebuilding sector has enjoyed a stunning run since the financial crisis. Companies such as Persimmon (LON:PSN) and Taylor Wimpey (LON:TW) have made gains of 227% and 207% in the last five years respectively, for example. In future, additional gains could be ahead for both companies. Their low valuations, earnings growth potential and improved…
A massive reform of the US tax code is underway. Britain could learn lessons from our American friends. Mr Trump’s corporate tax cut clears the Senate In the wee hours of Saturday 2nd December the US Senate passed a bill to cut corporate income taxes (taxes on company profits – what the British call corporation…
