Vietnam is strikingly attractive to investors

The most interesting article over the weekend was offered by Richard Buxton in the SunTel business section. He pointed out the lunacy of determining deficiencies in pension funds by assuming that the annuities that they face buying must have their cost determined by the current yield on gilts, a figure determined by the barmy QE programme.

I do not know what the best answer is but what strikes me as really significant is that if rationality were to return the effect would be truly dynamic. I bought more Molins (MLIN) this morning. Molins has got a deficit problem that would evaporate were the Buxton reforms initiated.

Inevitably, I wonder what the BHS pension fund deficit would be were it more rationally computed. Would Phil get an apology from the House of Commons? (Hint: I doubt it – Field’s lot are a pretty ungracious bunch of parvenus.)

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The chairman has forwarded to me an article by a Brexiteer in full cry, Tim Price of PFP Wealth Management. However, his purpose is not just to highlight the lunacy that is the EU but to point out the macro economic figures relating to Vietnam. They are strikingly attractive to investors. Of course Tim is promoting his own firm’s Vietnam offering but the statistics apply to all Vietnam-based investments. Time to dig around.

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Finally, Charlie Brooks in the DTel thinks that the bookmakers (or betting companies as, curiously, they are nowadays known) have got off very lightly. His piece is keen on describing bookmaker treatment by HMG as “scandalous”. This is an attempted substitute for considering what is really going on.