Last month brought us the Communist Party Congress in China. It is held every five years and confirms the leader of the world’s most populous country and second-largest economy. It was previously the rule that a Chinese leader could only serve two five-year terms. However, that rule was recently scrapped, and the Congress confirmed Xi […]
Introduction War? Soaring energy and food prices? Covid surging in China and people taking to the streets in protest? Worries about a prolonged recession here in the UK? In November, there was plenty for world stock markets to worry about – but, as we will see below, the markets largely shrugged aside the concerns, with […]
Introduction “A week is a long time in politics,” as Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson famously said. What, then, is two months? Or to be more exact, 55 days? On 6th September, Liz Truss, having defeated Rishi Sunak in the ballot of Conservative members, became Prime Minister. She duly appointed Kwasi Kwarteng – a man […]
The Bank of England’s aim is for the country to have low and stable inflation – and it works to a target of two per cent. Changing interest rates are the Bank of England’s mechanism for achieving its inflation target, and in the current climate of high inflation, it believes raising rates is the right […]
If, like many people, you’ve had several jobs throughout your working life, you’ll have picked up multiple workplace pensions. But these can be hard to keep track of, both in terms of how much you’re paying for them and how well they’re doing, so you might be thinking of consolidating your pensions into just one […]
The pandemic failed to halt the surge in house prices, and so far, soaring inflation hasn’t done so either. In fact, figures from Rightmove indicate there was a 0.9 per cent increase in average property values in October 2022, taking prices up to a record £371,158. But nevertheless, there are genuine fears among some that […]
Introduction Where did we leave the soap opera that is British politics? At the end of September, Liz Truss was the Prime Minister, and Kwasi Kwarteng was her Chancellor. As we reported last month, Kwarteng presented his ‘fiscal statement’ on Friday 23rd September. Three weeks later, he was gone and Liz Truss had to endure the […]
You can’t have failed to notice the fallout of the recent Mini Budget, a £45 billion tax cutting package, paid for by increased public borrowing. Since the Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng delivered his statement, we’ve seen the pound crashing to its lowest level against the dollar in 37 years, the Bank of England buying £65 billion […]
Many of our older clients will remember Access and Barclaycard, the first credit cards in the UK. Access was launched by Lloyds, NatWest and Midland Bank (now HSBC) in October 1972. It was marketed as ‘your flexible friend’ – and had another advertising slogan as well: Access ‘takes the waiting out of wanting.’ Credit, tick, […]
As the writer Mark Twain supposedly said, “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” Could 2022 be the year that cash says the same thing? Many clients reading this will remember the traditional method of budgeting used by their parents or grandparents: a pot for gas, a pot for electricity, one for food, another for […]