News

Market Update 17th July 2023

News: 17 July 2023

Beyoncé has crept into economists’ interest more recently for reasons beyond her musical talents. Sweden’s recent high inflation spike was linked to (blamed on) Beyoncé’s tour appearances and the rise in hotel and restaurant prices around that time.

Market Update 3rd July 2023

News: 03 July 2023

If parts of the equity markets finished the quarter in good fettle, the opposite is true of the bond markets. The vigour with which many Central Bankers say they will attack inflation is spooking investors.

Market Update 26th June 2023

News: 26 June 2023

So let me come to the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve. Readers will know that I am not a great fan of the incumbents; the words ‘asylum’ and ‘lunatics’ spring readily to mind.

Market Update 5th June 2023

News: 05 June 2023

Which is the egg and which the chicken? Were we all tight-fisted fusspots all along, or did the supermarkets make us this by fighting over each other to give us an ever-wider range of ever-cheaper stuff that we don’t actually need?

Market Update 30th May 2023

News: 30 May 2023

Last week’s inflation update here in the UK was miserable. Confounding hopes of a sharp drop in the annual rate, the ONS’ latest calculation showed prices rising by an annual 8.7%. More alarmingly, the so-called ‘core’ inflation rate rose sharply to 6.8%.

Market Update 22nd May 2023

News: 22 May 2023

It would be very easy to be very harsh on the water companies. References to prioritising dividends and executive pay over customers come easily. But before we all jump on the privatisation-is-wrong bandwagon, we might also surmise that the state of our water infrastructure might have been even worse under public ownership.

Market Update 15th May 2023

News: 15 May 2023

The markets think it has overdone it and are expecting rate cuts by the year end. The main US equity indices look as if they are holding up pretty well at the moment. There are smoke and mirrors at work here, though.

ChatGPT - Rise of the machines?

News: 26 April 2023

Type ‘can you write me a fairytale that would take me around 5 minutes to read to my children’ into the search bar and within seconds it will write one for you. ‘Design me a meal plan for a vegetarian consuming 2000kcals per day, excluding broccoli’ – it will immediately produce a meal plan right there and then, with no broccoli in sight.

Market Update 24th April 2023

News: 24 April 2023

The structures of the gardens were planted not on the basis of what will happen in the next three months, or year, or even five years. They were planted with an understanding that they could only be properly appreciated by distant generations.

Market Update 17th April 2023

News: 17 April 2023

Anyway, it is arrant nonsense to suggest that a market which has risen 20% is a ‘bull market”, while one that has gained a mere 19.4% is not. It is what I might paraphrase to be gobbledy.