News: 31 July 2023
Then we have Mr Sunak’s assertion that in 2050, having achieved net zero, “a quarter of our domestic energy needs will still come from oil and gas.” It is not clear what he means by “domestic”.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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%.
News: 23 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.
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.
News: 09 May 2023
Last week’s central bank announcements went largely as expected, with some more incremental increases from the BoE, ECB and Federal Reserve. The main market mover this week will be the US inflation data tomorrow. The market is pricing in around 5% as the rate of annual increase. That is a 0.3-0.4% increase to the core month-on-month rate.
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