Not my words, but those of Mark Twain and perhaps nowhere is this more of a truism than in the financial world. Whenever there is a major inflection point, researchers and analysts can be found flicking through the history books to see if parallels can...
Welcome to the latest of our weekly bulletins. I was speaking to one of my relatives in Ireland over the weekend and he quipped that the UK authorities were fighting two battles - COVID19 and stupidity. As it turns out, queues forming at seaside fish...
We have written to clients twice in as many weeks, given the heightened volatility within financial markets. In view of the anxiety events of this nature can create, and the positive feedback we have had from our readers, we will be producing this update on...
Welcome to our market and 2020 budget update. In some ways, given the recent turbulence in financial markets, the Budget was not really afforded the type of eager anticipation we might have expected, other than the fact that it was Rishi Sunak’s first, and commentators were...
Anyone tuning into the television or radio news cannot fail to have noticed the fixation with Coronavirus and this is unsurprising given the tragedy in terms of human life. First and foremost, we are very mindful of the humanitarian suffering and ultimately those who have...
Whilst the term ‘landslide’ in election terms is probably open to interpretation, as results go, last night’s was about as close as it gets ! The size of the Conservative majority is the largest for well over 30 years and this should now smooth the...
Given events in the House of Commons on Tuesday night, the Chancellor’s spending review on Wednesday was always likely to have the feel of ‘after the Lord Mayor’s show’ about it. MPs certainly thought so as members began filing out of the chamber as Sajid Javid took to...
“Using his calculator with a blindfold on” – Laura Kuenssberg – BBC Politics Live 13th March 2019 The change to the Chancellors statements mean that the Spring Statement becomes little more than a legal responsibility to present the OBR forecasts, but this one in particular seems...
We titled our last market commentary “Why volatility might be the new normal” and so the suggestion proved prescient. We discussed the fact that the first half of 2018 was volatile, but at the half way point, markets were showing a slightly positive return. The...
As the title suggests, how one views yesterday’s Budget statement, the last before the UK leaves the EU, largely depends upon your political perspective. At first sight, the statement revealed some attention-grabbing giveaways, but Labour were very quick to repudiate this, suggesting the age of...