More elections…….at home Another week, and more elections to analyse. In the UK, the results were fairly predictable; Boris got re-elected, albeit by a slim margin, whilst elsewhere the Conservatives faired badly and the LibDems got wiped out. Which leaves them with a problem; despite their protests, they were always the “none of the above” [...]
Bank repayments…… News reaches me this evening, as I sit down to write this blog, that RBS has repaid the £163bn that it borrowed from various governments, and that Lloyds hopes to repay the £157bn that it owes to similar sources, by the end of the year. Blimey! Maybe it is only after the event [...]
Equity markets have enjoyed a strong start to the year, with the S&P 500 index registering its best first quarter for a decade. Improving economic data formed the backdrop for this, although it has to be said that sentiment at the back end of last year was universally gloomy. The abrupt change in mood was [...]
It has rained this week, and quite a lot. It matters not if you are a market gardener, or an economist, or anything in between. Raining on the Murdochs…… It has also rained, in a different sense, in other places. One can only presume that the Murdoch family have adopted a “scorched earth” policy, taking [...]
Worse than animals…….London Underground I went to London on Sunday evening, the train from was Crewe crammed, as it always is at the end of the weekend. One of the offspring had lent me an Oyster card, albeit that it had no credit, reminiscent of getting in to any car they have driven recently to [...]
It did not take long for the euro zone debt crisis to come to the fore, and so here we are again. This time, it is Spain, Portugal and Italy, the markets having written off Greece. Momentum is all, as “yields over” are driven to impossible levels. No reversion to normal cycle…… Or, maybe, they [...]
The circus is back in town….. Those of you who live in the Northern part of the UK, however defined, have had an interesting 10 days, weather wise. Maybe I should define this better; we are 200 miles north of London, and about the same south of the border with Scotland. Carlisle, (the crossing point), [...]
They’ll have what I’m having…. The comedy, Yes Minister, is going to be relaunched, shortly. You may recall that this was a sideswipe at mandarins, and Whitehall, but according to those in the know, it was pretty accurate. Likewise, they stopped producing Spitting Image because “real life” was more surreal than anything the scriptwriters could [...]
Good politics…… It has been Budget Week, the annual ritual of suspense and pre event lobbying, complete with comprehensive leaks, and positioning. Thus, negotiations across the airwaves saw the headline rate of tax reduced from 50% to 45%, in exchange for a 7% stamp duty on houses that cost more than £2 million pounds. It [...]
“Changes” to handling fees…… A very, very, long time ago, I signed up for a BMI credit card, administered by MBNA. Both have been through changes of ownership since, and in the case of the airline, the dispute is over the ownership of landing slots at Heathrow, which are inheritantly valuable. Anyway, I really cannot [...]
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