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 …
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 …
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 …
*Please note that since this article was written the Higher Tax Rate cut has been cancelled and so is no longer relevant. Reactions to the speech where it was mentioned have been included. Introduction So what was it? A ‘fiscal event’? A Mini Budget? Or a full-blown Budget from a new Chancellor determined to take …
Introduction Speaking to journalists at a lobby briefing in 1964 – when the sterling crisis was raging – Prime Minister Harold Wilson famously said “a week is a long time in politics”. What, then, is a month? Especially a month like September 2022 when enough happened to fill a year’s worth of Bulletins. In the …
You don’t need us to tell you that investors have had a lot to deal with in the last few years. From a once-in-a-century pandemic to the Ukraine war, along with political upheaval in the US and the UK and soaring inflation across the globe, it’s been a tough period, to say the least. In …
Introduction August started with US Speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting Taiwan. We comment on China’s reaction below – and we also describe the environmental and economic challenges facing the country. With domestic crises brewing at home, some commentators have noted the convenience of an external crisis for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). “The position of the …
As the inflation crisis in the UK has deepened, the Bank of England has been forced to act decisively by hiking interest rates. In December 2021, interest rates stood at 0.1 per cent, but they’ve since been raised five times and now stand at 1.25 per cent. So the question on everyone’s lips right now …
Introduction As many readers know, this Bulletin is written from notes we compile throughout the month. One of the most interesting aspects of this is the occasional feeling of ‘was that really this month’ as we start to write the Bulletin. So it was this month. The race to replace Boris Johnson seems to have …
Introduction June was the month in which the war Vladimir Putin thought would last 100 hours passed its hundredth day – with all the attendant problems for food supply and the global economy. In the UK, Boris Johnson won his confidence vote by 211 votes to 148 – but the dark mutterings continued as the …
