What’s the state of the nation?
So the Autumn Statement is behind us. Taxes are up and so we now face the highest tax burden since WW2 as well as ‘enjoying’ the biggest public spending since the 1970s.The ‘Office for Budget Responsibility’, a relatively recently created quango and chaired by Richard Hughes, (Ed Miliband’s former policy adviser who was a...
Good news for client accounts
Well as expected, the Bank of England increased rates by the ‘biggest amount in 27 years’. It’s a tad disingenuous to say that 0.5% is ‘that’ but there we have it. And now headline inflation hits 10.1%, so I suppose in traditional economic terms the BOE will increase rates again (whether it is the...
Natural income, expensive homes and farewell Neighbours
Well it’s been better news on the markets these last few weeks, following the dismal conditions up till then. There is some dreadfully attractive value out there though. However, for the UK and underpinning our mantra regarding ‘natural sustainable income’ from your investments, dividends are holding-up really well.There were some large one-off payments last year, but...
It’s not all doom and gloom
The candidates are being whittled-down. Different promises are being made and it is clear they can do ‘something’ on short-term economics too. They don’t seem to realise however that doling out cash benefits doesn’t cut the headline inflation rate as does cutting the taxes on the commodities we buy (which then cuts future inflationary...