News / Views

Investment Notes

Follow our regular updates to stay up-to-date with current financial planning and investment issues. We regularly publish press clippings, articles and thinkpieces that we think might be of interest to our clients.

The German dilemma

Published on
3 September 2013

Since the drama of the Italian election in the spring, European politics have been remarkably quiet. This has been by design – the countries who would like Germany to provide money or ease policy to support their beleaguered economies have understood that it is very important not to scare the German voters ahead of their general election on September 22.

UK Recovery – Green Shoots; but Weak Roots?

Published on
22 August 2013
On May 30 we published “UK Economy – Green Shoots” anticipating the improvement in the economy that has become clearer to see in the last few months. Data for the second quarter showed growth of 0.6%, a very healthy pace, house prices all over the country have begun to pick up, and shorter term sentiment indicators are showing a clear improvement in confidence across all sectors of the economy. This note examines the sustainability of the recovery.

The Global Monetary Policy Kaleidoscope

Published on
25 July 2013

In 2009, in the face of a global economic crisis, the major economies of the world came together and acted in concert to ease monetary policy aggressively. Together with fiscal stimulus in the US and China, these policies helped to prevent the world from slipping into depression.

Fed up – down with QE?

Published on
5 July 2013

Ben Bernanke’s discussion of the Fed’s policy intentions in the press conference following the Federal Reserve meeting on June 19 was a shock to markets, with all asset classes around the world falling sharply in response.

UK economy – green shoots

Published on
30 May 2013

Over the last ten quarters to March 2013, the UK economy has produced essentially zero growth due to a combination of (i) the UK government’s austerity plans encompassing both spending cuts and tax increases, (ii) severe economic weakness in the Eurozone, the UK’s largest trading partner, (iii) weakness in North Sea oil production due to essential maintenance work, (iv) a large bank

Cyprus – who next?

Published on
3 April 2013
The starkest lesson that should be taken from the Cyprus crisis from all in the eurozone is that no bank deposit is guaranteed. It is always ultimately a loan from the depositor to the bank with the possibility that your government may mitigate any loss. Depositors with more than €100,000 in local Greek, Portugese, Spanish and Italian banks should now be giving serious consideration to moving their money to stronger banks in safer countries, as also might those with less than €100,000.

Eur-out

Published on
18 March 2013

For the last quarter of a century, Germany has been open to monetary union with the rest of Europe, provided that three conditions were satisfied.

Q to reduce bonds

Published on
26 February 2013

In the 1970s, the British comedian, Spike Milligan devised the Q series. This was a surreal comedy show, which when any particular sketch had come to an end without a suitable punchline, the actors would then wander around saying “What are we going to do now?” UK economic policy seems to have reached the “What are we going to do now?” stage.

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