Category: News

Introduction It is hard to start this commentary anywhere other than North Korea – or maybe crouching in Japan as a North Korean missile passes overhead. At the beginning of the month, Kim Jong-un threatened to bomb Guam, the US territory in the Western Pacific, and by the end of the month air raid sirens

Whether you’re nearing the start of your retirement or you’ve still got a few years of work ahead of you, it’s likely that you’ve already started planning this next significant phase in your life. But no matter how much you read, how many numbers you crunch and how many pounds you put away, you might

July got off to the best possible start when Janet Yellen, Chair of the US Federal Reserve, announced that there would be no more financial crises “in our lifetime.” Speaking on a trip to London, she said that the reforms of the banking system since the 2007 to 2009 crash had “minimised the risk of

Once upon a time, commercial air travel was one of the ultimate luxuries reserved for the rich, famous and powerful, primarily because of the expense involved in doing so. The world where that was true now feels like one from a very long time ago, with ever-advancing technology making flying cheaper and easier and the

The deputy governor of the Bank of England has stated that the bank should not be tempted to increase interest rates due to “imponderables” within the UK economy. The comments from Ben Broadbent, an ally of the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, and a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), were

June was a fairly quiet month. Well, apart from the chaotic General Election in the UK. Oh – and the decisive win for Emmanuel Macron in the French parliamentary elections. And the start of the Brexit negotiations. And Italy was forced to bail out two more banks. President Trump pulled out of the Paris climate

Introduction This report was written over the weekend of 10th/11th June and revised early on Monday 12th June. As you will appreciate, events are moving very quickly – and continue to do so. For example, on Saturday morning there was pressure to remove Theresa May’s advisers, Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill: by lunchtime, they were gone.

As we wrote last year, ‘It is tempting to think that Brexit is the only game in town.’ Cross out ‘Brexit’ and replace it with ‘General Election’ and the sentiment holds good. But the rest of the world keeps turning – or in May, grinding to a halt as the WannaCry ransomware attack hit more

Whilst the impact of Brexit is yet to be known, one thing that may become trickier is relocating to the continent after Britain leaves the EU. It’s a change that will affect those at the end of their working life as well as those near the start, as in the past many have chosen to

How a hung Parliament affects your portfolio As dawn breaks, the morning light reveals yet another political gamble that has not paid off for the dice roller.  The UK has a hung Parliament, with no party holding an absolute majority.  Such is the unpredictability of a parliamentary democracy.  If you ask the people of the