The vagaries of lending money to governments September 7, 2011 CONCERNS about the prospects for global growth haunt the managers of the nation’s wealth. Bonds have broadly provided better returns than equities, but investors should be mindful of the sting in the tail that could come with hyperinflation. A FLIGHT TO SAFETY The West is currently a tale of two bond markets. Phil Tyson of [...]
INVESTING IN THESE TIMES OF INFLATION September 7, 2011 INFLATION can seriously erode the value of your wealth, so investing wisely is imperative. While the current outlook sees interest rates on hold for longer, inflation continues to surprise on the upside. UK GDP grew a measly 0.2 per cent over the last quarter and data released yesterday showed industrial production contracted in July after [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS September 7, 2011 NEW MOBILE APP FOR INVESTORS Hargreaves Lansdown has released a new smartphone app, allowing investors to view their Isa, Sipp and other investments on both iPhone and Android systems. Ofcom figures show that 27 per cent of UK adults now own a smartphone.“The age of connected computing is with us,” says Richard Hunter, head of [...]
Institutions won’t cut off Swissie September 7, 2011 ON Tuesday, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) made an announcement that it would put in place a floor on the Euro-Swiss franc exchange rate, with the SNB indicating that it was prepared to buy foreign currencies in “unlimited quantities”. So how does this move affect institutional investors and currency hedging policy? There were reports following [...]
Loewe raises the bar for 3D television September 7, 2011 IT’S probably fair to say that 3D is a technology that’s still finding its feet. Hollywood is finding that its efforts to release more and more of its biggest films in 3D are no longer being received so enthusiastically by audiences, though it would help if it didn’t insist on using the technology in such [...]
The tiny part that’s big news for Patek September 7, 2011 BEARING in mind that mechanical watches have followed the same engineering principles for centuries, horology may not seem like an area for frontline, this-is-the-future engineering. Wrong. Take, for instance, the Advanced Research Unit at Patek Philippe, which is doing very remarkable things indeed with very tiny components, using materials more commonly associated with cutting-edge medical [...]
Keep football safe from the stats bores September 7, 2011 FOOTBALL magazine FourFourTwo has launched Stats Zone, which will “change the way you watch football”. For the worst, if you ask me. I can’t stand the kind of “name tag and goody bag” corporate football fan who spends all game staring at his iPhone working out pass rates and possession percentages. If you think football [...]
The Man Booker Prize SHortlist September 7, 2011 THE SENSE OF AN ENDING, JULIAN BARNES (JONATHAN CAPE) The only novella on the list: but just because it’s small doesn’t mean it isn’t powerful. This is City AM’s pick of the bunch: British icon Barnes has dished up a book so terse in ideas, heavy in impressions and unrelenting in theme that you’ll be [...]
Oh my, Darling: the former chancellor aims for Brown September 7, 2011 BACK FROM THE BRINK BY ALISTAIR DARLING Atlantic, £19.99 by Marc Sidwell It’s not the economy, stupid. The reason to read Alistair Darling’s account of his time as chancellor of the exchequer is to see exactly how far in he chooses to stick the knife. Happily, his autopsy of the Gordon Brown years at times [...]
Eurozone needs to cut out the rot before it’s too late September 7, 2011 WHEREVER one looks, the signals are bad. The S&P 500 is down 14.5 per cent from its highest point of the year. The Vix, a measure of market turbulence, rose 9.4 per cent yesterday. Bank stocks tumbled everywhere. The Swiss franc went nuts when the authorities took the dramatic step to peg it to the [...]
