Close Brothers: How the motor finance scandal reshaped one of ‘Europe’s least cost-efficient lenders’
Protect your portfolio: How to fight back against hedge fund aggression in UK investment trusts Opinion Former Pensions Minister Ros Altmann warns retail investors, wealth managers, and regulators that the aggressive, short-term interests of the US hedge fund Saba Capital, which is attempting hostile takeovers like the one targeting Edinburgh Worldwide (EWIT), threaten the long-term, patient-capital model of the UK investment trust sector A year ago, an aggressive US hedge fund [...]
DEBATE: Should the Bank of England cut interest rates this week? DEBATE: Should the Bank of England cut interest rates this week? Should the Bank of England cut interest rates this week? Simon Ward, economic adviser at Janus Henderson Investors, says YES. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) keeps making mistakes because it ignores monetary trends. It hiked rates in August 2018 even though 12-month broad money growth (as measured by non-financial M4) had slumped from 6.5 per [...]
Should the state pension age increase from 68 to 75 by 2035? Should the state pension age increase from 68 to 75 by 2035, as proposed by the Centre for Social Justice? Yes – Patrick Spencer is head of the work and welfare unit at the CSJ. The happy reality is that we are healthier and living longer. In 2017, the proportion of the UK population aged 65 [...]
With over £9.2bn cashed in since April 2015, have pension freedoms been an unequivocal success? January 26, 2017 Ros Altmann, the former minister of state for pensions, says Yes. Pension freedoms could be the most popular pension reform ever. Suddenly, instead of having to lock into inflexible, potentially unsuitable insurance company annuities, you can choose how and when to use your fund. The average amount withdrawn was just around £5,000. If that’s all [...]
As a new report finds household debt reaching £1.5 trillion, is this a disaster waiting to happen? November 7, 2016 Baroness Altmann, former minister of state for pensions, says Yes. This news makes for disturbing reading. Casting our minds back a few years to the events leading up to the 2008 crash invokes an apprehensive sense of deja vu. Was it not excessive borrowing that led to the crisis we are still struggling to overcome? [...]
As the Bank of England holds interest rates, is ultra-loose monetary policy a danger to financial stability? September 15, 2016 Baroness Altmann, a former pensions minister, says Yes. The Bank’s monetary policy is not only a potentially serious danger to financial stability, it also has damaging side effects that call into question the extent of easing it actually represents. The fallout from years of pushing both short and long rates lower is that capital markets and [...]
