Bailey’s wage dilemma is real, but the Bank has dragged its feet on inflation February 10, 2022 It is often argued the signal central banks’ bond buying programmes send to markets is more effective at shaping financial conditions than the purchases themselves. It is all about influencing expectations by sending the message that monetary policy will stay loose. Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey’s message to workers to temper pay [...]
Inflation crunch to intensify as wave of firms hike prices to survive cost assault February 10, 2022 A cost assault is forcing businesses to hike prices to protect margins in a sign the UK cost of living crisis is set to get worse before it gets better, reveals a new study published today. Around three in four firms are raising prices to weather soaring energy and staffing costs in what is being [...]
Go for growth to avoid economic stagnation, experts urge February 10, 2022 Going for growth by avoiding repeatedly hiking taxes to fund an ever-expanding British state is crucial to boosting the country’s economy, experts urged today. Policymakers must escape the trap of choking economic growth by financing further government spending by repeatedly hiking taxes. John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, told City A.M.: “Ministers must [...]
Persistent labour crunch intensifies pay pressures in sign of sticky inflation February 10, 2022 A shallower pool of available workers and growing calls among staff for employers to lift pay to offset the cost of living crunch is stoking wage tension in the jobs market, reveals fresh figures released today. Intensifying pay pressures in the jobs markets adds to the growing body of evidence indicating historically high inflation could [...]
ONS: Number of UK ‘high growth’ firms has fallen by 15 per cent since 2014 February 9, 2022 The number of UK firms considered to be “high growth” job creators has plummeted by 15 per cent between 2014 and 2020, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The figures, compiled by Labour, showed that 14,190 firms were considered to be high growth at the end of 2014 and that this [...]
MPs: Pubs need tax overhaul to thrive in post-pandemic recovery February 9, 2022 A cross-party report has urged the government to overhaul the tax system in order to help the pub industry recover from its pandemic woes. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Pubs (Pubs APPG) heard from more than 15,000 publicans, consumers and sector bodies. The group examined the impact of the Covid pandemic on pubs and what [...]
Investing’s first principles and why the discounted cash flow model remains an absolute necessity February 9, 2022 I couldn’t sleep. I knew something was wrong. The numbers just didn’t make sense. For years, pipeline energy analysts seemed to be adjusting their valuation models for pipeline master limited partnership (MLP) stocks in order to explain what was happening to the price. But why? Why adjust the models for one set of companies and [...]
UK’s post-Covid small business support programme sees slow take-up February 9, 2022 Rishi Sunak’s post-Covid scheme to boost productivity among small British businesses has seen it reach just a tenth of its target in its first six months. The Help to Grow scheme, launched in August last year, is intended to support 30,000 small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) by offering business training in areas like marketing [...]
Hunting for “10 baggers” – how the UK beat the US February 9, 2022 The ups and downs of US technology stocks dominate headlines. Before this year’s tech correction it would have been hard to miss the news, for instance, that Apple’s market capitalisation had exceeded $3 trillion. That was not too far short of the entire value of the UK stock market. What is less well known, however, [...]
State intervention can boost our economy but only the private sector can rebalance it February 9, 2022 The government’s long awaited levelling up white paper was met with a lukewarm reception last week. One of the main complaints was that there was not enough – or in fact any – new money for the regions. Many localities have become stuck with low levels of productivity and, as a consequence, low levels of [...]