Interest rate hikes are a hard lesson for investors who relied on central banks bailouts June 20, 2022 In May last year, I wrote in this newspaper about the risks of moral hazard and the pandemic, with a generation of investors who had developed a skewed sense of risk. After the unprecedented level of central bank intervention, many believed policymakers would always ride to their rescue, providing portfolio safety nets with cheap money [...]
Indignant brokers fiercely dismiss Martin Lewis’ notion many mortgages are ‘a ticking time bomb’ June 19, 2022 The well-known personal finance guru Martin Lewis recently warned that mortgages are a “ticking time bomb” for homeowners, as he said Brits should lock in cheap mortgage rates soon before monthly payments become unaffordable. Lewis’ comments come as the cost of living for most Brits is climbing fast, with energy bills going up by an [...]
Money Spotlight: The reasons your real pay is dropping like never before June 19, 2022 Britons saw their basic pay fall at the fastest pace on record in April due to soaring prices. More pain is in store for UK households as inflation is set to hit further eye-watering peaks later this year. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said yesterday that regular wages excluding bonuses plunged by 4.5 per [...]
US Federal Reserve official warns investors to brace for more steep rate rises June 19, 2022 The US Federal Reserve will push through more steep rate hikes if inflation shows little sign of letting up, a top stateside central banker said over the weekend. Fed governor Christopher Waller said at a Society for Computational Economics conference in Dallas that “if the data comes in as I expect, I will support a [...]
Asda chair calls for business tax relief amid historic inflation levels June 19, 2022 Retail grandee Stuart Rose has said the government was too slow to move on the cost of living crisis and historic levels of inflation. The Asda chair and former Marks & Spencer boss has urged ministers to help struggling households amid the “tough times.” Speaking on Aquis Exchange’s Full & Frank podcast, Rose said Asda [...]
Central banks face tough journey to ‘Goldilocks’ policy setting June 19, 2022 Goldilocks found the perfect bowl of porridge through trial and error. The US Federal Reserve, Bank of England and the rest of the central banking elite are following a similar rationale right now. They are grasping for that “just-right” policy setting which allows an economy to reach its full potential without knowing what that setting [...]
Gordon Brown predicts government will ditch tax rises June 19, 2022 Gordon Brown has predicted Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak will ditch a series of planned tax rises in the face of the UK’s poor economic outlook. The former PM also hit out at the government for having “no plan” and lurching from “crisis to crisis”. The Bank of England this week moved to raise interest [...]
Week ahead: City braces for further inflation surge June 19, 2022 Investors are bracing for fresh data this week to point to a further surge in UK inflation, sending the rate of price rises beyond an already 40-year high. London’s FTSE 100 last week was caught up in one of the most volatile weeks for global stock markets since the early days of the pandemic. It [...]
Concerns over Boots auction as buyers struggle to raise finance June 19, 2022 There has been speculation that the sale of Boots may collapse as potential buyers face difficulty with lenders as consumer confidence dwindles. It comes as New York-based private equity firm Apollo and Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries have reportedly proposed an offer of between £5bn and £6bn. The Sunday Times reported that the joint bid was [...]
Big crypto crash: Bitcoin tanks below $20,000 for first time since 2020 June 18, 2022 The world’s largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin has tanked below the all-important $20,000 threshold for the first time since 2020, sending shockwaves across crypto world. The great fall comes alongside rising interest rates, as well as central banks’ desperate attempts to curb the swelling 40-year high inflation rates. Bitcoin is down more than 50 per cent since [...]