Back to school: We must teach AI to have a moral compass April 6, 2018 In the UK, it’s mandated that 13 of the first 18 years of a young person’s life are spent in some sort of education. We invest very heavily in teaching children what they need to know to be functioning and productive members of society: our doctors, our teachers, our data scientists of the future. Artificial [...]
Small respite for household finances won’t last long March 21, 2018 The fall in Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) in February took a few people by surprise given it had hovered around 3 per cent since November. While a drop had been expected, CPI had not been expected to fall by as much as 0.3 per cent which in economic terms is substantial. While CPI remains above [...]
Last Week in the City: Trump signs order for tariffs March 9, 2018 This week US President Donald Trump signed off on new tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, Trinity Mirror revealed plans to rebrand, and the European Central Bank took a further step towards ending stimulus measures. The FTSE 100 rose 1.9 per cent over the week by mid-session on Friday. Economics China will pursue annual growth [...]
Big fish: The seven largest types of institutional investors March 7, 2018 Say whatever you want about the world, but there’s never been a better time to be an end investor. Many things investment professionals fear — fee compression, automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain — benefit clients through higher account balances and lower fees. Asset owners are the largest of those clients. Though they are frequently [...]
Bank of England bosses say wage data is “key” for next interest rate rise but markets are now in line February 21, 2018 Markets have woken up to data showing rising inflationary pressures from wage growth and expectations of interest rate rises are now in line with what the Bank of England forecasts, according to governor Mark Carney. The Bank today reiterated its message from a fortnight ago that interest rates will have to rise sooner and faster [...]
Brexit lurks behind the Bank of England’s sudden hawkishness February 12, 2018 Has the Bank of England developed a bit of a personality disorder? Looking at the mixed signals given by the Bank in the last six months, you might be forgiven for thinking so. The Bank’s Governor Mark Carney has a habit of keeping the markets guessing – something City analysts suspect he enjoys – and [...]
Winter chill on house prices after second consecutive fall says Halifax February 7, 2018 House prices in the UK fell for the second successive month at the start of the year, pulling annual growth to its lowest level since June last year. The 0.6 per cent fall in house prices reported by Halifax came as a surprise to analysts, who had expected the index to edge up in January. [...]
It’s pensioners, not first-time buyers, who should get stamp duty relief January 18, 2018 Stamp duty is in the news again. Earlier this week, Labour’s shadow housing minister, John Healey, called on the government to extend the tax break introduced in the November Budget to first-time buyers who use the shared ownership scheme. Policies that are seen to help struggling first-time buyers always go down a treat from [...]
The first fall in inflation in six months is promising, but there’s a long way to go yet January 17, 2018 Has UK inflation peaked? That was the question everyone was tentatively asking on Tuesday. The truth is no-one knows, not yet anyway. Official figures at least show that Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) fell by 0.1 per cent in December to 3 per cent. That is clearly welcome but it doesn’t suggest we’re out of the [...]
Spot the symptoms, stay sane, and run from the bitcoin bubble December 13, 2017 At the time of writing, the price of bitcoin is almost $17,000. In April, it was $1,000, which means that if you had bought then, you would have made more than seventeen times your investment. Not bad. But, if you’d got in a little earlier, say in January 2016, you would have made over forty [...]