Should you try and save money by constantly moving energy suppliers, mobile phone contracts and credit card companies? Should you make sure you make the most of every penny of your savings by moving from …
Saving systems for the lazy
Category: Blog
Port Talbot is a message to the Bank of England
In my piece on Port Talbot yesterday, I mentioned the whopping pension deficit as part of the problem. It seems to be a very big part of the problem: the current shortfall looks to be around …
It’s not just Scotland’s rich who will feel the pinch
I wrote yesterday about the trouble with different tax rates in different parts of one country. In it, I focused on Scotland’s high earners. But an interesting piece from Alf Young in The Times today …
A hole in the plans of Scotland’s ‘tax the rich’ brigade
I went on a Scottish TV programme last night to talk about the various attempts from the various parties to come up with an income tax plan that will differentiate them from each other. It …
A golden hello that says big companies aren’t hearing us
They aren’t listening. The weekend’s newspapers showed the tin ears of the UK’s big companies in all their glory. GlaxoSmithKline announced that it is to look for a new CEO and that if the recruit …
Sky-high executive pay is damaging capitalism
A few weeks ago I interviewed a FTSE 100 CEO. I wasn’t, if I’m honest, much taken with him. And when I asked him about his pay, I began to genuinely dislike him. He had …
Charity shops: a bad deal for charities, a worse deal for taxpayers
I’ve written several times about the problems with the way in which the taxpayer finances the charitable sector via the state (all in it costs us a minimum of £6.5bn a year in lost tax …
Beware: governments are keeping ever closer watch on what you do with your money
I wonder how you feel about financial privacy? Or how much of it you think you have? The answer, should you be wondering too, is absolutely none at all. Over the last few years you …
London property developers are giving up on ‘high end’ conversions
We’ve written here several times about the slow car crash that is the new build luxury housing sector in London. See previous posts here and here – and for our most recent thoughts, listen to …
Sovereign wealth funds are ditching fund managers in their droves
Bad news for the world’s big fund managers: they are being abandoned by sovereign wealth funds. In each of the five years to 2015 these state run funds (largely owned by oil producing companies) shovelled …