How do you choose an financial adviser or for that matter, an accountant? I wrote in the Spectator last week about the various exams that advisers have to take these days. These are good, in …
How to choose a financial adviser
Category: Blog
Why we aren’t building enough houses to meet demand
We aren’t building enough houses, on that everyone seems to agree. Two quick points to make on that. First, London is different. There, we seem to be in process of building more than enough. I’ve …
The 1960s stereotype the fund management industry just won’t drop
Stereotypes die hard. Back in 1963 the son of the prime minister, Maurice MacMillan, gave a talk at the House of Commons in his capacity as chairman of the Wider Share Ownership Council. He noted …
Deep value emerges in Japan
Regular readers will know that we have been fans of Japanese equities for some time now. Last year, was fantastic for those who followed us in. This year hasn’t been so good – the Nikkei …
Don’t fall for the latest pensions rip-off
When the new pension rules were announced in George Osborne’s Budget, we were, like everyone else, pretty impressed. However, we also noted that this would give the financial industry the perfect opportunity to show us, …
HMRC’s plan to raid your bank account – yet more financial repression
I got a letter from a reader a few weeks ago. He was grumpy about some of our marketing. I can see that. But I also thought he was wrong about the bits that he …
Would an independent Scotland see capital flee south?
We wrote a few weeks ago about the possibility of capital flight from Scotland in the event of its resident population voting to separate from the UK. (Read our articles on the Scottish independence referendum …
Labour’s rent control plans are pointless
Ed Miliband’s proposals on rent controls sound pretty innocuous. Read them through and you might not find yourself much bothered. The idea is not to completely control rents (as with primary rent controls), but to …
Should the Bank of England step in to cool the housing market?
I’ve written here before about the ways in which the Bank of England could control the housing fledging recovery/boom/bubble (in the north, the south and London respectively) if it felt like it here and here. The …
Russia: good things happen to cheap stocks
There hasn’t been much to be gained in the last year or so from suggesting that anyone invest in Russia. Not only has it not worked out yet (the investment trust I suggested last year …