The financial markets have had plenty of wake-up calls in the past year or so. Yet markets adapt rapidly. We’re growing to accept things as normal which once would have seemed unthinkable.
The late Sir John Templeton always advised that you buy at the point of “maximum pessimism”. It sounds like great advice, but as Julian Marr points out in The Telegraph this morning, it’s actually not that helpful.
For most of the last decade the government has trumpeted its economic record. Growth was steady. Prices were stable. Employment was rising. But there was a big problem. At first, the government thought it had solved it. In fact, all it did was bury the problem under a big pile of taxpayers’ money. Now the public finances are screwed up. The government can no longer afford to keep this problem under control. It’s about to hit the economy with a vengeance.
While investors fret about the death of the US dollar, forex expert Jack Crooks says there is one currency in even more trouble than the buck: the British pound.
Britain is following the US into a slump, preventing the Bank of England (BoE) from hiking rates to control inflation.
Jack says Britain is more exposed to the ongoing credit crisis than any other major economy… including the US.
The next BoE move could another rate cut. This would send the British pound tumbling…
Today marks a big day for the global credit crisis. It’s exactly one year old.
There is nothing like being knocked off a bicycle by a passing car to change one’s attitude towards the compensation culture. This personal experience is one reason why Jason Smart, Managing Director of LitComp, is confident of the future of this small company that moved from Ofex to AIM in 2006.
The “experts” got it wrong, again. You may recall the optimism our investment banking chums had for the stock market at the start of the year.
Officially, we’re in a bear market if the index falls more than 20% below its peak. Yesterday afternoon, the FTSE reached that point. It closed a little higher, meaning the bear market hasn’t officially started yet. But it’s only a matter of time.
AIM is “the most successful growth market in the world” declares the LSE website. “It is now firmly established as the world’s pre-eminent stock market for young, growing companies,” says Head of AIM, Martin Graham.
On Tuesday I wrote that homeownership could be the worst financial move a new buyer ever makes. I also argued that investing in shares, the right shares, mind you is a good way to protect and grow your wealth right now.
