In the 1993 film, Groundhog Day, Bill Murray lives the same day over and over again. That feels a little like our current situation with markets, inflation and interest rates. Just like in the film, there will come a time when we break out of the loop but we’re not…

Since the depths of the post-budget market rout last September and October, the sense of pessimism about the outlook for the UK economy has lessened. Whilst raising interest rates to a 14-year high of 4% in February 2023, the Bank of England forecast economic output would fall by just -1%…

Well, it has certainly been another eventful few months. Given everything 2022 has thrown at us, perhaps it should come as no surprise that Collins has chosen “permacrisis” as their word of the year!   The last update was sent out on the day of the ‘mini-budget’ in September. Unsurprisingly,…

Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, once said “change is the only constant in life.” Sometimes those changes come gradually and sometimes they hit us like a torrent. Within 72 hours this month, we witnessed both a change of Prime Minister and a change of our Monarch. For most of us, Queen…

All change! After spending most of the latter half of 2021 arguing that higher inflation was ‘transitory’, central bankers have pivoted to a ‘we’ll do whatever it takes’ stance on combatting high rates of inflation.   The rate of increase in prices in the UK (9.1%) and US (8.6%) has…

The big news this week is the Governments ‘plan’ for starting to move out of the strict lockdown we’ve experienced for the last seven weeks. The UK Government’s Covid-19 recovery strategy On Sunday 10th May 2020, the Prime Minister gave a recorded address to the nation. Whilst perhaps a little…

Lifting of restrictions Since my last update, many countries around the world have witnessed further improvements in the key virus metrics; new cases, hospitalisations and deaths are all falling or at least increasing less quickly. Restrictions are starting to be reduced in many European countries, albeit gradually, and President Trump…

Light at the end of the tunnel? There are some signs that the restrictions imposed on much of the world are starting to have an effect. China reported its first day with no deaths on Monday last week and while they are still reporting new cases, the numbers are small…