Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, said earlier this year that things would get more exciting with regard to interest rate policy at the turn of the year. Now he has indicated that UK interest rates are unlikely to rise before 2017. Part of the reason for this is that inflation remains […]
My prime professional interests and concerns have always been business and the generation of wealth and prosperity. The majority of my 30-plus years as a fund manager in the City involved my managing pension funds. I was trying to create long-term wealth and safeguard the future of the stakeholders in the funds I managed. But […]
The latest US employment data has just been published. It shows that 215,000 new jobs were created during July, which fell short of the consensus forecast of 223,000. Despite the shortfall, economists believe that US interest rates are likely to rise for the first time since 2006 when the Federal Reserve meets in September. One […]
The going’s been tough, but now, at last, the tough get growing… Today’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures for the second quarter of 2015 have brought some happier news. There was some concern when the economy only delivered 0.4 per cent growth in the first quarter and this was partly attributed to the impending election. The […]
This is a momentous time for P2P lending (which includes person-to-business lending). Along with the Chancellor’s emergency Budget, the Treasury has published its response following its consultation on whether P2P loans should be included in ISAs. The consultation period came to an end on 12 December 2014. The report states that: “(The government) intends to […]
There is much in the news about Grexit at the moment and the big question is whether this would destroy the Euro. I don’t think so. The fear is that if Greece is forced out, then the focus will turn to Italy, Spain and Ireland. However, each of these countries has made good progress over […]
Following the credit crunch, debt has become a bit of dirty word and many UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are now classed as permanent non-borrowers. Given that productivity is a big problem in the UK, this suggests that there has been a lack of investment by British companies and this is partially due to […]
The markets greeted David Cameron’s unexpected victory in the General Election with great enthusiasm. The prospect of an SNP/Labour coalition, which would have been likely if England hadn’t turned blue, was an appalling thought for the City. Now we are faced with another dose of austerity and George Osborne will do well to meet the […]
If a thing is worth saying once… well, it’s probably worth saying again. The Bloomberg media empire has run two stories in a fortnight on the peer-to-peer (P2P) sub-sector of crowdfunding in the United States. It’s not so much commenting on the business of US P2P crowdfunding as its valuation, and specifically the machinations of […]
The current government has been very keen to encourage individuals to invest in private companies through improving the Enterprise Investment Scheme and introducing the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme. It has also made it relatively easy for individuals to invest in the debt of private companies through platforms like Money&Co. by encouraging the Financial Conduct Authority […]