Economy and general comment

• Indian market steady after terrorist attacks
  
  28 Nov, 2008
  By Stuart Goodwin

  The recent tragic events in India remind us of the dangers the world is now facing. Much has already been written about the personal and political impact of the terrorist action....

• Tax cuts to boost economy
  
  24 Nov, 2008
  By Stephen Lansdown

  With government borrowing already high in an attempt to stave off a banking crisis and a major recession, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling is about to increase this...

• Market update
  
  20 Nov, 2008
  By Richard Hunter

  Perhaps the only surprise that global markets have taken another downward lurch overnight should be that it is a surprise. The latest sell-off follows comments from the US Federal...

• Bank deposit safe again?
  
  17 Nov, 2008
  By Stephen Lansdown

  Although I have always understood the risks involved with banks I never for one moment thought that we would be faced with the possibility of major banks going to the wall. This...

• Market update
  
  14 Nov, 2008
  By Mark Dampier

  It always amazes me how sentiment changes so rapidly in stock markets. Only a few months ago, Goldman Sachs were forecasting a price of $200 a barrel for oil, but is now below $60 a...

• Market update
  
  14 Nov, 2008
  By Mark Dampier

  It always amazes me how sentiment changes so rapidly in stock markets. Only a few months ago, Goldman Sachs were forecasting a price of $200 a barrel for oil, but is now below $60 a...

• X-tra factor
  
  13 Nov, 2008
  By Danny Cox

  The huge interest rate cut last week has made mortgage payers much happier. Half the UK’s mortgage payers are on a fixed rate so won’t see an immediate benefit, but will...

• Price of TVs to plummet
  
  10 Nov, 2008
  By Danny Cox

  Walk into any large electrical store and you are faced with a wall of LCD and Plasma TVs. Technology advances and competition in the market has changed these huge slim TVs from a...

• The red pen is out
  
  07 Nov, 2008
  By Richard Hunter

  The Bank of England has certainly trumped the market’s expectations. The reduction in interest rates by a whopping 1.5% to 3% is far and above the most optimistic of...

• 3% BASE RATE
  
  06 Nov, 2008
  By Peter Hargreaves

  It is difficult to assess the 1.5% rate cut. It is a full 1% more than was anticipated and 0.5% more than the most adventuresome suggestions by pundits. On an historical note the...

• Bank of England boldly goes for 1.5% rate reduction
  
  06 Nov, 2008
  By Tom McPhail

  A rate cut was something close to a certainty, the only real question was the extent of the cut; 1.5% was very much at the high end of expectations. To put today’s...

• Barack Obama - An American dream?
  
  05 Nov, 2008
  By Peter Hargreaves

  I remember Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech. That dream couldn’t have envisaged that within 45 years there would be a black president....

• Chinese interest rate cuts
  
  04 Nov, 2008
  By Ben Yearsley

  Something has been puzzling me for the last few months and I thought it was about time I found out the answer; why when the Chinese Central Bank cuts interest rates is it always a...

• Cash will be trashed
  
  27 Oct, 2008
  By Mark Dampier

  Looking through the Saturday and Sunday financial pages I was struck not by the unrelenting gloom but by the fact that many cash deposits were showing interest rates of over 6%...

• Market Update
  
  08 Oct, 2008
  By Mark Dampier

  Stock market moves have been extraordinary. The line ‘markets can go down as well as up’ seems somewhat of an understatement, but the news at last of a policy initiative...

• Market Update
  
  07 Oct, 2008
  By Mark Dampier

  Can we really make any sense out of the stock market movements? It is well known that stock markets are a discounting mechanism. In other words they look ahead and try and reflect...

• Looking after the pennies
  
  07 Oct, 2008
  By Danny Cox

  If you have a pile of paperwork on the dining room table, or next to the computer in the study ready to be “filed” you are not alone. Mine stares at me every time I sit...

• Remember September
  
  01 Oct, 2008
  By Richard Hunter

  Astonishing times. If there is anyone who has worked in this industry and has seen one month like the one we have just had, they have not yet made themselves known. It feels as...

• Confidence is everything
  
  30 Sep, 2008
  By Stephen Lansdown

  The failure of the House of Representatives to pass the bail out plan last night was disappointing. The investment markets had focused on this as a panacea to all their ailments...

• Inflation
  
  24 Sep, 2008
  By Ben Yearsley

  A figure largely overlooked during the turmoil in world stock markets recently is that of UK inflation. August inflation figures were released and the Consumer Price Index (CPI)...