Indholdsfortegnelse for 1106 i MoneyWeek

“There are 1.3 billion cars in the world and almost all of them use liquid fuel” If you are a new graduate, you should not work for “climate wrecking companies”, says António Guterres, the UN secretary general. In particular, you should not work for any companies that finance fossil fuel development. Instead, you should “use your talents to drive us towards a renewable future”. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? It fits with the environmental, social and governance (ESG) vibe of the last five years or so – and with the apparent requirements of the tsunami of money that has poured into ESG investment vehicles. ESG is now the “fastest-growing corner of the asset management industry”, says the Financial Times. But there’s a problem. Look at it like this, said Kiril Sokoloff…

Actor Seth Green’s plan for a comedy show based on a cartoon character that he owns through a non-fungible token (NFT) has been derailed by a hacker, says Buzzfeed. The character was stolen from Green’s NFT wallet in a phishing scam and sold for $200,000 to a collector known as “Darkwing84”. The law on NFTs is untested, but the holder is assumed to have the usage rights. Top executives at Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank took a pay cut last year after its investment fund posted a ¥3.5trn (£22bn) loss, says the Financial Times. Chief financial officer Yoshimitsu Goto made ¥293m (£1.8m), down from ¥480m, and head of telecoms Ken Miyauchi earned ¥593m, down from ¥635m. The pay of founder Masayoshi Son remained unchanged at ¥100m.…

Global dividends hit a first quarter record of $302.5bn amid a strong recovery from the pandemic, according to the latest Global Dividend index from fund manager Janus Henderson. Payouts for 2022 as a whole should hit $1.54trn, up from $1.47trn in 2021. Every region reported double-digit growth in the first quarter, with particular strength in the US, Canada and Denmark. But “payouts showed notable weakness in parts of Asia, such as Hong Kong, where lockdowns continue to impact economic growth”. Oil and mining have been the best performing sectors, with mining payouts up 29.7% on a headline basis. Corporate profits may be heading for tougher times, but “it is important to remember that dividends are much less volatile than profits”, says Jane Shoemake of Janus Henderson. However, while global dividends…

This year’s sell off has brought US stock prices down from “unusually expensive” levels, says The Wall Street Journal. While the price/earnings (p/e) ratio of the S&P 500 is still above its 20-year average on a forecast-earnings basis, valuations have come down a lot as prices slide, from the 24.1 peak of September 2020 to about 16.8 now. Now earnings, the other part of the p/e ratio, are also coming into question. US earnings and profits margins have proven resilient so far, but ongoing inflation and talk of a recession raises the risk of weaker earnings, which will further weigh on stock prices. On a forecast earnings basis, investors will find much better bargains shopping in markets such as Hong Kong (9.5), Japan (14.3) or Germany (11.4).…

• This year, the government gained more power to block takeovers of companies and infrastructure that it considers not to be in the national interest, says Nils Pratley in The Guardian. Such rules “could almost have been written with BT in mind”. The telecoms firm “is knee-deep in government work with a cyber and intelligence angle and also plays an important role as “a would-be champion in fast-fibre broadband”. So business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has to make it clear to French tycoon Patrick Drahi, who has built an 18% stake in BT, that a takeover is “out of the question”. This is especially the case given Drahi’s fondness for “heavy helpings of debt” – which is “exactly what BT does not need at this moment”. • The fact that Marks…

Semiconductor designer EnSilica has listed on London’s Aim market, raising £6m in an initial public offering (IPO) that valued it at £37.6m. The firm specialises in mixed-signal application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), a type of circuit developed for specific purposes rather than general use. Its products are used in the healthcare, satellite and automotive sectors. EnSilica provides an end-to-end design and supply service, outsourcing elements of manufacturing and packaging to third parties. The firm had previously attracted an investment of £750,000 from Aim-listed tech investor Vela Technologies during a pre-IPO funding round in January.…

Even by the standards of the American justice system, it was a huge settlement. Earlier this month, the German insurance giant Allianz agreed to pay $6bn in fines to settle claims that its US investment arm cost investors billions of dollars by misleading them about the risks of some of its funds. It was a significant enough story in itself, and one that will have implications for the rest of the finance industry. But it was also far from the first major German company to be caught out in a scandal. There is something rotten at the heart of Germany – and that is becoming more obvious all the time. Take the technology company Wirecard, for example. It was worth €24bn at its peak, and was feted as one of…

Most investors have heard the term “value trap”. Indeed, if you’re a value-inclined investor, you’ve probably heard it rather more often than you’d like over the last few years. A value trap is a stock that looks cheap (usually based on a “fundamental” measure such as the price/book ratio) and ripe for a turnaround at any minute, but which simply keeps underperforming. Value traps can do a lot of harm to a portfolio and they are plentiful, says Ben Inker of US asset manager GMO. Inker defines a “trap” as a stock which has missed its revenue expectations in the past 12 months and has also warned on its future sales outlook. In a typical year, nearly a third of the stocks in the MSCI USA value index turn out…

A lesson for Britain from Switzerland Tom Rees The Daily Telegraph “Switzerland is the inflation time warp envied across Europe,” says Tom Rees. Inflation there is still at a 13-year high, but at 2.5% it is “a fraction of its neighbours’ levels”, and economists are confident that the peak is close. While Britain has a “potent mix of gas reliance, a weak currency and high inflation expectations”, Switzerland has the “exact opposite”. Around 60% of Swiss energy comes from hydropower, a third from nuclear power. Energy prices are more heavily regulated. While the pound’s slide is expected to fuel the cost of living crisis, the stronger Swiss franc, long viewed as a “safe haven currency”, is keeping the cost of imports down. And while wage growth is accelerating here,…

cato.org The political consensus in favour of free trade is starting to unravel, and is increasingly subordinated to “inward-looking ideological priorities”, such as over national security and the people “left behind” by globalisation. This is a mistake, say Scott Lincicome and Alfredo Carillo Obregon. The “political, economic and moral case” for free trade is as strong today as it was when Adam Smith put it forward. Most of the woes attributed to trade – the decline of manufacturing and quality jobs – are in reality secular trends shared by most industrialised nations. And the promised benefits of trade – stronger economic growth and new job creation – continue to flow. Trade continues to be a pillar of national and global security too. Since World War II, numerous studies have confirmed…

High energy prices benefit oil and gas firms, but they are also benefiting renewable energy funds. Just last week energy-storage fund Harmony Energy Income Trust (LSE: HEIT) announced that its net asset value (NAV) per share increased by 8.8% to 108.9p per share in the quarter to 30 April. Much of the uplift came from higher revenue assumptions, reflecting updates to power price forecasts. Exactly how the relationship between rising energy prices, and profits and assets works is more complex for renewables than oil and gas. First, wind and solar projects benefit from subsidies which usually have some explicit inflation protection built into them (energy storage firms have very different dynamics). However, subsidies aren’t the only source of revenue. Many of the funds also benefit from higher wholesale power prices.…

This time last year, things were looking good for the UK. Inflation was rising, but was still deemed “transitory” by a complacent Bank of England, growth was recovering, the labour market was strong, and the pandemic (with hindsight) was already past its peak. A year on, and while the labour market remains strong and Covid-19 is firmly in the rear-view mirror, inflation has surged relentlessly higher, only made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Bank of England has been very clear that things are no longer as rosy on the economy front – perhaps rather too clear, some might argue. Bank governor Andrew Bailey agreed when asked by MPs last month that he feels “helpless” in the fight against inflation and also warned of the “very real income shock”…

Banks are on the lookout for new current-account customers, and they are prepared to pay you up to £175 if you move your main account to them – but make sure you pick the account that best suits your needs. The Current Account Switch Service (CASS) makes it quick and painless to switch banks. All you do is open a new current account and request a switch via CASS. The service will then close your old account and move all your money, direct debits and standing orders to your new account within seven days. Plus, for three years any money that is paid into your old bank account or tries to leave your old account will automatically be changed to your new account. So, what are your options? HSBC is…

Last month, lawyers for Condé Nast, the owner of Vogue magazine, hit the headlines after they wrote to The Star Inn at Vogue, a small village pub in Cornwall, saying that it needed to change its name or risk a trademark claim. After landlords Mark and Rachel Graham pointed out that the village of Vogue was several hundred years older than the magazine, the publisher quickly conceded that the threat was a mistake and sent an apology. No harm was done and Mark Graham told the BBC he found the letter “hilariously funny”. But trademark disputes don’t always end so amicably. “It’s important to be hard-headed in these situations” For example, the owner of fashion boutique House of Zana in Darlington is waiting for judgment in a case brought against…

Deprived of human contact by lockdowns and social distancing, a large number of people rushed to acquire a pet during the pandemic. So it was perhaps not surprising that shares in retailer Pets at Home (LSE: PETS) more than doubled from around 230p in mid-March 2020 to just above 500p in September 2021. However, after restrictions were lifted last summer, there was speculation that this boom would go into reverse. Thus over the past nine months the share price was locked in a downward spiral, falling back to a low of 267p, before a recent surge pushed it back to 340p this week. So is this a genuine recovery, or do the shares still have further to fall? I believe it is the former. While there has been some scattered…

I’ve just come back from the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha where Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger spoke about their latest investments. Munger famously once said that “micro is what we do, macro is what we put up with”. In other words, investment decisions should be formed by focusing on what companies are doing and what opportunities they are seeing, rather than being swayed by macroeconomic conditions. This underpins our approach at J. Stern & Co. We look to invest in quality companies that can generate real value over the long term. This year’s stockmarket correction means many quality companies are trading at very attractive prices. We believe that if a company can show it has the pricing power to offset inflation as well as the innovation required to…

A seaside shack is now “a better investment than a three-bedroom house”, says The Telegraph. Prices of beach huts in Britain’s coastal hotspots have doubled in the past two years and the average asking price now stands at £50,336 on property website Rightmove. There are roughly 20,000 beach huts in the UK and the number has remained static for years “as archaic laws limit how many can be added”, while demand soared in the pandemic due to travel restrictions. Most huts don’t allow overnight stays and many lack toilets and even electricity. Prices for those with more facilities can be far higher: three huts in Mudeford, Dorset – where overnight stays are allowed – sold for £325,000 each last year.…

It has been a miserable decade for emerging market (EM) investors, says David Thorpe in FT Adviser. EM shares have returned just a third as much as the global average. And recent performance has not been encouraging: the combined market capitalisation of the 24-country MSCI Emerging Markets index has fallen $4trn since early 2021, say Srinivasan Sivabalan and Karl Lester Yap on Bloomberg. Rising US interest rates and slowing global growth are weighing heavily on the asset class. EMs don’t look expensive now, but the US dollar is the sector’s “puppet master”, James Sullivan of Tyndall Investment Management tells FT Adviser. “Ascertaining the true value of a market that is intrinsically linked to a foreign currency is fraught with jeopardy.” A strong dollar makes it more expensive for businesses that…

“The Japanese need to learn to invest… [The slogan] ‘from savings to investment’ [was] the motto of a 2003 campaign to encourage a shift of assets out of underperforming cash deposits… [Yet] the number of people holding securities has barely budged in the past two decades… Most household assets are still in deposits… It’s not as if Japan’s retirees don’t need to grow their nest eggs: there’s a growing gap between pension payouts and increasing living costs. That’s hardly going to improve as the working population shrinks… There’s a lot of reason to be wary of ‘this time it’s different’ talk in Japan. But one thing really is: inflation. Cash might be a safe option in deflationary times, when spending power increases even if bank accounts yield zero. Inflation, expected…

Shares in Chinese technology giant Alibaba leapt more than 12% at the end of last week after the firm reported that revenues rose 9% compared with the same period last year, says Jennifer Creery and Hudson Lockett in the Financial Times. The results not only beat analyst estimates, but they were also good enough to reassure investors that “the damage caused by Beijing’s zero-Covid policy and widespread lockdowns in world’s second biggest economy” may be more limited than initially thought, at least in the technology sector. Alibaba isn’t the only Chinese tech company to surprise on the upside in the past few days, says Julia Kollewe in The Guardian. Shares in search-engine Baidu shot up almost 15% thanks to a 1% rise in sales led by its cloud and artificial…

Three to buy De La Rue The Times Banknotes were a “rare beneficiary of Covid-19”: there was less to spend them on, but the pandemic prompted a surge in demand for cash worldwide. This benefited De La Rue, whose “bread and butter” is contracts to make currency. It has a “persuasive entrée” in its new polymer banknotes, which are harder to counterfeit than their paper counterparts. Currently polymer accounts for only one in 20 notes globally, so there is plenty of opportunity for growth. The immediate outlook is uncertain – it’s affected by the war in Ukraine and one of its factories in Sri Lanka is under threat from riots relating to the financial crisis there – but it has plenty of long-term potential. 94.46p Legal & General The Telegraph…

Since its launch last December, StepN, an app that lets users walk and run to earn digital tokens, has quickly become a household name in the play-to-earn blockchain gaming, or “GameFi”, world, says Rita Liao on TechCrunch. StepN was co-founded by Jerry Huang and Yawn Rong at a “hackathon” (an event where programmers come together to write software) run by blockchain platform Solana last October, with the idea that users could earn cryptocurrency through exercise. It functions similarly to a mobile game, whereby users select a variety of speeds at which they exercise and use the distance they travel every day (monitored closely by satellite GPS to prevent cheating) to accrue points associated with their account, which can later be exchanged for cryptocurrency within the app’s digital marketplace. Debuting in…

• Shareholders in clothing retailer Next waved through plans to award the company’s chief executive, Simon Wolfson (pictured), a 50% pay rise, says The Guardian. Wolfson will be paid £4.4m this year, the highest amount since 2015, comprising an annual bonus worth 100% of his basic salary and two share bonuses based on long-term performance, despite concern from some investors over the executive pay gap with the wider workforce. The Church of England’s pension board said the system of executive pay is “broken”. • Proxy advisory service Glass Lewis has recommended shareholders in British Airways’ parent company International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) reject the planned raising of the maximum share award for its CEO Luis Gallego from 100% of his salary to 150% at the annual general meeting this month,…

A factor is a characteristic that has been shown to contribute to a stock, bond or other security outperforming the market. Research into factors was originally driven by academics trying to figure out why certain stocks tended to generate higher returns than theories about efficient markets would have predicted. Widely accepted factors include size (the observation that small companies tend to beat large firms over time); value (cheap companies beat expensive ones); yield (high-yielding stocks do better than low-yielding ones); and momentum (stocks that go up just keep on going up). These factors will not always beat the market over any given time period, but they have generated superior returns in many different global markets over the long run. Factor investing has become increasingly popular in recent years, as the…

“My girlfriend at the time was really into Madonna. She’d play Like a Virgin and I’d say: ‘I’m not having this s***.’ Then I got hit on the head with a hammer and thought: ‘This is actually a tune.’ So whoever hit me, I’d like to meet and thank, else I’d still be on the dole.” Rock singer Liam Gallagher on how he only became interested in music after a blow to the head when he was a teenager, quoted in The Guardian “When I was in Bros, we did a TV commercial in Japan, for a well-known Japanese brand, and I got £2.5m for three days’ work.” Matt Goss of 1980s pop duo Bros on his most lucrative work, quoted in The Sunday Times “I’ll never forget my first…

wsj.com To hold down a job these days, it seems a worker needs only “one essential trait”, says Callum Borchers: “a pulse”. Some jobs have never required much more than the ability to stay awake. Now, in the tightest job market in half a century, people in higher positions may get by just by going through the motions too. In the US, fewer than 1% of workers are getting the boot, about half the norm. Job security is “especially sweet” in finance, education, healthcare and the public sector. If you’re one of those slacking off as a result, the chances are your boss knows it. But given that the chances of them finding anyone better are low, you’re likely to be able to “keep cashing that pay cheque”. “Much as…

Activist investor Nelson Peltz is considering a bid for US fast-food company Wendy’s, says Reuters. The burger chain’s shares have fallen 32% since January on the back of disappointing sales as storms and freezing temperatures in the US dampened store traffic and demand for breakfast items. Peltz is the largest shareholder in Wendy’s: his firm, Trian Fund Management, owns 11.8% of the shares, he owns 4.9% and Peter May, Trian’s president, owns 2.7%. Peltz first invested in Wendy’s in 2005 and pushed for a merger between Wendy’s and Arby’s, another chain it controlled in 2008. The merger lasted less than three years, with Arby’s being sold to a private-equity firm in 2011. Shares in Wendy’s rose 14% following Trian’s announcement.…

At long last, the UK stockmarket is outperforming, writes Max King. In the year to 25 May, it returned 5.3% in sterling terms (-5.1% in US dollars), while the MSCI All Country World Index lost 17.8% in dollars. It’s a far cry from the last decade, in which MSCI’s UK index returned just 65% (including dividends), while the US market more than quadrupled. The UK remains cheap – so can the outperformance continue? I’m not so sure. The classic explanation for the UK’s poor historic performance is that it is a “value” rather than a “growth” market. But sectoral composition (a great deal of exposure to resources and not much tech) does not explain all of its poor performance and valuation. Even growth stocks listed in the UK trade at…

Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the exchequer, last week announced a new plan to help with the cost of living crisis. All households connected to electricity mains will receive a £400 grant, replacing the £200 loan that he unveiled last year and has now scrapped. The payment will be spread over six months from October and will automatically be credited to your account by your energy supplier if you pay by direct debit or on receipt of an energy bill. Anybody with a prepayment meter will receive it via a voucher or credited to their meter. There will also be a one-off £300 for pensioners who already receive winter fuel payments, paid in November or December. Most will receive this by direct credit. If you receive certain means-tested benefits, such…

Could TikTok provide the perfect showcase for your business? Research from finance specialist Iwoca reveals one in ten small business owners under the age of 44 have used the short-form video-hosting social media platform to market their products and services. By contrast, the figure for owners aged over 44 is one in 100. Still, while TikTok has not yet crossed the generational divide, Iwoca’s data underlines the growing importance of social media channels more broadly to small businesses – and those yet to explore the options may be missing out. Facebook and Instagram have become particularly crucial routes to market for small businesses, Iwoca’s data shows, ahead even of e-commerce platforms such as Amazon. For many of these businesses, it’s the versatility of social media that is particularly attractive. They…

It’s illegal for company insiders to make trades on the basis of private information, as it gives them an unfair advantage over other investors. Quite a few people have ended up going to jail for this. But insiders may still need to sell their shares in order to pay their bills or diversify their portfolios. As a result, they are still permitted to buy and sell their shares at certain points, although these trades need to be reported to the authorities, which are then in turn disclosed to the wider public via various websites. Many traders argue that you should pay attention to these transactions, as it reveals what they think about their firm. If they are selling large numbers of shares, it may be a sign that they don’t…

Shares of scientific instruments manufacturer Judges Scientific (Aim: JDG) jumped following news of its acquisition of geological science firm Geotek. The company expects the £80m acquisition – its largest to date – to enhance its earnings for the current financial year, says ShareCast. The price consisted of an initial cash payment of £45m and further contingent consideration of up to £35m in a mix of cash and shares. Geotek’s equipment is used by researchers, miners, and oil and gas operators to analyse geological samples. Judges Scientific’s share price has risen 33% in the last 12 months.…

The Queen’s famous frugality – Tupperware at the breakfast table, ancient electric fires – has helped counter some of the wider criticism regarding the royal family’s spending. But it has been a constant theme. In 1969, the Duke of Edinburgh ran into trouble when he addressed the royals’ rumoured money problems – observing that the Queen hadn’t had a “pay rise” in 18 years, and had been forced to sell “a small yacht” to get by, while he would “probably have to give up polo fairly soon”. But a particular lightning rod for discontent has always been those family members seen as less “useful” or louche. The famous anti-royalist MP Willie Hamilton “hit pay dirt” in 1971 when he described the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, as “this expensive kept woman”,…

Going… In 1953, Lavinia Fitzalan-Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, stood in for Elizabeth II during rehearsals for the coronation at Westminster Abbey as the new queen was “too poorly”, says The Daily Mail. By way of thanks, the Queen gave the duchess a “stunning” diamond brooch with the letters “ER” in the Queen’s handwriting, and “with grateful thanks” inscribed on the reverse. She included a letter saying that the “small gift” was Prince Philip’s “inspired” idea. In 1956, the duchess donated the brooch to be sold for the benefit of the British and Foreign Bible Society. It is expected to fetch £6,000 when it is auctioned again with Noonans on 14 June. Gone… In 2009, video games developer THQ tried to send a 24-carat gold-plated Nintendo Wii games console to Buckingham…

• Idris Elba (pictured) stars as a genie alongside Tilda Swinton in the George Miller flick Three Thousand Years Of Longing, a “left-field” drama based on a short story by A. S. Byatt, which recently premiered at Cannes film festival, says Alison Boshoff in the Daily Mail. The actors are both known for roles in blockbuster Marvel films – Elba in the Thor pictures and Swinton in Avengers: Endgame and Dr Strange – but have insisted that their process is the same whether they are in a £300m blockbuster or a £50m arthouse movie. “‘From a performer’s perspective there is very little difference,’ Elba insisted. Swinton added: ‘As a performer, it doesn’t matter if it’s a big old battle or you are having a conversation in a towelling robe’.” As…

Pop singer Justin Timberlake (pictured) has sold the rights to his back catalogue for just above $100m, says The Wall Street Journal. A partnership between asset manager Blackstone and music-investment firm Hipgnosis bought the rights to Timberlake’s interest in some 200 songs he has written or co-written over the course of his career in boyband *NSync and as a solo performer. Nottingham Forest won “the richest game in football” when the team beat Huddersfield in the Championship play-off final on Sunday, says Bloomberg. Promotion to the Premier League is worth about £170m, including next year’s broadcast income and a guaranteed “parachute payment” if a team is relegated. A team that stays up for one year will earn around £300m.…

Shares in retailer JD Sports plunged 10% after the sudden exit of boss Peter Cowgill, says Nils Pratley in The Guardian. The company sprung the news of his sacking at short notice, releasing a statement stating that the executive chair, who had been in the post since 2004, was out “with immediate effect” only 11 minutes before the market closed. The statement “raised more questions than it answered” as it refused to give a detailed reason for his sudden exit, other that than it was due to an “ongoing review of internal governance and controls”. Cowgill’s departure was only a matter of time given his refusal to change a structure that drove “a coach and horses through rules requiring separation of chairman and chief executive roles”, says Alex Brummer in…

Drinks group Pernod Ricard “has once again demonstrated its resilience in a very complicated climate”, says Le Figaro. The company, which is the world’s second-largest seller of wines and spirits after Diageo, reported solid growth in all markets last year. It continues to strengthen its portfolio – which already includes 16 of the top 100 spirits brands – with targeted takeovers and investments in increasing its production capacity. Pernod Ricard now owns more than 240 brands – a level of diversification that is a considerable asset in times of crisis. “The clarity of the strategy and the strength of its activities should enable the group to hold its own in a very turbulent market.”…

After weeks of negotiations, on Monday EU leaders struck a deal to ban 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of the year, says Sam Fleming in the Financial Times. The embargo now contains an exemption for oil delivered by pipeline, which is how landlocked countries such as Hungary get their crude. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán had said that a total ban would be disastrous for the economy. The sixth package of sanctions also includes the ejection of Russia’s Sberbank from the Swift global payments system and restrictions on state broadcasters and individuals. In addition to soaring energy prices, Western sanctions have led to rocketing food prices and disruption to the supply of fertilisers, stoking fears of a food crisis that will lead to migrations and hit poorer…

The executive pay gap between company bosses in the FTSE 350 and their employees is expected to widen again this year, after narrowing during the pandemic, says BBC News. Of the 69 companies that have so far disclosed pay ratios in the first months of 2022, the average chief executive to average employee pay ratio was 63:1, says the High Pay Centre, a think tank. That is almost double the 34:1 ratio for the same group of companies last year. Pay ratios were widest in retail and lowest in media and financial services. Pay cuts taken by executives during the pandemic to show solidarity with staff shows “change is possible”, says Mubin Haq, CEO of the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, which contributed to the research. “Going back to past practice,…

Bitcoin has had a tough year, but it’s only going to get worse, veteran investor Scott Minerd tells Bloomberg. Minerd reckons that the cryptocurrency – which currently trades at around $22,000, down from a high of over $65,000 late last year – is going to drop to $8,000 before it hits bottom. Minerd’s comments are particularly striking as just 18 months ago he was arguing that “rampant money printing” by the US central bank should result in bitcoin eventually hitting $400,000. His own fund, he says, bought in at $20,000, then sold at $40,000. So what’s changed? “I was an early believer in crypto, I remember looking into bitcoin when it was $100... I really thought, ‘this is a buyable investment vehicle’.” The trouble, says Minerd, is that no form…

thedailybeast.com Great cities are making a comeback from the shock of the pandemic, but seem unlikely to recover their former status as workers continue to stay at home, says Joel Kotkin. That presents an opportunity. If cities are to thrive in the new normal, they should adjust to becoming the “city of bits” first proposed by the futurist William Mitchell in 1999. That would mean creating a “milieu where people and businesses can thrive”. As Aristotle said, the city “comes into being for the sake of living, but it exists for the sake of living well”. This means that cities will increasingly become, as HG Wells predicted, “places of concourse and rendezvous”. In other words, people will come into cities less frequently to mix and “be noticed by their bosses”…

■ Asset manager Vanguard has refused to stop new investments in fossil-fuel projects and to end its support for coal, oil and gas production, says the Financial Times. The world’s second-largest asset manager, which oversees $8.1trn for 30 million investors, is the largest investor in coal companies globally. “Vanguard does not seek to direct company strategy,” CEO Tim Buckley told the FT. “We engage with companies on climate change, ask them to set goals and to report how they are mitigating climate risks. That transparency will ensure that climate risks are appropriately priced by the market.” However, Vanguard’s duty is to “maximise longterm total returns for clients” and climate change is “a material risk but only one factor in an investment decision”. Vanguard’s first progress report on reaching net-zero emissions…

Chancellor Rishi Sunak‘s decision to introduce a windfall tax on North Sea oil producers certainly muddies the waters for investors and companies, writes Rupert Hargreaves. It is bound to create winners and losers and due to the complexities of the new regime, it’s not entirely clear who will benefit and who will struggle. The North Sea tax regime was already fiendishly complex. The sector has to contend with a 40% corporation tax rate, and a ten percentage point supplementary charge. There is also a zero-rated petroleum revenue tax and a range of other investment and capital allowances. The new tax introduces a 25% levy on the “extraordinary profits” of oil and gas companies, but also brings in an 80% allowance on capital spending, allowing companies to save 91p for every…

• National Savings & Investments has increased the chance of winning with Premium Bonds. From June, each £1 bond will have a 24,500 to one chance of winning a prize, up from 34,500 to one. “This takes the bonds’ ‘prize rate’ – the effective interest rate – from 1% to 1.4%, its highest level in 13 years, putting it ahead of most of the best-paying easy-access savings accounts on the market,” says The Sunday Telegraph. “But with inflation now at 9%, Premium Bonds – Britain’s favourite savings product, with 21 million account holders – will still be losing value at the fastest rate in more than four decades.” At today’s odds of winning, someone who deposited £10,000 would lose £826 to inflation over a year. • You may soon be…

• Competition for the banking custom of small businesses continues to grow, with fintech challengers, new entrants and incumbent banks all battling for market share. It can be difficult to work out which bank is right for you with so much choice, but quarterly surveys carried out on behalf of the Consumer and Markets Authority could help. Its latest research, based on a poll of almost 18,000 small businesses, ranks Starling Bank, Handelsbanken, Metro Bank, Santander and Barclays as the top five banks for small businesses right now. • Plunging business confidence has seen lending to small businesses fall sharply, new data reveals, potentially putting investment and growth at risk. The Federation of Small Businesses says just 9% of small businesses applied for credit in the first three months of…

The past fortnight has been mixed for my long tips, with two out of the three active tips rising in value. Telecoms firm Airtel Africa rose from 141p to 150p, while National Express rose from 245p to 270p. But supermarket Sainsbury‘s declined from 245p to 234p. Meanwhile, my three pending long tips – online retailer ASOS, takeaway chain Domino’s Pizza Group and sports retailer JD Sports – all remain below the price at which I suggested that you should trigger the trade (although Domino’s is close). Overall, my long tips are on a combined profit of £2,023. My six short tips have also had a mixed performance. Cinema chain AMC rose from $11.76 to $14.43, remote medicine firm Teladoc increased from $32.16 to $35.87, marketing software firm HubSpot went up…

The CEO of athletic-wear clothing company Under Armour (NYSE: UAA) has stood down after disappointing results caused the share price to slump, says Bloomberg. The firm’s sales had bounced back from the worst of the pandemic, but global supply-chain issues forced it into a $60m loss for the first three months of 2022, compared with profits of $78m in the same period last year. In the middle of last decade, Under Armour was seen as a potential global challenger to Nike and its market value topped $22bn, but it is now worth less than a quarter of that. The shares have dropped 52% in the last 12 months.…

2021 AIX, rosé, Provence, France (£55.00, magnum, Brinkley’s Fulham & Wine Shop, www.brinkleys.com(t) 020 7731 7835). John Brinkley has been an ever-present influence in my 35-year wine life. I suspect he is a fixture in thousands of Londoners’ gastronomic endeavours because his restaurants and wine shops are sensational. I know John because he is a canny, purist wine buyer in a world where this skill has largely disappeared in favour of margin-chasing and narrow-mindedness. I popped into his Fulham branch on Wandsworth Bridge Road the other day and spotted my featured rosé in magnum format priced at a punchy £55! What has happened here? Has John been tempted by the dark side and puffed up his margins to West End levels? Not a chance, as I learned when it was…

The Royal Mint has produced the largest coin in its 1,100-year history at its Llantrisant site in Wales. An anonymous collector commissioned the unique 15kg coin in honour of the Queen’s platinum jubilee, bearing a design by coinage artist John Bergdahl. The reverse side features “a crowned EIIR cypher surrounded by roses, daffodils, thistles and shamrocks, representing the United Kingdom”, says The Mint. On the obverse, the Queen is depicted riding a horse, inspired by the 1953 coronation crown coin created by Gilbert Ledward and the 2002 Golden Jubilee crown by Ian Rank-Broadley. It carries a face value of £15,000, but since it has been made from fine gold, its true value is a lot more. Still, seeing as it is the platinum jubilee, not to mention the fact that…

In Paris, the Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted. No more masks, no more pass sanitaire – life is returning to normal. Everything ever written about Paris is true. We don’t need to add to it. It is a beautiful city in May. The sun shines on the sidewalk cafes. Luxury brands gleam in the shop windows. Tourists are once again blocking our way. Prices are rising. And the elite are getting bolder. Their programme: make life much more miserable for the common man as they pursue their own goals. The educated, enlightened, well-off Parisian believes the world would be a better place if the uneducated, unenlightened, struggling yokels were kept in their place. He wants them to use less energy, to stay at home, turn down the heat… and not…