Indholdsfortegnelse for 1135 i MoneyWeek

In the days of endless free and easy money, we heard a lot about interest rates being “lower for longer”. Over the next few years we are likely to hear a lot about inflation being “higher for longer”. This time last year, when we had been fretting for some time that inflation wasn’t “transitory”, it was still expected to peak in the spring. And now that it has kept climbing, markets still seem to expect it to return to normal fairly quickly next year (see page 4). They may be in for a shock. Studies have shown that it beds in once it reaches a certain point. I was struck by a Deutsche Bank note in October that had looked at 318 separate occasions since 1920 – in both developed…

It has been a sluggish year for initial public offerings (IPOs) globally, but China is bucking the trend, say Bloomberg News. Mainland Chinese firms raised a record $92bn this year through listings in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing’s new exchange, taking the country’s share of global IPO proceeds up to 46%. Chinese markets have hosted 391 debuts this year, with nine raising more than $1bn. Rising borrowing costs in Hong Kong and regulatory pressure from US lawmakers have prompted Chinese companies to list closer to home. The country’s “crumbling real-estate market” also means local investors are keen to find an alternative place to invest their cash. With Covid-19 restrictions being eased, 2023 promises to be another strong year.…

Five to buy Dignity Interactive Investor Shares in this provider of funeral services have been badly affected by regulatory scrutiny in recent years. “Around £500m of debt” has also undermined confidence, but the bears may now have pushed the shares down into value territory. With a “newish CEO” and a plan to sell and lease back crematoria to address debt there could be upside potential here for more risk-tolerant investors. Given an ageing population (not to mention an overwhelmed NHS), the death rate is likely to rise in the coming years. The stock is a buy for those with “a gallows mindset”. 370p Eagle Eye Solutions Shares This Aim-listed business uses software to help clients, including Sainsbury, Diageo and Coca-Cola, to manage their voucher and customer-loyalty programmes. In…

● Travel group Tui hasn’t “put investors in a holiday mood”, says Alistair Osborne in The Times. The firm says it will repay €730m in pandemic state aid to the German government, plus a similar amount of a credit line from a state-owned bank. It’s easy to see why CEO Sebastian Ebel is keen to do so: the aid comes with restrictions on dividends and bonuses, and potentially converts into shares worth about a quarter of the firm. But the news has cast a cloud over decent full-year results that saw sales quadruple to €16.6bn and profits rebounded to €409m from a loss of €2.1bn. The catch is that it will require a rights issue of up to €1.9bn – the fourth in two years from a firm “whose refuelling…

The high level of volatility that we’ve seen in 2022 is “in notable contrast to the ‘incrementalism’ that described much of the past decade, dominated investors’ views and drove behaviour”, says Abby Joseph Cohen, the former Goldman Sachs investment strategist. “Many investors seem caught out yet again by the speed and vigour of market moves.” Higher volatility goes beyond “abrupt swings in the pricing of financial assets”: the year has also been marked by “wide gaps in economic and corporate performance” and “sharp changes in government policies”. In short, we’re moving away from a world in which incrementalism dominated both portfolios and policy-making – one that was fostered by “decades of generally mild-mannered inflation and well-controlled interest rates”, with only rare exceptions, such as the global financial crisis or the…

capx.co “Britain loves a bet,” says David Belle. Flutter, owners of SkyBet and Betfair, expects £300m to pass through its UK and Ireland books over the course of the World Cup in Qatar. Gambling has, after all, been a part of the culture for centuries. Yet it is still seen by many as a vice. The truth is that gambling and the “adventurous urge” that prompts us to do it is “far from inherently bad”. Traders and investors are, despite protestations to the contrary, just sophisticated gamblers. Both endeavours are about taking a risk by placing money on an uncertain future outcome in the hope of profit. And this is “the seed of human progress”. Most entrepreneurs fail with their first enterprise, yet many of society’s most transformative innovations were…

Retailer Topps Tiles is being targeted by MS Galleon, a Vienna-based investor that has built a stake just short of the 30% threshold that would force it to make a takeover bid, says Investors’ Chronicle. MS Galleon wants Topps to sack its chair, put two of the activist’s nominees on the board and buy more from Cersanit, a Polish supplier that MS Galleon owns. Topps buys 0.5% of its stock from Cersanit, but MS Galleon says that the proportion should be around the same as its stake. Topps argues that the proposals “present a clear conflict of interest”, which seems true; that said, the activist also has a point. “All has not been well at Topps for some years” and the share have lost 60% of their value during the…

● The Institute of Fiscal Studies has recommended that pensions should be included in your estate for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes, “stripping families of one of the few vehicles allowing them to pass on more to their children and grandchildren after death, says Charlotte Gifford in The Telegraph. The think tank also wants the government to charge income tax on inherited pensions, regardless of the age when you die. At present income tax is only levied if the original pension-holder was aged 75 or older. The proposals would mean that a basic-rate taxpayer inheriting a £100,000 pension pot from someone who had already used up their IHT allowances would pay £60,000. ● Annuities are “back in fashion” after rates have soared by 44% in just 12 months, says Lily Russell-Jones…

Over the past 45 years, an investment in Scottish drinks group AG Barr has generated an annual return of 18% including dividends, turning £1,000 into £3.1m. And there should be plenty more to come. After a turbulent few years, it looks as if the business is now set up for the next stage of growth – and the good news is that the stock looks cheap. A champion in the beverage market AG Barr (LSE: BAG), founded in 1875, is best known for manufacturing the soft drink Irn-Bru; its brands also include Snapple, Tizer and Strathmore spring water. Over the past 140 years, it has grown steadily through a combination of organic growth and bolt-on acquisitions, the latest of which is the Boost drink brand. The group paid £20m for…

Asia has been one of the weaker-performing areas in the world this year, with North Asia (China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan) faring especially poorly. We have seen a sharp rally recently as China has shifted position on zero-Covid and recent meetings with US and EU leaders have helped temper geopolitical risk. However, we still see good value in the region and we can also see a path towards that value being realised. Our approach focuses on companies’ operational performance and sources of funding for growth. We identify firms that generate returns on capital (a key gauge of profitability) above their cost of capital that are likely either to be sustained or to grow, funded primarily by internally generated cash flows. We want to buy stocks whose share prices underestimate…

A crypto bro’s spectacular fall from grace As falls from grace go, it’s hard to think of one more spectacular than that of Sam Bankman-Fried. As recently as June, the 30-year-old FTX founder was being hailed as the “JP Morgan of millennials”. SBF, as he was universally known, was even rumoured to be mulling the buyout of the stock-trading platform Robinhood. Yet by November, his $32bn exchange had collapsed into bankruptcy, with an $8bn hole in customer deposits. SBF, who is now awaiting extradition on multiple counts of fraud, “built a house of cards on a foundation of deception”, claims Gary Gensler, head of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. In all, more than 100 FTX-affiliated companies are filing for bankruptcy, involving a million or more creditors. The unwinding of…

The best films and TV This year saw the rise of geopolitical tensions between Russia, China and the US, as well as a global energy crisis, so it’s timely that these issues are front and centre in the revival of the cult Danish political drama Borgen. Borgen: Power & Glory (Netflix) sees the fictional Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) take over as foreign minister in a coalition government. She has to grapple with the implications of a major oil discovery in Greenland by an energy firm with shady owners. Despite her green politics, she finds herself drawn into supporting the project, much to the dismay and anger of her friends, allies and family. The new series is much darker than the original three, and old favourite characters, including Pilou Asbæk’s…

(£35, blackchalkwine.co.uk) A couple of weeks ago, I featured my Champagne pick of the season, and it is only fitting that English sparkling wine takes centre stage this week, so I set myself a challenge. I reviewed every sparkler I have tasted this year and shortlisted over 20 seriously delicious candidates for my ultimate pick for your end-of-year parties. I then carved off those wines that cost more than £40, because there is no need to step up too high for a thrilling English sparkling wine, particularly at New Year, and also, it levelled the field with my Champs pick, which was £32.95. Lastly, we all need a wine that is drinking now, not too young and acid-drenched or too old and losing its dynamism. With these criteria, you might…

Money 1 The UK’s annual rate of consumer price inflation (CPI) hit a 41-year peak in October 2022. How high did it climb? 1) 7.5% 2) 11.1% 3) 13.3% 2 Hong Kong finally began to relax its Covid-19 restrictions this year, encouraging tourism by lifting its mandatory three-day hotel quarantine and offering to give away 500,000 airline tickets to promote travel to the territory. How much were these tickets worth in total? 1) $190.4m 2) $254.8m 3) $380.2m 3 On 24 February Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. The war has become a bloody and protracted affair for the aggressor. What is Russia’s estimated expenditure on the war so far this year? 1) $50bn 2) $68bn 3) $82bn 4 The 2022 FIFA World Cup is the most expensive football event…

The 2022 FIFA World Cup paid a record $440m in prize money, says The Athletic. Argentina (pictured) gets $42m as the winning team, while France earns $38m for second place. How much goes to the players and staff of the teams is set by each country’s football governing body: back in 2018, France said that its players would share 30% of the prize. The contest has only come with cash prizes since 1982 in Spain, when the winning team, Italy, received $2.2m. A rapid rise in payouts began after 2002, when the total fund went from $134m to $236m (2006) and $358m (2010). This reflects the vast amount that FIFA now earns: budgeted revenue for 2022 was $4.7bn, mostly from broadcasting rights ($2.6bn) and marketing rights ($1.4bn). Host countries cover…

K92 owns the high-grade Kainantu gold mine in Papua New Guinea. In the third quarter the group produced 33,000 ounces at a cost of $909 an ounce, which makes it one of the industry’s lower-cost operators. There is ample scope for output to grow at Kainantu. The mine is undergoing an expansion programme that should see production rise by 20% from next year. Further exploration (financed from cash flow) should bolster annual output to 292,000 ounces in 2024; by 2026 this figure should have reached 500,000. At that level, the cost of production should fall to $687 an ounce and the group is likely to attract the interest of a major miner. Analysts see scope for a 70% jump in the shares.…

Until the middle of last week it was assumed the government would do a deal with nurses to avert the “biggest walkout in the history of the NHS”, say Caroline Wheeler and Shaun Lintern in The Sunday Times. No deal came. Nurses then went out on their first ever national strike over pay and conditions last week, with more walkouts this week. There will be two further strikes in January. Ambulance staff are out too. The government refuses to negotiate. It is “clearly beyond the ability of the government” to give the 19% increase that the unions are demanding – a 5% pay rise over RPI inflation – and even the Labour party admits that such a sum would be “unaffordable”, says The Telegraph. Such a rise risks entrenching inflation,…

There are – as usual – an embarrassing number of developments that I failed to foresee for 2022, even though most seem obvious in hindsight. But if one stands out, it’s the impact of interest rates. Not how high they have gone – I have spent my entire life in markets saying that rates should go up and am continually disappointed at central bankers’ unwillingness to deliver. Rather, it’s how the relatively modest increases we’ve seen so far – which have taken the price of money from “insanely profligate” to merely “far too cheap” – have caused markets to buckle. What can we credit for this? Part of it is due to a decline in speculation, as always happens when policy gets tighter. Beyond that, there’s an element of money…

It’s beyond time to go for growth Editorial The Economist The rich world is in a slump, says The Economist. The long-run rate of growth has “dwindled alarmingly”, leading to stagnant living standards. Between 1980 and 2000, GDP per person grew at an annual rate of 2.25% on average. Since then the pace of growth has sunk to about 1.1%. The reasons are manifold. The skills of the labour force have stopped improving as fast. Ever more workers are retiring. Women’s participation in the labour force has flattened off. The economy is more reliant on services, where productivity gains are harder to come by. The ageing population has not only hurt growth directly, but has made electorates less bothered about the issue – “growth most benefits workers with a…

project-syndicate.org Biodiversity and “the services provided by healthy ecosystems” are under pressure from climate change and “the challenge of supporting eight billion people in a sustainable way”, says David Malpass. Forests, pollinating insects and ocean fish stocks are all under threat. The UN’s biodiversity conference in Montreal this month is an opportunity to do better. What is needed is for economic decisions to “take nature into account”. Economic growth models, development plans and climate agendas must consider “nature’s real economic value” and build institutions that help nurture it. But given the severity of the challenges, conservation efforts are no longer enough – we need also to actively reverse the decline, which means changing how we produce and consume. Work to this end has begun. Vietnam, for example, by involving different…

■ “Trust fundraising has fallen off a cliff” but two new trusts are trying to come to market in “a fresh test of the frosty investor sentiment that has killed every mooted initial public offering (IPO) in the sector so far this year”, says Investors’ Chronicle. Conviction Life Sciences aims to raise £100m to invest in life-sciences companies in the UK, Europe and Australia, which manager Andrew Craig views as “structurally undervalued” in this biotech bear market (see also MoneyWeek issue 1132). It was scheduled to close fundraising on 13 December but has pushed back the deadline to 31 January 2023 “as investors hibernate for the Christmas period”, says CityAM. Meanwhile, the AT85 Global Mid-Market Infrastructure Income wants to raise £300m to invest in transport and logistics, utilities and digital…

Add a review of your pension plans to the New Year to-do list. Making some tweaks now could pay dividends for years to come. Here are ten relatively quick wins to consider. Firstly, make better use of your annual contribution allowance. Most people are entitled to contribute up to £40,000 – or the value of your annual income – to a tax-efficient private pension each year. If you’re only paying in through a work scheme, you may not be getting anywhere near that sum. Consider opening an individual arrangement to make additional savings. And if you already have one of those, look at topping up your contributions. You can also use the carry-forward rules to use up unused allowances from the past three years. Get the best pensions deal from…

Recent events such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s threatened invasion of Taiwan and cyberattacks by both autocracies emphasise the need for Western countries to enhance their armed services and security services. A key trend in this context is countries outsourcing many high-technology services to trustworthy specialist companies. Examples include the robotics and autonomous systems; cybersecurity; weapons-system tests and evaluations; training and mission rehearsals; engineering services; and the provision of unmanned air, land or sea targets for live-fire training. These and other services can all be found in QinetiQ Group’s (LSE: QQ) portfolio, along with products ranging from drones to satellites. It is a member of the FTSE 250 mid-cap index with a market value of £2bn and a 2021-2022 turnover of £1.32bn. (The group’s financial year ends on 31…

Gold miner Centamin (LSE: CEY) has seen its share price rise after announcing a sharp jump in output, says The Motley Fool. Centamin’s Sukari, the largest gold mine in Egypt, had been beset by delays and technical problems, but these have been resolved and the firm has turned a corner, reporting a 23% annual rise in gold production for the quarter. Meanwhile, higher-grade material was retrieved from both its underground and open-pit operations. Centamin has various exploration projects under way and also boasts net cash and liquid assets of over $150m. The stock has gained 28% in a year.…

There has been a lot of debate this year about the extent to which companies should take into account their wider impact on society. In Share Power: How Ordinary People Can Change the Way that Capitalism Works – And Make Money Too, former MoneyWeek editor Merryn Somerset Webb argues the real problem is that ordinary shareholders are not engaged enough with the companies they invest in. And thanks to auto-enrolment in pension schemes, the class of ordinary shareholders now includes most citizens of the country. She outlines how they can become more involved and become a force for good. The cost-of-living crisis has made it ever more important to make the correct investment decisions. However, an impenetrable web of financial jargon leaves many people confused and frustrated when they…

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, cannot explain how he lost investors billions of dollars, reports The Wall Street Journal. He was arrested in the Bahamas last week and charged with fraud. Now, losing a $10 bill – it happens from time to time. But losing billions takes a special kind of nonchalance. We were suspicious of SBF from the time we first heard of him. At the height of his glory, he told the world that he didn’t read books. That was surely the mark of a moron. Wouldn’t the experience of others in similar situations have been of use to him? Had we been asked, we could have recommended some titles: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Against the Gods, When Genius Failed, The Price of…

Looking back on 2022, the return of inflation “sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb”, says David Smith in The Sunday Times. It has “given us the worst industrial relations in decades and led to more interest rate hikes than in any year since 1988”. Last December annual UK inflation was 5.1%, with forecasts of a peak in the spring. Yet it surged to 11.1% in October. November’s 10.7% reading suggests we might be past the peak, but “retail price inflation… was 14% last month”. Households have suffered the biggest drop in real incomes since records began in the 1950s”. Last week the Bank of England raised interest rates by a further half percentage point to 3.5%. It looks set to deliver one final 0.5% hike in February, followed by…

“The regulatory cycle follows a well-worn pattern. A market crash or... scandal leads to howls for something to be done and an abrupt tightening of rules. These safeguards then get slowly... chipped away – until the next crash... The City’s lobbyists always [prevail] because they are better-resourced... [Jeremy Hunt’s package of 30 City reforms amount to] a hotchpotch of measures, tweaks and vague ambitions across different activities... [it seems] the lessons of the banking crisis are fading. One proposed policy... is to allow building societies to source more of their funding from wholesale markets, as distinct from retail deposits. This was the calamitous path taken by Northern Rock before its collapse in 2007. What next? Mortgages at 125%?... the talk of... ‘unleashing City potential’ is unnerving.”…

Four to buy... Amgen This biotech company is “an 800-pound gorilla in its industry”, boasting a roster of 26 drugs and “dozens” more in development. With impressive cash flow and a “solid” 2.9% dividend yield it is “somewhat” defensively positioned for a period of weaker stockmarkets. The shares are up by 21% over the past year, but on 14 times expected 2023 earnings they still trade on a “fraction” of the price/earnings (p/e) ratio of 70 more typical for businesses in this sector. $269 Deckers Outdoor This California-based footwear business is best known for its UGG boots. The “cosy sheepskin footwear” has been enjoying a renaissance and delivers “high profit margins” and “strong cash flow” for its corporate parent. Even more encouraging are prospects for Decker’s HOKA brand of running…

Markets have had a bad year, and poor sentiment always hits initial public offerings (IPOs) too. Figures from accountancy giant KPMG show that 40 firms had floated in London (including the junior market, Aim) by 14 December, down from 123 in 2021, says CNBC. The amount of money raised by the listings fell by 90% compared with the year before. Another study shows that the number of IPOs in the EU slipped by two-thirds this year, although unlike London, Europe did see a blockbuster flotation (one that raised more than £1bn). Porsche mustered €19.5bn when it made its debut in Frankfurt. Political instability may have made investors in the UK especially nervous this year.…

What treats are lurking under the bookies’ Christmas trees this year? Here is a rundown of the most popular betting markets on Betfair. The most popular is on who will be the next US president, with £2,023,793 matched (plus another £1,342,129 on Smarkets). Florida governor Ron DeSantis is favourite on 2.94 (34%), with Joe Biden at 4.2 (23.8%). The second most popular market, with £902,454 matched, is on the Democrat nominee for president, with Joe Biden favourite at 1.55 (64.5%). The third largest market (£866,052) is on which party will win the most seats at the next UK general election, with Labour firm favourites at 1.37 (73%). In fourth place is the battle for the Republican nomination in 2024 (£792,180 matched), with punters putting Ron DeSantis in pole position to…

1. Dyson IPO lights up the FTSE Over the last two decades, there has been no more miserable index than the UK’s FTSE 100. With its mixture of oil giants, miners, banks and pharmaceutical conglomerates, it’s been a zero-growth zone, with the index little higher now than it was at the start of the century. The UK has managed to generate a few world-beating firms since then – it’s just that most of them have either listed in New York, or chosen to remain private. The most remarkable of them is Dyson, an appliance giant founded by James Dyson. With global revenues of more than £5bn, Dyson is a formidable money-making machine, and could be worth at least £15bn if it were ever listed, and perhaps more. James Dyson will…

Money illusion refers to the tendency to consider the value of money in terms of its face value (also known as its nominal value) rather than its purchasing power (often referred to as its real value). The term was coined by either John Maynard Keynes or Irving Fisher early in the 20th century and popularised by Fisher’s book The Money Illusion (1928). For example, money illusion means that people focus more on nominal changes in income than real changes. Compare two scenarios: one in which you are offered a 3% cut in your salary at a time when inflation is zero, and one in which you are offered a 2% rise when inflation is 5%. In both cases, the impact on real income is the same: after allowing for both…

“I’ve never been so rich. I wrote my book [her autobiography, This Much is True] for money, which I suppose proves that I will do almost anything for money, just like most members of the Tory government.” Actor Miriam Margolyes (above), in The Times “Never mind doing podcasts or TV. I propose to fill this unexpected hiatus in my career with vast lucrative theatrical renditions of [the] great texts, in ascending chronological order. It’s going to be called ‘A Totally Epic Performance’. I expect you will laugh and say no one will come. I say, who cares.” Former PM Boris Johnson, writing in The Spectator “[My first flat in London] seemed too good to be true. It was really spacious, above an empty shop and the rent was like £300…

bigthink.com It is commonly believed that geniuses focus obsessively only on their primary field of interest, but this is far from the truth, says Scotty Hendricks. A number of the greatest minds in history have enjoyed hobbies. Albert Einstein, for example, was a largely self-taught enthusiast for the violin, and many who played with him said he was a fine musician. He never left home without it. His forebear Isaac Newton liked to dabble in alchemy. Economist John Maynard Keynes was a successful investor and earned a fortune on the stockmarket, putting his earnings to good use by building up a sizeable collection of art, including 135 works he would later donate to Cambridge University. Ada Lovelace, a 19th-century British writer and mathematician, liked to gamble – although her skills…

Jonathan Compton It is with a red face that I look back at last year’s tips – BT and Vodafone. Both were duds. I continue to hold for better days. So it is with trepidation that this year I suggest a tech-related company. The sector has rightly been trounced, and yes, catching falling knives is not to be recommended. Yet my pick is UK-listed Kape Technologies (LSE: KAPE), a £950m company that has been dragged down even as revenue and profits have blossomed and the outlook brightened. Moreover, it has all the key criteria I want in any company: visibility over growth in earnings, a strong niche position, stonking free cash flow and falling debt – especially important as too many companies have become overreliant on cheap borrowing. These criteria…

The FTSE 100 index, though a dismal performer this millennium, is actually up nearly 3% this year. When a 4.5% dividend yield is added in, the total return is a respectable 7%. For mid- and small-cap companies, though, it has been a different story. The FTSE 250 mid-cap index is down 18% and the FTSE SmallCap index down 17%, with a dividend yield similar to the FTSE 100 only reducing the losses by a quarter. Yet the FTSE 250 index, launched in October 1992 at an index level very close to the FTSE 100, is numerically now 2.5 times as high. This represents an annualised capital return of 7%, nearly twice that of the FTSE 100. The Numis Smaller Companies index (NSCI), representing the bottom 10% of the market and…

Are you running out of ideas on what to give your children this Christmas? Swap Lego for stocks, fluffy unicorns for junior Isas and the squishmallow for a pension – they will thank you for it one day. Lego’s Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle set will cost around £410 this year. While it may give your child or grandchild hours or even days of fun, investing that amount each year could give a child a portfolio worth £11,000 by their 18th birthday, assuming you started from birth and achieved 4% annual growth, according to calculations from investment platform AJ Bell. An £80 gift could see your child accumulate a sum of £2,133 by the age of 18 if the money is invested instead. A £95 present would result in savings of…

● More than 20 million savers in occupational pension schemes are nursing big losses after a poor year for “default funds”. These are the investment funds offered by schemes to staff who haven’t specifically chosen a different option. Data obtained by the Daily Mail reveals that all eight of the largest default funds have lost money this year, with a big difference between the best and worst performers. The default fund offered by Now: Pensions, which has two million investors, lost 19% in the year to September; by contrast, Aon’s default fund dropped by only 4%. ● Delaying starting to take your state pension could lead to a nasty tax surprise, a leading pension specialist has warned. Savers who don’t need their state pension income when reaching retirement are routinely…

Argo Blockchain (LSE: ARB) has become another victim of the cryptocurrency crash, says The Times. The cryptocurrency miner, which runs powerful computers across the US and Canada to process the vast amounts of data required to create bitcoin tokens, ran out of steam this year as the cost of production outstripped bitcoin’s selling price. Argo has sold off most of its bitcoin reserves, leaving it with just 126 bitcoin (worth £1.8m) last month, and says its cash flow could turn negative. The share price, having soared after the group floated in 2018, has slumped by 96% in the past 12 months.…

€6.6bn The sum Portugal’s “golden visa” scheme has brought in over the past decade. The widely criticised scheme rewards foreigners with residence permits for property purchases of at least €500,000, but the government says it may scrap it. £2.8m How much in total the National Grid’s Electricity System Operator has rewarded around a million households who signed up to its energy-saving scheme from the five tests carried out so far. The scheme involves rewarding households for reducing their usage at peak times. $114,000 The price, including fees, that one of the world’s oldest pairs of jeans fetched at an online auction in the US. The white five-button-fly jeans had been preserved in the wreck of the SS Central America, a steamship which sank in 1857 with a cargo of gold…