Indholdsfortegnelse for 1167 i MoneyWeek

“The triumph of hope over experience.” Dr. Johnson’s description of a second marriage suits equity markets well. There is clearly a great deal of hope propelling US indices towards new peaks. The S&P 500 is up by 19% this year and is now a mere 4% below its record. The Nasdaq has jumped by 37% and is 38% above its 200-day moving average, says hedge-fund manager Doug Kass in RealMoney. It hasn’t been this overbought since March 2000. Irrational exuberance, anyone? Dotcom days are here again Some of the hype stems from excitement about artificial intelligence (AI); chipmaker Nvidia is on the sort of trailing price/earnings (p/e) ratio often seen in the dotcom era: 240. But it is also due to the mounting hope that the economy will manage a…

“I love seeing my cash [earn interest]... while I know inflation is an invisible tax on that growth... The sense of comfort that comes from having a [cash] reserve is undeniable, and the prospect of earning interest on your money makes it even more enticing to become a super saver. But... accumulating cash beyond your appropriate reserve amount might cause you to miss out on... opportunities... If you find yourself waiting, waiting, and waiting to see what ‘the market’ will do, you are trying to time the market. And that [is a bad idea]... Just look to the first half of this year... the... Nasdaq set a new record... surging an astonishing 38.8%. Meanwhile, [a cash-equivalent] one-year T-bill... purchased in January... earned just 2.36%. That’s a massive spread in returns.…

Uber Technologies has reached a key milestone: its first ever quarterly operating profit, says Preetika Rana in The Wall Street Journal. While it has technically made money in the past, that was due to investments outweighing losses elsewhere. These results were driven by a robust expansion in both of Uber’s core businesses, food delivery and ferrying people around. The number of rides in the US and Canada has eclipsed pre-Covid levels and demand for deliveries has “stayed strong despite restaurant reopenings”. At the same time Uber has cut costs by “becoming more disciplined about spending on discounts to consumers and incentives to drivers”. The group has also managed to combine deliveries and reduce errors, improving operational efficiency. Investors will certainly be pleased that the run of losses, which meant it…

US telecoms business Frontier Communications filed for bankruptcy in 2020, says Nicholas Jasinski in Barron’s. But it is now back with new managers and “a refreshed balance sheet”. The firm is upgrading its network from copper to fibre – which allows consumers to download faster – a capital-intensive process that has turned off investors. Yet the build-out will give it a durable advantage – “85% of its footprint has only one or no broadband competitor”. Debt is “manageable”, as it doesn’t mature until 2027, and 85% of it is at fixed rates. Trading on a discount to larger peers in terms of enterprise value to expected Ebitda, the shares are a buy.…

Politics & economics Russia has carried out further attacks on Ukraine’s ports and grain infrastructure this week, damaging a grain silo in Izmail. This city, which sits on the Danube river near the border with Romania, is a key alternative to Black Sea ports, say Andrew Jeong and Victoria Bisset in The Washington Post. Russia has “repeatedly targeted port facilities” since withdrawing in mid-July from the internationally brokered Black Sea grain deal that has seen the export of nearly 33 million tonnes of Ukraine grain in the past year. Russia says it is “prepared to return to talks”, but the US envoy to the United Nations says “we haven’t seen any evidence of that yet”. “Two weeks after the collapse of the deal, the small Danube ports are the only…

Donald Trump has been indicted for the third time, setting the stage for what could be the “most momentous” case in US history”, says David Charter in The Times. The new indictment alleges that the former US president knew that he had lost the 2020 presidential election, but “pressed ahead with a deceitful campaign to overturn the results”, even though he was repeatedly told that “the game was up”. If Trump (pictured) is found guilty then “his millions of supporters may react in unpredictable and violent ways”, while if he is cleared “then the guardrails on future presidents will have dramatically shifted”. Trump’s behaviour may have been disgraceful, but it will be hard for prosecutors to secure a conviction, says Nick Allen in The Telegraph. The case “will hinge on…

The Bank of England, and its increasingly hapless governor Andrew Bailey, is facing a growing wave of criticism. Inflation may have come down a little, but it is still way over its 2% target, and, more seriously, it is way higher than in almost every other major developed economy. The Bank insists that inflation in the UK has mainly been caused by global pressures. But other countries have done a far better job of dealing with that than we have. Somewhere along the line the Bank failed. It has finally decided to confront that. Last week, it appointed Ben Bernanke to lead a review of its forecasting models, and assess its strengths and weaknesses. But Bernanke is the wrong person to review the Bank of England – and he won’t…

The arrival of an activist investor has given shares in Dr Martens “ a much-needed kick in the right direction”, says The Times. The bootmaker’s share price rose 6% after reports that Sparta Capital – which describes itself as a “constructive activist” – had taken a stake in the firm and was in talks with the board. Dr Martens’ shares have fallen from a peak of 503p after it floated in 2021 to around 150p now after “operational mistakes” in the US – its largest market – led to supply-chain bottlenecks, excess inventory and a fall in sales. Sparta is urging the company to focus on improving execution and tackling problems at its new distribution site in Los Angeles, sources told Sky News. The activist may also be pushing for…

“It can be dangerous. I’ve seen it a lot. Four out of ten professional footballers, after their career, they are broke.” Arsenal and Italy footballer Jorginho, on the dangers of getting rich too quickly and squandering money, quoted in The Times “The Haçienda was incredible. Obviously, we lost loads of money, which, depending on what day it is, I can still get angry about. But the Summer of Love, from ’87 to ’89, will for ever be a blissful time in our memories. That club changed lives. And, I believe, changed the world.” Peter Hook, bassist of Joy Division and New Order, on the nightclub that fostered the Manchester music scene, The Guardian “One thing that fascinates me about football is that it’s one of the last bastions of community.…

adamsmith.org This summer’s Mediterranean forest fires have been widely blamed on climate change, says Tim Worstall. That is part of the picture. Climate models do predict wetter winters, and “the major determinant for any one fire season is... how wet the preceding winter was” (rain encourages scrub growth, generating more fuel for summer fires). Ironically, another cause may be one of the environmentalists’ new favourite themes: rewilding. Many southern European countries have seen a rural exodus in recent decades as economic growth prompts people to move to cities. In some cases areas of land have been all but abandoned, leading to the development of natural scrub. But this return to the wild promotes the development of small, frequent fires, which are “an entirely natural part of the Mediterranean ecology”. On…

The story of Midas, and how everything he touched turned to gold, is perhaps the most famous golden myth of all. His touch led to one of the most successful and underrated technologies in history: coinage. Midas was the king of Phrygia, which is now part of Turkey. Dionysus (more commonly known as Bacchus, the god of wine, parties and pleasure) was passing through with his entourage. Waking up one morning after a heavy night, Dionysus discovered that his tutor, Silenus, was missing. Silenus was a satyr, half-man, half goat. He had been drinking and had wandered off and fallen asleep in a rose garden, a garden that belonged to king Midas. Midas enjoyed spending time there with his daughter, whom he loved more than anyone else in the world.…

The new “Consumer Duty” rules from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) came into effect this week. They are intended to hold firms to account by making them responsible for delivering fair value and good customer outcomes – but may end up having wider consequences for a range of financial services. Under the new rules, regulated financial firms such as banks, building societies, insurers, investment firms and financial advisers, have been warned they must improve and track how they communicate with and treat customers. They will need to monitor outcomes for consumers and the FCA may ask for evidence of how they keep track of those outcomes. Firms that ignore the rules may be subject to interventions or disciplinary sanctions. The new rules came into force on 31 July 2023, both…

As small businesses step up efforts to reduce their carbon footprints, many are seeking finance to help them fund investment in projects such as renewable energy and green building. One recent survey by the British Business Bank found that more than one in five small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) expect to borrow to support net-zero actions within the next five years. That has prompted huge interest from the banks, which spy a market opportunity, and are keen to burnish their own sustainability credentials. All the leading high-street banks, as well as specialist providers, now offer products marketed as “green loans” or “sustainability finance”. In each case, the money advanced must be used in pursuit of the borrowers’ net-zero targets – to invest in energy-efficiency upgrades, say, or more sustainable infrastructure…

The TB Amati UK Listed Smaller Companies fund provides comprehensive coverage of the UK Smaller Company and Aim universe. We apply our bottom-up, fundamentally driven stock-picking approach to the bottom 10% of the UK equity market by market capitalisation. We are UK smaller-company specialists and growth investors favouring top-quality, growing businesses with sustainable margins and revenues. While it has been a testing 12 months for smaller companies, we now find that there are many with strong growth drivers whose share prices have suffered from poor sentiment. We currently see an attractive decoupling between stock prices and company values. Plenty of potential in pet care CVS Group (Aim: CVSG) is an integrated veterinary-services provider. It caters for the trend towards the humanisation of pets, and owners’ willingness to pay for the…

A Georgian hunting lodge The recently opened Barnsdale hotel in Rutland is housed in a Georgian former hunting lodge that used to belong to the earls of Gainsborough, says Ian Belcher in The Sunday Times. Today, it is the third-largest hotel in the Signet Collection, the nascent hotel group that not too long ago reopened The Mitre at Hampton Court. Heritage features are highlighted, such as the “lovely stone flags, fireplaces and windows”, and there is a contemporary vibe from “bold colours and interesting fabrics”. The 46 bedrooms sport “cheery” headboards and “quirky flourishes” – branded mugs, artisan coffee and shot glasses for “on-the-house nightcaps of ginger citrus liqueur. It tastes far better than it sounds”. The menu at the brasserie-style restaurant “showcases fine regional produce, including Rutland Water trout,…

The “War of the Rosé” may be drawing to a close, says David Chazan in The Times. Actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been engaged in a years-long legal battle over Château Miraval, the €150m wine estate in Provence they had bought in 2008. The couple married at the winery in 2014 and later, under the stewardship of award-winning vintners the Perrin family, the rosé was feted as being among the best from the region. Profits shot up from €1m in 2013 to €15m in 2022. However, in 2016, Jolie filed for divorce, placing Château Miraval at the centre of a bitter custody battle. Her legal team accused Pitt of bullying, while Pitt accused Julie of trying to sell her stake in the winery to Russian billionaire Yuri Shefler…

There is a cloud over copper. Prices are still 20% below the level they hit in March last year just after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Copper rallied at the start of 2023 on “upbeat sentiment” about China’s post-pandemic reopening, but that recovery has underwhelmed, say Eric Onstad and Ananya Bajpai for Reuters. The global market had a surplus of 287,000 tonnes in the first five months of this year, according to the International Copper Study Group. That compares with a 74,000-tonne deficit in the same period last year. Copper’s widespread use in electrical wiring means that the price is regarded as a barometer for the global economy. There is more than weak Chinese demand to copper’s stagnant performance, says The Economist. It is still using 5% more copper this year…

Britain is “on track to incur the highest debt interest costs in the developed world this year”, adding to pressure on public finances, says Mary McDougall in the Financial Times. Creditratings agency Fitch forecasts that the Treasury will spend £110bn on debt interest this year, equivalent to more than 10% of total government revenue. Debt-servicing costs have been trending down in much of Europe as governments locked in low interest rates during the 2010s, and are now seeing inflation erode the real value of their debts. Yet roughly a quarter of UK debt is linked to the retail price index (RPI), so British debt costs rise alongside inflation. By contrast, only 8% of US debt and less than 5% of German debt is index-linked.…

Despite “a touch of bravado” from NatWest’s chairman Howard Davies at a recent press conference, questions remain about his future, says Ben Martin in The Sunday Times . He has had a “disastrous fortnight”. After initially backing the bank’s CEO Alison Rose amid the furore over Coutts’s treatment of Nigel Farage, Davies was forced into a U-turn after the government, which owns a 39% stake, “signalled that it no longer believed she should run the bank”. The “chaotic exit” of Rose, along with the CEO of Coutts a day later, last Thursday, has led to calls for Davies immediately to “follow her... out of the door”. However, Davies argues that the board “could not be held responsible” for either the original treatment of Farage or Rose’s briefing to the BBC,…

L Catterton, a private-equity group backed by luxury-goods giant LVMH, is planning to float Birkenstock, the famous German sandal-maker, in America next month, says Bloomberg. The initial public offering (IPO) could value the group at up to $10bn. The film Barbie has given recent sales a fillip – at one stage the doll wears a pair of pink Birkenstocks. If this valuation comes to pass, L Catterton would exit with a huge return, having acquired a majority stake in Birkenstock two years ago in a deal valuing it at €4bn. The 250-year-old sandal-maker, now deemed a high-fashion brand, grew sales by 29% to €1.2bn last year and is investing in new production sites in Germany.…

There were three UK by-elections last month, but there are likely to be several more in the near future. One of these is in Scotland’s Rutherglen and Hamilton West, where the current MP Margaret Ferrier, who sits as an independent after being suspended by the Scottish National Party, was sentenced to community service for breaching lockdown rules by travelling between London and Scotland after testing positive for Covid. She was subsequently suspended by the House of Commons, prompting a recall petition that has now received enough signatures to prompt a by-election. Ferrier has said that she won’t run. However, while Rutherglen was won at the last election by the SNP, punters have written off their chances of winning this time. With £3,521 matched on Betfair, Labour is favourites at 1.11…

London Bank payout: HSBC, Britain’s biggest bank, is returning $4bn to shareholders through a $2bn share buyback and a ten cents-a-share interim dividend, says Ben Martin in The Times. Pre-tax profits rose to $21.7bn in the first six months of this year, from $8.8bn a year earlier, while revenue climbed by half to $36.9bn. Rising interest rates supplemented one-off gains relating to the planned sale of its French retail arm and its rescue takeover in March of Silicon Valley Bank UK. HSBC will be hoping the shareholder payout goes some way to placating Ping An – the Chinese insurer and HSBC’s biggest shareholder that had been agitating to break up the lender by spinning off its main Asian business. Investors had, however, resisted that proposal and HSBC boss Noel Quinn…

● Speed is not typically associated with BT, says Alistair Osborne in The Times. “Normally there’s more of a call-centre vibe… investors left hanging on for yonks.” So the news that Allison Kirkby (pictured) will be taking over from outgoing CEO Philip Jansen in January was surprisingly fast; Jansen’s exit was announced just three weeks ago. Of course, Kirkby, currently head of Swedish telco Telia, was already on the BT board as a non-executive, and there aren’t many other plausible candidates. Jansen has spent four years making heavy investments in fibre broadband and 5G mobile. “The last thing [BT] needs is a new boss with a different strategy.” Kirkby faces big challenges: she needs to show that this spending will deliver quality returns, implement up to 55,000 job cuts, and…

■ Abrdn is calling time on its underperforming Global Absolute Return Strategies (Gars) fund, says Citywire. The fund, which managed £45bn at its peak in 2016, will be folded into Abrdn’s diversified multi-asset funds after assets slumped to £1.4bn. Gars was created to reduce the deficit in Standard Life’s pension scheme and was later rolled out to the wider market. Standard Life – which later merged with Aberdeen before losing several vowels to become Abrdn – “reaped huge fees” from the fund for many years, but “things started to go awry” when key members of the team left to join Invesco and Aviva in 2012 and 2013. The fund’s objective is to “deliver a positive return regardless of market conditions with low risk” but it has struggled in recent years.…

cepr.org/voxeu Much Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovation happens in Europe, yet European firms lag behind the US and China when it comes to actually adopting AI technologies, say James Harrigan, Ariell Reshef and Farid Toubal. The missing link between theory and practice is “techies”: a firm’s research-and-development (R&D) scientists, product engineers and IT specialists. Investment in R&D personnel is key to raising long-term productivity in manufacturing. R&D generates patents and product innovation that give firms an enduring competitive edge. Our research shows that a broader range of techies is also important. IT staff are key to helping firms integrate new technologies into their day-to-day operations. The techies train other staff and ensure new digital systems run smoothly. The benefits of R&D spending are mainly limited to manufacturing, but IT techies raise…

Bank accounts used to be very sticky – people tended to stay with the same bank they’d been with for years, whether that was the best option for them or not. This may be changing. Customers are shifting current accounts at an ever-increasing pace, judging by the latest data from the Current Account Switch Service (CASS). More than 1.2 million accounts were switched using CASS over the 12 months from July 2022 to June 2023, a rise of 50% on the previous 12 months. In the first quarter of 2023 – the most recent detailed data – the NatWest group was the biggest net gainer, with an increase of 45,561 accounts at NatWest and 4,165 for RBS. HSBC gained a net 28,486 accounts – CASS data doesn’t show how many…

As your business grows, it becomes harder to keep track of your customers. There will hopefully be more and more of them; each one may be giving you more business; and you may have a growing team of people to look after them. At this stage a firm should start looking for a customer-relationship management (CRM) system. The idea with CRM systems is to centralise customers’ data. Your CRM platform becomes the place to maintain their contact details, track every interaction with them, and manage their accounts. However, CRM platform providers insist they offer more than just administrative tools. With so much data accruing in one place, it may be possible to use analytics techniques to boost your business – to work out which customers might want to spend more,…

2022 Côte-de-Brouilly, Cuvée de l’Heronde, Domaine Vavril, Beaujolais, France £15.45, reduced to £13.75 by the case of 12 bottles, hhandc.co.uk I have just returned from my annual pilgrimage to Piemonte, in north-west Italy, to taste every elite bottle I could find to finish my 2023 Piemonte Report. The weather was unseasonably warm, so every red wine I ordered in restaurants would have been ruined at 35°C air temperature were it not for the ever-excellent bar staff, sommeliers and front-of-house stars serving these wines chilled. Not one restaurant missed a trick, delivering bottles to the table at cellar temperature, which would have seemed cold on a winter’s day, but perfect in this climate, and then they returned with a cold sleeve or an ice bucket minutes later. Italians invariably know how…

Lessons from Global Meltdowns and How to Prevent ThemLinda YuehPenguin Business (£22) From Covid to the collapse of Credit Suisse amid soaring interest rates, recent years have brought a steady stream of economic and financial crisis. In The Great Crashes, economist Linda Yueh looks at the causes of ten major market meltdowns – from the Wall Street Crash in 1929 to the pandemic – and considers the lessons that we can learn from success or failure of responses to them, as well as analysing where the next one could start. Yueh’s conclusion is that its very easy for a financial crisis to turn into a general economic downturn or worse. She argues that the best outcomes have been in situations where governments and central banks have done everything in their…

“The countdown is beginning” toward the end of Japan’s “decade-long radical monetary easing”, says Megumi Fujikawa in The Wall Street Journal. Last week, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) surprised markets by announcing more flexibility in its yield-curve control (YCC) policy. The BoJ had been the last major holdout on ultra-loose money as other central banks raised rates – short-term interest rates are currently -0.1% in Japan. Since 2016 the bank has also manipulated long-term rates by intervening in the Japanese government bond market using YCC. Officials had been capping yields on ten-year government bonds at 0.5%, using printed money to buy up as many bonds as necessary to keep rates down. The policy tweak means the 0.5% cap is “now a suggestion” rather than a rigid limit, says Fujikawa. That…

BP’s second-quarter profits came in far below expectations, slipping by almost 70% to $2.6bn as oil and gas prices and refining margins retreated from 2022’s peaks, says Ben Martin in The Times. The fall in oil prices is due to investors shifting their focus from potential shortages caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to worries over a macroeconomic downturn denting demand. However, despite the slump in profits BP is still confident about the future. It will raise its quarterly dividend by 10% and buy back $1.5bn of its own shares in the next three months. Investors in BP will be “disappointed” by the “heavy blow to profits dealt by lower commodity prices”, says Derren Nathan of Hargreaves Lansdown. Yet this will be more than compensated for by the fact that…

Four to buy Bango The Mail on SundayThis technology business helped clients to process over £7bn in customers’ payments globally last year. Bango is now expanding into “super-bundling”: technology that lets telecoms firms offer a one-stop platform to manage and cancel multiple subscriptions. Bango has a market-leading position in the area and the service has already been adopted by US phone giant Verizon. Bango should turn a profit this year and keep growing as it grabs a slice of the huge global subscription economy. 189p Kitwave The Telegraph This “under the radar” distribution business has been a rare London listings triumph, with the share price almost doubling since flotation in May 2021. If you have made an “impulse” purchase at a corner shop then chances are Kitwave may well have…

TR Property (LSE: TRY) had a wretched time in the year to 31 March, with its net asset value (NAV) and share price dropping by 36%. This has taken the stock back to levels last seen nearly a decade ago. It was also the first time in ten years in which the manager, Marcus Phayre-Mudge, underperformed the fund’s benchmark, albeit only by a small amount. After recent declines, the stock is trading at a 10% discount to NAV. However, the true discount to underlying value is far greater, because the trust principally invests in listed UK and European property stocks, and these holdings are themselves trading at large discounts to NAV. “This is an unusual cycle in which both interest rates and rents are rising,” says David Watson, TR Property’s…

Why Ulez has become toxic Robert Colvile The Sunday Times Ulez, the ultra-low emission zone, has become “hugely toxic” as a result of Sadiq Khan’s plan to extend it, but it “ought to be popular,” says Robert Colvile. Britain’s air is too dirty and there is a “large volume of British and European regulation setting limits and targets for pollutants”. Polling finds that 79% of voters worry about air quality and there is good evidence that the original Ulez sharply reduced the number of high-polluting vehicles on the roads. However, when it was introduced, there was “clear messaging” about its aim and in inner London, people have several alternatives to cars. Ulez expansion, by contrast, “felt like a cash grab”, with low-income families having to pay £12.50 a day “to…

econlib.org The conservative insistence on personal responsibility often comes across to left-wingers as callous and selfish, says Kevin Corcoran. Yet it is worth remembering that the need for personal responsibility applies not only to those in trouble, but also to those in a position to help. Instead of expecting the government to step in, the responsibility for assisting people in need also falls on individuals. To “turn away from your duty of care” towards friends, family or your community and “outsource it to distant state bureaucrats” is an abdication of personal responsibility. Left-wingers sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that “many of my neighbours are struggling, but I have voiced support for welfare” policies and paid my taxes, so “my hands are clean”. Conservatives should recognise that their responsibility…

The simplest and cheapest way to gain exposure to Mexico is through a country-focused exchange-traded fund (ETF), such as the Xtrackers MSCI Mexico UCITS ETF 1C (LSE: XMEX). It tracks Mexico’s main share index by holding shares in 23 leading corporations and has a total expense ratio of 0.65%. The only problem is that consumer-facing firms make up 35% of the holdings; industrials comprise just 10%. A cheaper way of getting ETF-like exposure to the Mexican economy is to buy a bank, because it does business across the economy. I like Banorte (Nasdaq: GBOOY), the country’s second-largest financial group. Banorte has a market value of $24bn and is rated investment-grade by the major credit-rating agencies. It is diversified, with the traditional banking business complemented with pensions, insurance, wealth management and…

● British Airways may have to charge VAT on its Avios air-miles scheme in some situations after HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) launched a review of how Avios are taxed, says Head for Points. At present, Avios are exempt from VAT since flights are not subject to VAT and air miles are intended to be put towards flights. In addition, most Avios are earned either through flying with British Airways and its partners or as rewards on credit-card purchases. However, over time the scheme has evolved so that people can purchase Avios directly to top up their balance. In addition, Avios can now be used to purchase goods and services other than flights. IAG – the parent company of BA – revealed in its first-half results last week that HMRC…

● Almost a quarter of research-and-development (R&D) tax credits paid to small businesses in the 2020-2021 financial year were fraudulent or paid in error, HM Revenue & Customs has revealed. The R&D scheme suffered losses of £1bn, HMRC now believes, with firms either applying for tax relief for projects that should never have been deemed to qualify, or making claims that were outright scams. The scandal is likely to prompt a further crackdown on R&D tax credit claims. There is concern that agents promoting the R&D scheme – and taking a commission on credits paid – may have encouraged companies to claim more than they were owed. ● Has your small business registered with Active Cyber Defence (ACD), a free programme operated by the National Cyber Security Centre? If not,…

After doing a politics degree at Exeter, Anthony Cross joined Schroders, working on their smaller-companies team, which managed roughly £2bn of investors’ money, mainly for pension funds and other financial institutions. In 1997 Cross was approached by Liontrust, who wanted him to run a small-cap fund for them. Deciding that the time had come for him to acquire some practical experience investing money, he made the switch, joining them in time for the launch of their UK Smaller Companies Fund launched in January 1998. Since then he has stayed at Liontrust, managing various funds. What was the investment? In November 2000, Datamonitor, a technology group focusing on market research, floated on the London Stock Exchange. Owing to the subsequent collapse of the dotcom bubble, the shares plunged from 165p to…

Big Caesars and Little Caesars How They Rise and How They Fall, from Julius Caesar to Boris JohnsonFerdinand Mount Bloomsbury (£20) One by one, the “toxic giants” of modern politics have “come crashing to earth”, with Boris Johnson quitting, Donald Trump indicted and Silvio Berlusconi dead, says Gaby Hinsliff in the Guardian. So it’s “sorely tempting to conclude that the chaotic ride of recent years is finally over, and life might return to something more like normal”. However, Ferdinand Mount’s “absorbing tour of populist rogues through the ages”, argues that this would be a “rookie mistake”. His new book claims these are a “regularly recurring phenomenon for which nations just as regularly fall”, and “from which they don’t recover overnight”. Ignoring “Grade One tyrants” like “Hitler, Stalin, Mao…