Innehållsförteckning för Issue 962 från MoneyWeek

Gold mines have had a stellar year so far, with the HUI index jumping by 50% since June. However, it remains 200% below its all-time high in 2011, while the increasingly shaky global economic backdrop also implies ample scope for gains with these leveraged plays on the gold price. One to consider, says Börse Online, is Canada’s Barrick Gold. Its production costs are a mere $825 an ounce, which is low compared with most of its competitors and a far cry from gold’s current price of $1,530. The recent takeover of Randgold Resources, meanwhile, has given Barrick access to “expertise” in Africa as well as higher-quality gold reserves than its major US rival Newmont Mining.…

Bristol-Myers Squibb has “moved a step closer” to completing the largest takeover deal in the healthcare industry, says James Dean in The Times. Celgene, its target, has agreed to sell its blockbuster psoriasis treatment, Otezla, to Amgen for $13.4bn. Celgene first put Otezla up for sale two months ago to placate US competition regulators who were concerned that its combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb “could give the new company too much power in the market for anti-inflammatory drugs”. Amgen says Otezla will cost it closer to $11.2bn owing to tax benefits. Bristol-Myers will benefit in several ways from the deal, says Richard Beales on Breakingviews. Not only will the sale “smooth” any potential antitrust problems, but the money raised will reduce leverage at the larger company and allow it to “ratchet…

A reserve currency refers to a currency that central banks hold in large quantities as part of their foreign currency reserves. The US dollar is the most dominant reserve currency in the world, accounting for about 62% of foreign currency reserves, with the euro far behind on 20%. Meanwhile, as Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, points out, a third of countries peg their currencies to the US dollar (in other words, their currencies go up and down along with the dollar), and half of global trade invoices are denominated in dollars. The dollar’s dominance has several implications. It means that the US’s importance and influence stretches far beyond its raw economic clout (the US accounts for 10% of world trade and 15% of global GDP). It also…

• England cricketer Ben Stokes (pictured) can look forward to some lucrative sponsorship contracts in the wake of his remarkable innings over the bank holiday weekend that saved England from defeat to Australia and kept their Ashes hopes alive. Stokes’ contracts with the Indian Premier League and the English Cricket Board already earn him around £2.7m a year, says the Daily Mail, and he could be looking at up to £10m a year with endorsements. • Sally Balcombe, the CEO of UK tourism quango VisitBritain, had a pay rise of 6% this year, bringing her total compensation to between £225,000 and £230,000, which includes a £17,500 bonus. Balcombe whose quango has just 285 staff, is paid about the same as Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick, who has 42,232 staff, and…

US firearms maker American Outdoor Brands is under fire from anti-gun activists. Nuns representing the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary plan to introduce a resolution requiring the firm to “identify, assess, prevent and mitigate actual and potential human rights impacts” resulting from the use of guns such as Smith & Wesson, the group’s most famous brand. The firm says the motion is vague and – because it cites United Nations principles on human rights – is trying to supplant US law with international law. The issue is whether institutional investors will offer support, says The Motley Fool’s Richard Dupree. Last year BlackRock, which holds 8% of the shares, voted in favour of a resolution to force the gunmaker to report on gun violence in the US…

“I tried to get away with the skinniest ones so the money would pile up.” Actress Lucy Boynton (pictured), whose mother paid her 75p for every book she finished when she was a child, quoted in The Sunday Times “I’m taking my toddler to a lot of children’s shows. I want him to see how badly things can turn out if you pursue a career in the arts.” Comedian Tania Edwards in The Daily Telegraph “We are born brave, trusting and greedy – and most of us remain greedy.” US poet Muriel Strode, quoted on Twitter “Well, you have much more money, that’s hugely life-changing… Money is so connected to freedom, autonomy, options, owning property. I just bought a house, I can get a dog, so this is the happiest…

inc.com There’s a popular myth, exemplified by Apple founder Steve Jobs, that a tough boss is a good boss. It ain’t necessarily so, says John Boitnott. A 2017 review of scientific studies found no evidence that tough bosses got better results. A “softer, more balanced approach” may be better for morale and hence help grow the business. Here are three tips. 1. Stay strong. Forsaking domineering behaviour doesn’t mean being a pushover. Most of us appreciate a boss who can make decisions with confidence. 2. Cultivate your softer side. Much of what is seen as toughness is really lack of respect. One of the best ways to soften up is show empathy and compassion. “Try to express genuine interest in your colleagues and employees.” 3. Communicate. “Tough” bosses show their…

Stratasys (Nasdaq: SSYS) is probably the purest play on 3D printing available and the company has been involved with the sector for the past three decades, producing award-winning 3D printers and printing systems. This stock is not for the faint-hearted since the company has struggled to translate its technological leadership into profitability. The stock is still 80% down from its peak five years ago. Nevertheless, Stratasys is finally beginning to reap the financial rewards from years of research, and trades at only a 7% premium to its book value. Proto Labs (NYSE: PRLB) specialises in rapidly manufacturing custom prototypes and production parts. It has facilities in eight countries, including the US and Britain. It originally focused on injection moulding, but it has become one of the major players in the…

The Apprenticeship Levy should be a boon for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Introduced in 2017, the levy requires all employers with a wage bill of £3m or more to pay into a fund financing the cost of apprenticeship schemes; these firms then reclaim government vouchers that help them meet the costs of their own apprenticeship initiatives. Firms with lower wage bills are not required to pay the levy but can still claim funding for apprentices – often as much as 95% of their costs. Unfortunately, the levy hasn’t matched expectations. Many SMEs are now reluctant to run apprenticeship schemes because accessing funds from the levy is so complicated. Nor do the finances of the scheme stack up. According to the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, which represents apprenticeship…

We seek out the highest-quality companies with the potential to deliver attractive returns. We look at aspects such as margin sustainability, culture, research and development (R&D) budget, vision and integrity of senior personnel, debt and – critically – attitude to debt. We believe owning quality companies, especially during periods of heightened uncertainty and volatility, pays off over the long-term. As the famous American investor Peter Lynch pointed out, “more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections or trying to anticipate corrections than has been lost in the corrections themselves”. A finger in several tasty pies “Arguably luxury group LVMH’s top competitors are the counterfeiters” One top-notch stock is Halma (LSE: HLMA), a technology company operating in three areas: safety-critical systems (fire detection), environmental operations (water analysis) and medical…

If you have ever enjoyed the wines from the famous Ravenswood portfolio or indeed the lusty red grape zinfandel, then pay attention. This wine is made by Joel Peterson, founder of Ravenswood back in 1976. Over the years I have written up more of Joel’s zinfandels than every other zin producer on earth added together. Joel sold his brand to Constellation in 2001 and he continued consulting until 2015. He then embarked on the most audacious winemaking journey of his life, Once & Future, the only rule being that he makes every single wine himself by hand. His knowledge of California’s old vines is second to none and at a recent tasting in London I scored my old pal’s wines higher than anything I have seen from over the pond…

Bury FC has become the first club to be expelled from the English Football League (EFL) since Maidstone United was kicked out in 1992. The club, founded in 1885 and promoted to English football’s third tier in April, has been in financial difficulties for some time. The head coach issued a winding up order over unpaid wages, which was taken over by HMRC. Businessman Steve Dale bought the club for £1 in December, but the problems continued, and five months after buying the club, Dale put it up for sale, saying the financial problems were “far in excess of what we could have comprehended”. The club entered into a company voluntary arrangement (a form of agreement with creditors), which was approved in July, and which Dale said meant the club’s…

“The stockmarket’s most important safety net is in danger,” says Daniel Strauss on Business Insider. During volatile periods of this ten-year bull market US firms have stepped in to buy back shares, propping up equity prices. Yet in the second quarter they have bought back stock at the slowest pace in 18 months. Buybacks reduce the number of a company’s shares on the stock exchange. That improves earnings per share and boosts the share price. Many regard buybacks as a more tax-efficient means to return capital to shareholders than a dividend. Corporate tax reform in 2017 sparked a buyback “bonanza”, but the sugar rush could be coming to an end, says Jessica Menton in The Wall Street Journal. Firms in the S&P 500 bought back $166bn of their own stock…

When gold rallies and is set to keep performing strongly, silver often does even better: it is also a traditional store of value, and because the silver market is smaller than its gold counterpart, it is prone to sharp ups and downs. The gold/silver ratio tracks the relative progress of the two monetary metals by dividing the silver price into the gold price, revealing how many ounces of silver it takes to buy an ounce of gold. The ratio is now suggesting that silver has some catching up to do. A few weeks ago it reached 88, the highest reading in nearly 30 years. The last time it reached a similar level, in early 2016, it slid by nearly a quarter as silver outperformed gold, notes Matt Simpson on City…

Investment banks have begun vying for roles in the forthcoming initial public offering (IPO) of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil group Aramco. The company confirmed earlier this month that it still planned to go public; the flotation is now expected in 2020 and should value the company at a record $2 trillion. In the first six months of 2019 Aramco earned $46.9bn in the first six months of 2019, well ahead of the world’s top six oil majors combined. Meanwhile, stock exchanges are also lobbying for Aramco’s lucrative business. Officials from the London, New York and Hong Kong exchanges have reportedly visited Saudi Arabia in the past few weeks.…

Shares in Johnson & Johnson (J&J) jumped by more than 5% this week. No wonder, says Jan Hoffman on Bloomberg. An Oklahoma judge ordered the company to pay “far less” than expected in the first trial involving a state seeking compensation for the public-health crisis spawned by opioid painkillers. The judge said J&J had created a “temporary” public nuisance by “duping” doctors into overprescribing its opioid-based medications. But the $572m payment was much lower than the $17.5bn Oklahoma had been seeking. The case has been closely monitored by around two-dozen opioid makers, distributors and retailers facing more than 2,000 similar lawsuits around the US. The verdict may have given investors “some hope” that opioid litigation “won’t be as destructive as some on Wall Street have feared”, says Charley Grant in…

The French president surprised observers by delivering “a diplomatic masterclass” at the G7 summit at Biarritz at the weekend, says Dennis MacShane in The Independent. In one of the “most relentless 72 hours of international politics seen in decades”, Emmanuel Macron extracted several concessions from the leaders of the world’s biggest economies. The most notable of these was the agreement that the OECD club of advanced economies should oversee “an effective global digital tax” to force digital “behemoths” to pay tax on their “mega-profits”. At the same time, US president Donald Trump appeared to pull back from his threatened tax on French wine exports – a “rare reversal”. There were even signs that America might soften its positions on China and Iran. But the critical issue at stake in these…

What has happened? G7 leaders this week agreed an £18m aid package plus logistical support to help Brazil fight fires in the Amazon rainforest. The offer was rejected by Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who has accused the group of a “colonialist” mentality. Facing growing international pressure, his government has instead opted to deploy 44,000 troops to combat the blazes. Brazil’s space agency says there has been an 85% rise in Amazon fires compared with this time last year. What is on fire? Dramatic images of “an entire forest ablaze”, which have been widely shared on social media, are misleading, says Jonathan Watts in The Guardian. Most fires were set by farmers on agricultural land in already deforested areas. The increase in fires between August and October every year coincides with…

Think negative bond yields are an aberration – a bubble set to burst? Think again, says Albert Edwards, global strategist at Societe Generale. “There is a lot more to come.” Edwards has warned for decades now of a coming “Ice Age” in which bond yields plumb ever-deeper lows and the entire developed world moves closer to ongoing Japan-style deflation. And it looks uncomfortably as though his vision is coming to pass. The massive rally in government bonds (which has driven yields to record lows in many countries, and into negative territory across Japan and much of Europe) “is not a bubble”, he says. Instead, it is “an appropriate reaction to the market discounting the next recession hitting the global economy from all overleveraged corners of the world”. And in the…

A trio of businesswomen have “banked hundreds of millions of pounds in fees” from mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) claims, reports The Guardian. Their companies claim PPI compensation for individuals and take a percentage of every successful claim. The youngest is Lisa O’Neill, who, at 39, owns 100% of Gladstone Brookes, which since 2009 has recovered over £1bn for customers, taking a 20% cut from each payment. The second biggest claims company, The Claims Guys, is run by Helen Dwyer and in the year to the end of April 2018 made a profit of £45m on a turnover of £115m. The Guardian suggests that Dwyer’s 75% holding entitles her to at least £25m of this. Completing the trio is Joy Chorlton, who owns We Fight Any Claim, which has won…

■ Last week brought ”fresh humiliation” for Neil Woodford, says Sabah Meddings in The Sunday Times. Two of the healthcare start-ups held by Woodford’s Patient Capital Trust (PCT) have become worthless. Precision Biopsy, a prostate-analysis specialist, and drug developer SciFluor Life Sciences, both of which are in the red, will no longer benefit from money from Allied Minds, the technology incubator (in which PCT holds a 26% stake). Allied Minds’ decision prompted PCT to write down the two assets’ value to zero; stockbroker Numis takes the same view. The news comes shortly after PCT wrote down the value of Industrial Heat, a cold fusion developer, by around 40%, and suffered another blow when the Aim-listed shares of Eddie Stobart Logistics were suspended. The latter stock is also a holding of…

unherd.com St Ives in Cornwall was fed up with rich Londoners buying second homes and holiday lets, and pushing up house prices beyond what local wages could bear, says Peter Franklin. At the last count, a quarter of the dwellings in St Ives were second homes or holiday lets. So the locals took back control. In May 2016, voters backed a referendum to stop newly built houses in the town from being used as second homes. The result is that prices of new homes in the town are 13% below what they might have been if the previous growth rate had continued. True, the level of housebuilding in St Ives has slumped. But slowing the pace of development may be just what’s needed. The housing crisis is one of affordability,…

In our yield-starved world, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending once seemed like nirvana: lend to people via an online marketplace and receive income yields well above those on offer from savings accounts. Unfortunately, over the last year or so, the shine has come off the sector, although the numbers suggest that the overall P2P marketplace is still growing. Specialist website altfi.com (of which I am executive director) recently published a state-of-the-market report (available online after registration: altfi.com/state-of-the-market), which collates various industry data sources in Europe. A sharp slowdown in growth “P2P returns are still well above the risk-free rate on three-year UK bonds” The report shows that gross new lending in Britain topped £6bn for the first time in 2018, reaching £6.055bn according to specialist data provider Brismo. That represented a 20%…

With small and medium-sized businesses accounting for 58% of all sales made on Amazon around the world, independent retailers are a crucial constituency for the e-commerce giant. Amazon has now launched 150 separate tools and services this year designed to help SMEs operating through its marketplaces. The initiative represents a significant increase in support for small businesses that depend on Amazon to reach their customers. The platform is keen to rebut criticisms that it has prioritised sales of its own products ahead of those of third-party sellers. The services on offer do provide SMEs with access to the sort of functionality that large retailers take for granted. They include fulfilment and inventory management tools to help SMEs manage their stock more effectively, a suite of analytics software to help firms…

Puma (DE: PUM), the world’s third-biggest sportswear manufacturer after Nike and Adidas, is “leaping ahead”, says Euro am Sonntag. It has just raised its profit forecast for this year, with operating earnings now expected to grow by up to 28%. The news follows a record first quarter, when both sales and earnings notched up double-digit percentage growth. The sector’s longterm prospects look compelling as emerging-market consumers grow wealthier and the health and fitness trend spreads. No wonder the shares have risen by 40% this year alone.…

John Sadleir, the son of a wealthy Irish farmer, was born in 1813, followed by his brother James two years later. John initially pursued a legal career, but the brothers went on to set up the Tipperary Joint Stock Bank in 1846, which was run by James. The brothers were also politically active – John entered parliament in 1847; James in 1852. John was a leading figure in the Independent Irish Party, which pledged not to serve in office. He was elected and accepted a place in a coalition government from 1852 through 1854. His decision to hold office despite being elected on a pledge not to caused outrage. What was the scam? The Tipperary Joint Stock Bank was successful in the beginning, but John’s greed started to get the…

“Liddle provides plenty of red meat for Brexiteers, but is unlikely to win anyone of the opposite side around” On 23 June 2016 Britain narrowly voted to leave the European Union. Three years on, we’re still members, and will be until at least the end of October, and possibly beyond. Journalist Rod Liddle is not surprised by the turn of events. He supported Brexit, but predicted hours after the result was announced that Britain would never actually end up leaving. In The Great Betrayal: The True Story of Brexit, Liddle looks at the reasons for the delay, including what he sees as the organised conspiracy to thwart the “will of the people”. In Liddle’s view, this conspiracy has four main elements. The first is that many in the Remain camp…

It’s amazing to think that only a few years ago political figures around the world were queuing up to be associated with Facebook and Twitter. Today, the pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme. With social media blamed for everything from encouraging violence to undermining democracy, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg and other tech tycoons have become public pariahs. Roger McNamee thinks they have only themselves to blame – Facebook and similar firms have been unwilling even to acknowledge the social problems their platforms have created, he says. McNamee has worked in venture capital for three decades and was one of Facebook’s early investors. But when his repeated warnings about Russian manipulation were ignored, he went public with his concerns, starting what became a public campaign for more regulation. McNamee is…

• “Elton John’s carbon offset payment for the Sussexes’ private flight got me curious,” says Alexandra Shulman in The Mail on Sunday. “How much, I wondered, would it cost for me to offset my BA flight to Croatia?” The answer was £18 in economy class and £27 in business (and no discount for Ryanair). Nevertheless, it seemed “a meagre price to pay for a clean conscience”. But then came the bad news in the small print. “This trip alone apparently used up my total annual allowance of carbon emissions. So no matter how much Elton (pictured) or I donate, it’s not going to let us off the hook when it comes to dealing with the carbon load already out there.” Still, it’s daft to criticise those who fly in private…

€850bn The value of the war reparations Poland’s populist government says it will demand from Germany during commemorations to mark 80 years since the start of World War II on Sunday, reports Die Welt. Germany says the matter was settled with the Soviets in 1953. £1,968 The annual value of the “Union dividend” to each person in Scotland from the nation having voted in 2014 to stay in the UK, according to the annual Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) report. Last year, £12.6bn more was spent in Scotland than was raised there. 62 How much cheaper it is in percentage terms to pay the interest on a new mortgage rather than rent a property, says Capital Economics. The average monthly rent for a property is £859; the average monthly…

Recessions are “a state of mind”, says The Economist, and “the world’s mood is troubled”. If the public is confident and happy to spend then “even a big shock” may not halt an expansion. Conversely, if times are fearful, then “even a modest nudge may push an economy into a slump”. Markets have been on a downswing ever since Donald Trump upped the trade war ante on 1 August. The end of last week brought yet more escalation: Beijing announced tariffs on $75bn (£61bn)-worth of US goods. Twelve hours later Trump hit back, hiking tariffs on $250bn of Chinese imports to 30%. As John Authers notes on Bloomberg, the president appears determined to pursue an increasingly nasty trade dispute to the bitter end, even at the cost of a falling…

“If the EU project were a ship, it could plausibly be the RMS Titanic. How else to explain the actions of political ‘leaders’ who, having hit the iceberg called Brexit, decide to hit the accelerator in the same (wrong) direction? The Financial Times reported last week that Brussels was considering a €100bn sovereign wealth fund to finance ‘European industrial champions’ to compete with the likes of Apple... ‘Europe has no such companies’, says the document... This presents a risk to growth, jobs and to Europe’s influence in key strategic sectors’. Putting aside the wisdom of the centrally planned growth strategy that served the USSR, China... and North Korea so well, [surely] Brussels [has] better things to do with other people’s money, given the looming insolvency of... the eurozone banking sector…

Three to buy Antofagasta Shares The price of copper has fallen to levels not seen since the last recession. The slump has seen shares in this Chilean copper miner fall 20% since April. But the long-term outlook for the metal, which is closely connected to global industrial demand, is auspicious as populations grow and get richer. Mining operations are always volatile, but Chile is stable, which lowers risk. With production costs falling, this is a chance to buy a “best-in-class” operator while sentiment is poor. 810p Berkeley Group The Sunday Telegraph This “canny” London-focused housebuilder is a master of the art of buying low and selling high. Between 2009 and 2012 it used the opportunity presented by the financial crisis to buy up £1bn of land. The subsequent rally allowed…

• Sports Direct faces the prospect of “being stuck without an auditor” after Grant Thornton stepped down following the “last-minute” discovery of a £611m tax bill before Sports Direct’s “shambling” recent results, says Oliver Shah in The Sunday Times. At the same time, Deloitte, EY and KPMG have all found reasons to stay away. Of course, their reticence is understandable given that CEO Mike Ashley’s behaviour over recent years means he’s not “someone whose word you want to rely on”. Still, while Ashley may be a “rougher” and “more unappealing” version of other dubious corporate characters, a “world where the big accountants shrug their shoulders and walk away from difficult jobs is not a safer one”. • Volkswagen’s management “could be forgiven for feeling particularly ambivalent” about the legacy of…

With £604,856 already matched on Betfair, punters clearly think that a general election in Britain will happen sooner rather than later. An election this year is the favourite at odds of 1.53 (65.3%). The other options are 2020 at 3.7 (27%), with 2021 at 36 (2.7%) and 2022 at 17 (5.9%) now seen as longshots. Personally, I’m very happy that I tipped an election in either 2019, 2020 or 2021, back in August 2017. But instead of putting any more money down on it, I suggest that you take a look at another Betfair market that has sprung up on the month that the election will be held. A total of £134,789 has been matched so far. Although you can still bet on an election taking place this month or…

The US dollar is the global reserve currency. We explain what that means below, but the short answer is that dollars are used in a huge range of financial and trade transactions globally. This means that everyone from central banks to companies needs a steady supply of dollars. This in turns means that changes to US monetary policy – and thus the value, or cost, of the dollar – affect not only America, but everybody. That’s not necessarily a problem when times are good. But when times are tough – or when the US is raising rates at a time when everyone else is cutting – it can have damaging knock-on effects. And the most vulnerable nations, the developing markets, are the least well equipped to cope. “A digital reserve…

A billion here. A couple of billion there. Our new prime minister certainly knows how to spend money and has no reservations about spraying the economy with government cash. The latest recipient of his generosity is a fund to rescue the high street. The idea is a worthy one. The government has set aside £1bn that different towns can bid for a share of. The grants will be used to upgrade infrastructure, improve transport and pay for fresh planning applications. The idea is that, with some sprucing up, some better marketing, and a few more buses, we will all start spending our Saturday afternoon nipping between Boots and WH Smith on the high street before stopping at a local organic café for a latte and muffin. Terminal decline There is…

According to City folklore, the Chinese word for crisis is made up of two characters, one signalling danger, the other opportunity. With the media fearing an imminent Chinese crackdown on the protesters in Hong Kong, the danger for investors is clear. But if those fears are misguided, the current uncertainty may present an opportunity. The latter seems much the most likely, with the Chinese authorities exercising some restraint and anxious not to destabilise carefully cultivated relations with other emerging economies. Stocks are hard to ignore A major disruption to the Chinese economy and stockmarket looks unlikely. As Dale Nicholls, the manager of Fidelity China Special Situations Trust (FCSS), explains, “the Chinese economy may have slowed, but it is still... growing at over 6% per annum. Over time, the consequent growth…

US buying Greenland makes sense David Dodwell South China Morning Post Donald Trump’s proposed acquisition of Greenland isn’t quite as “ludicrous” as it seems to “most common folk”, says David Dodwell. Trump, of course, harks from New York, where Manhattan was first bought from native Indians by the Dutch West India Company in 1626 for 60 guilders (the Dutch later traded it to the British for an Indonesian island). Indeed, for centuries, colonial powers horse-traded tracts of land like “chips at a roulette table”. Greenland, at 2.2 million sq km, would be the world’s largest island if it can ever escape the glacial ice. And as the ice melts, and the “world’s superpowers begin salivating over buried mineral wealth and fecund fisheries”, Greenland will become an asset needing to be…

aier.org Recycling has become something of a ritual for those religiously devoted to the green cause, says Michael Munger. But does it actually make sense? This is how you tell. Take the item to be recycled in your hand and consider: will someone pay me for this? If so, it’s a commodity, a valuable resource. If it contains gold or scrap metal, say, then there have always been people who will come and take it off your hands and recycle it for you. If the answer is no, then it’s rubbish. Rubbish can either go to landfill or be recycled. But which of those makes the most sense depends on the resources used for each, and on whether putting it in landfill is harmful. Glass, for example, is made of…

Investing in new technology tends to follow a set pattern. First you have a period where the technology languishes in obscurity. Next you have an explosion of interest, turning into hype. However, when it becomes clear that the technology will take longer than initially expected to develop and go mainstream, there is a collapse in interest – between 2012 and 2014 shares in companies related to 3D printing soared before falling back over the next two years. Finally, when everyone’s attention is elsewhere, the technology begins to deliver on its promises. The trick, then, is to buy after the bubble has popped and everyone is too traumatised or sceptical to jump back in. Three-dimensional (3D) printing is currently in this position. Transforming production The best way to understand 3D printing,…

Fail to shop around when looking for financial advice and you could end up paying £4,500 more than you need to. New research by Which?, the independent consumers’ organisation, has revealed that the cost of financial advice can vary by as much as 1,000%, proving that you need to compare several independent financial advisers (IFAs) before making an appointment. Which? asked 108 advisers what they charged for a variety of scenarios. On one occasion, “a woman approaching retirement and wanting advice on drawing an income was quoted £500 for advice by the cheapest adviser – and £5,000 for the most expensive”, says Kate Palmer in The Sunday Times. Advice for a young parent looking to save for their child’s university education varied from £300 to £2,500. “Shop around,” says Jenny…

• What does your business do? We help companies build teams in the technology and energy sectors. We focus on recruitment and training to fix the skills gap in these industries, which is critical to our future. • What’s been your greatest achievement? Our niche focus on technology and innovation has enabled us to expand globally very quickly. We opened our first international office in 2015, and now achieve international sales of around $50m (£41m) across Asia Pacific, Europe and the US. So 50% of our total sales now come from outside the UK. This year, we were named as one of the top ten companies with the fastest-growing international sales by The Sunday Times. What has been your biggest challenge? We are a privately-owned company and have expanded to…

Shares in GVC Holdings (LSE: GVC) have nearly halved since last autumn. New regulations, notably those covering fixed-odds betting terminals and advertising, have hit the entire industry. Chief executive Kenny Alexander sold two-thirds of his stake in March, unnerving the market and causing a 15% slide in the stock. The company has now fallen out of the FTSE 100 index. Alexander last week tried to placate investors by buying stock, insisting he was a long-term bull. He snapped up around 800,000 shares, taking his overall holding to 1.5 million.…

North America A trip aboard the California Zephyr from Chicago to San Francisco will tell you a lot about American culture, says Anthony Sattin in Condé Nast Traveller. At 2,438 miles, and taking 51 hours, it’s also one of the longest rides in the US. “Plenty long enough for me.” It leaves at 2pm on the dot (see amtrak.com). “In the evening the Zephyr passes through the Midwest Corn Belt and crosses the Missouri River into Nebraska, and by morning the world has changed again: snow-dusted mountains crowd the horizon.” At Denver, the guard recommends that “folks de-train” to see the station. The most beautiful part of the journey, however, lies between Denver and Salt Lake City. There, the train climbs into the mountains, “twists along rivers, cuts through sheer…

“The Chevrolet Corvette, over its many decades, has garnered a reputation for its appeal to older men – an unfortunate stereotype for a vehicle that was pretty freakin’ sweet even before its eighth generation came around,” says Alanis King on Jalopnik. Reputations aren’t easy to change, but the design director for the C8 told his team to be radical and “design it for the ten-year-old kid”. The result should get your pulse racing whatever age you are, but what really “sent the car-buying world into a frenzy” is the price, says Rob Stumpf on The Drive. The C8 starts at just $60,000 (£49,000). Right-hand-drive versions of the C8 are expected to arrive on UK shores shortly after the car goes on sale in the US – expect to pay something…

In the past, authoritarian states concentrated on “suppressing unwelcome news and opinions”; now they “flood the zone with a million different takes”, says The Economist. They no longer try to project a “monolithic ideology”, preferring “shape-shifting so nobody knows what they stand for”. As Peter Pomerantsev argues in this book, the digital tools used to mobilise revolutions have now been co-opted by autocrats. Repressive regimes are increasingly taking advantage of the “free-for-all of today’s media environment” to not only engage in the “wholesale manipulation” of their own people, but also to undermine outside democracies. Pomerantsev’s book is “beautifully written” and reads so well that it’s “virtually travel writing”, says Hugo Rifkind in The Times. Indeed, there are points where his ability to write is perhaps too strong for its own…

Every week, we reach new heights of weirdness. The worldwide total of debt trading at negative interest rates has risen to $17 trillion (£13.9 trillion). Nearly 15% of S&P 500 companies no longer earn enough money to cover the interest on their loans. The yield on US 30-year bonds has fallen below 2% – lower than the yield on 30-day Treasury bills. Danish banks are offering fixed-rate mortgages at zero interest over 20 years. That’s right, you can now take out a fixed-rate zero-interest mortgage for 20 years. You borrow the money. You buy the house. You sell the house 20 years later and you give back the money. You would have enjoyed two decades of free housing! But the human mind is nothing if not gullible and credulous. The…