Innehållsförteckning för 1217 från MoneyWeek

How do you identify the top of a bubble? You can’t. However absurd a trend seems, there is no telling when it will collapse – the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent, as JM Keynes pointed out. Headlines warning of a technology bubble have been a consistent feature of the financial press ever since the financial crisis, with a brief interruption during Covid. But it is interesting to compare huge booms with previous manias and note any recurring patterns, which in turn could give an indication of approximately where we might be in a long-term cycle. Human nature doesn’t change. Economic historian Charles Kindleberger outlined five key stages of bubbles and busts. The five stages of a bubble The first he called displacement, whereby an innovation…

“Rachel Reeves… wants [Britain’s] pension funds ‘to drive investment in homegrown businesses’… [and Canada] is looking at how to increase pension-fund investment in domestic assets [while] a former Italian prime minister recently argued in favour of an EU-wide auto-enrolment pension scheme… What explains the rise of pension-fund nationalism? Many countries, other than America… fret about low levels of business investment. The most promising high-tech firms flee [to the US]… Time, then, to shake down pension funds… Removing barriers that prevent funds from investing in domestic assets is a laudable enough goal… Yet savers have reason to be sceptical that extra domestic investment will produce higher returns… the MSCI Canada and Britain indices have returned 4% and 3% a year in dollar terms [over ten years], while US stocks have returned…

Shares in the online retailer Ocado jumped by a fifth on Tuesday after its latest interim results showed it has “nudged up” its cash-flow and profit forecasts, says Isabella Fish in The Times. Not only have pretax losses at the group narrowed to £154m in the six months to the end of May, but group revenue also rose by 12.6% to £1.5bn. It also expects annual underlying cash flow to climb by £150m, up from a previous forecast of £100m. Ocado’s solutions business, which licences warehouse and logistics technology to retailers, seems to have done particularly well, with sales increasing by 21.8% to £241.4m. The upgrade will “go some way towards allaying investors’ fears over the business”, says Lex in the Financial Times. The company has suffered a “series of…

U-Haul was founded in 1945 by Sam and Anna Mary Schoen, a couple trying to move from Los Angeles to Portland, says WirtschaftsWoche. They couldn’t find a trailer to rent and were therefore restricted to the possessions that fitted in their car. Today, the group is the biggest North American provider of trailers, lorries, tractors and self-storage units for people organising their own moves. It boasts a US market share of 60% and is also represented in ten Canadian provinces. In recent years it has focused on expanding its storage business to complement the equipment-rental divisions, which has made it the third-biggest self-storage group in North America.…

Politics & economics An expected pledge to fast-track the removal of foreign criminals was not mentioned in the King’s Speech, following justice secretary Shabana Mahmood’s announcement last week that thousands of criminals, including burglars, drug dealers and fraudsters, will be released 40%, rather than 50%, of the way through their sentences to ease prison overcrowding, says Charles Hymas in The Telegraph. There are roughly 87,869 prisoners in England and Wales and 88,818 prison places – 10,422, or 12% of these, each costing £47,000 a year, are taken by foreign nationals. The early release scheme, due to start in September, is expected to reduce numbers by 5,000. Few will “take comfort” from this news, since about 25% of prisoners reoffend, says Melanie Phillips in The Times. But if the previous…

It isn’t surprising that the events of the past week have seen punters move to Donald Trump. However, Joe Biden has also received a boost, probably because the attempt on Trump’s life has moved attention away from efforts to get him to stand down. With £29.1m matched on Betfair, Trump is at 1.44 (69.4%), with Biden at 5.8 (17.2%). Vicepresident Kamala Harris is at 16.5 (6%), with Michelle Obama at 36 (2.8%) and Gavin Newsom (once seen as a leading contender to replace Biden) now out at 70 (1.4%). As I’ve said many times before, I think it’s very unlikely that Biden will quit the race. If he does, Harris is the only one who can practically take over. However, I do think the move towards Trump has been overdone,…

What’s happened? A new Planning and Infrastructure Bill was given top billing in the Labour government’s first King’s Speech on Wednesday – confirmation that it wants to put planning reform at the heart of its first legislative programme. There was little additional detail about what the bill will contain. However, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has separately spelt out a range of measures that the government hopes will “accelerate the delivery of high-quality infrastructure and housing” by liberalising regulations and making it easier to build. For decades, said Paul Johnson in The Times, Britain has chosen to “prioritise the interests of those who already have homes and live in nice places over the interests of those who need homes close to where there are well-paid, highly productive jobs”, but who can’t…

Sentiment towards Britain as an investment destination seems to be improving (see page 5). Sterling is back above $1.30, while the mid-cap FTSE 250 stock index is at its highest since April 2022 and has outperformed the large-cap FTSE 100 over the last three months. Since the FTSE 250 is seen as the best gauge of domestic sentiment – nearly half of its constituents’ sales come from the UK, compared to around 20% for the FTSE 100 – that may imply views on the UK economy are becoming more optimistic. Hopes of an end to the incessant political drama of the past few years must be helping. I wasn’t impressed by the substance of the agenda unveiled in this week’s King’s Speech (page 10), which was a mix of woolly…

Three years ago, the idea that a fund focused on environmental markets and resource efficiency would be regarded as “contrarian” would have been ridiculous. Yet such has been the backlash against the “net zero”, “climate change” and “environmental, social and governance (ESG)” agenda that any fund which puts kowtowing to the environmental establishment above the pursuit of profit has been hammered. Renewable-energy funds have sunk from trading at large premiums to net asset value (NAV) to a weighted-average sector discount of 22%. Funds focused on “sustainability” have underperformed and ESG has gone from being the focus of every investment presentation to becoming a token page at the back. Investors have returned to concentrating on companies that focus on maximising profits rather than saving the planet. Hence firms involved in the…

The world’s population bomb Syed Munir Khasru Nikkei Asia According to the United Nations, the global population will rise from 7.6 billion to 9.8 billion by 2050, and to 11.2 billion by 2100, says Syed Munir Khasru. Can we accommodate the rise? Asia, home to 60% of the population including India, the most populous nation in the world with around 1.43 billion, will “bear the brunt” of it. While this could fuel GDP growth, it also “places immense strain on resources and infrastructure”. As urbanisation accelerates, the UN estimates that three billion people will require new housing and basic infrastructure by 2030. There is a shortage of healthcare workers globally, with ageing populations making the situation worse. Population growth and increased consumption is also a key driver of…

breakingviews.com “The world’s most advanced economies are in the grip of a prolonged productivity crisis,” says Felix Martin. In the decade since the financial crisis of 2008, the growth of output per hour worked in the G7 group of nations slumped to less than 1% a year, less than half the rate of the decade before. This is the “single biggest economic problem facing the developed world” and the “source of much political angst”. Has the saviour at last arrived? Many people think so, and hail the advent of artificial intelligence (AI). Goldman Sachs, for example, predicts it will boost productivity growth by three percentage points per year in the US over the next decade. But will it? Its prodigious predictive powers have enabled notable advances in certain data-heavy areas…

● The reintroduction of beavers in flood-prone areas is having a dramatic effect, says Joe Wright in The Telegraph. Storm flows on the River Otter in Devon have fallen by 30% during heavy rainfall since beavers were brought back. The University of Exeter has found that the advent of beavers can have major cost benefits for households in flood zones. If five properties considered to be at “very high risk” of flooding become reclassified as “high risk” thanks to the work of nearby beavers, average insurance costs would be reduced by £37,500 in a decade. ● Expect cheaper flights from Heathrow now that regulators have ordered it to cut landing fees, says Leah Montebello on This is Money. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has said charges for airlines will drop…

● Businesses wondering whether they need to register for VAT for the first time, or are considering registering voluntarily, can now use a free tool from HM Revenue & Customs to check their status. All businesses with total VAT taxable turnover of more than £90,000 over the previous 12 months are legally required to register for VAT. But working out whether this applies to your business can be tricky. HMRC’s online tool is designed to simplify the calculation, and to assess the impact of VAT registration on profitability, which is important to companies considering registering for VAT even if they aren’t required to do so. ● Has your business run into a dispute with an energy provider that is proving difficult to resolve? If so, you may be able to…

NV Bollinger, PN VZ19, Champagne, France £82.00, reduced to £76.00 each by the case of 12 bottles at thefinestbubble.com; £78.20 each in a case of six at nickollsandperks.com A decade ago, a few prescient Champagne houses began pondering how to increase spending from loyal consumers without investing too much cash in producing new and credible cuvées. A couple succeeded in augmenting their portfolios with wines that make sense within their overarching legends, and the very best of these taste superb! Bollinger’s non-vintage standard is Special Cuvée, which retails around £50. Meanwhile, La Grande Année, the often-glorious vintage release, hangs around the £150 mark, while the titan RD tips the scales at £250! These price tiers mirror other top-flight estates, so the desire among the elite is to encourage fans to…

The Wild Men The Remarkable Story of Britain’s First Labour Government David Torrance Bloomsbury Continuum (£20) In 1923, the Conservatives called an early election over trade policy. Instead of securing a refreshed mandate, they did unexpectedly badly and lost their parliamentary majority. While they remained the largest party, an alliance with the Liberals was out of the question, so they decided to relinquish power in favour of a minority Labour government, led by Ramsay MacDonald. Roughly half of The Wild Men focuses on the big picture, including the many challenges that MacDonald’s neophyte administration faced. Labour controlled less than a third of seats, while the lack of experience in government meant MacDonald was forced to turn to former Liberals to flesh out the cabinet, such as Richard Haldane as lord…

Japan has scrapped regulations requiring the use of floppy disks for administrative purposes, 13 years after their manufacture ceased, says The New York Times. The floppy disk, invented in the 1970s, was once a common form of memory storage, but newer technologies, including flash drives and cloud systems, have replaced it. Japan, known for advanced consumer electronics, robots and high-speed internet, has been strangely slow to let go of outdated technology such as floppy disks and fax machines. The country only began phasing out floppy disks in 2021, with officials and businesses transitioning to different systems, although some sectors, such as the textile industry, which makes kimonos, still cling to old technology. Taro Kono, the digital minister, has declared victory in the “war on floppy disks”, with fax machines being…

UK government bonds are known as “gilts” because of the golden edges of the original bond certificates, says Francesco Guerrera on Breakingviews. But they have been anything but gilt-edged of late. Over the past three years, holders of UK sovereign debt have lost 24%, almost twice the loss on eurozone debt and more than three times as much as the decline on US Treasury bonds over the same period. Blame the turmoil of five prime ministers in eight years, combined with rising interest rates as the Bank of England raised rates from 0.1% in December 2021 to 5.25% in August 2023. Bond yields and prices move inversely, so higher interest rates (and yields) inflict capital losses on existing bond investors. They also mean dearer borrowing costs for the Treasury. Three…

China’s monthly trade surplus with the rest of the world hit a record $99bn in June, says Keith Bradsher in The New York Times. Exports surged by 8.6% year on year to $308bn, the highest level in almost two years, while imports fell by 2.3% year on year to $209bn. Chinese households have been tightening their belts amid a prolonged property market slump, leaving the country’s factories ever more reliant “on access to the West’s affluent consumers”, says Larry Elliott in The Guardian. Vehicle exports rose by an annual 18.9% in value terms in the first half of 2024, with semiconductor exports up by 21.6%. Foreign governments have started hiking tariffs on Chinese products to protect their own manufacturers.…

Google’s parent company Alphabet is in advanced discussions to complete its biggest acquisition on record, say Lauren Thomas and Berber Jin in The Wall Street Journal. It plans to buy cybersecurity start-up Wiz for $23bn. Although Alphabet has been a “more conservative” acquirer than some of its peers in recent years, it has been keen to bulk up its cybersecurity business, spending nearly $5.4bn on another such firm, Mandiant, two years ago. The deal could also help boost Alphabet’s presence in cloud computing, a growing market, but one in which it is a “distant third” after Amazon and Microsoft. Buying Wiz will not be cheap, with the reported price equal to 33 times sales, says Jennifer Saba on Breakingviews. A deal of this size is also certain to “draw government…

Shares in Rosebank Industries surged by 78% on the shell company’s first day of trading on the London Stock Exchange’s Aim small-cap market last week. Rosebank, run by one of the founders of Melrose Industries, intends to follow a similar strategy of buying struggling industrial businesses, improving them and selling them for profit. Rosebank raised £50m at the initial public offering (IPO) and is targeting acquisitions worth up to £2.3bn, funded by issuing new shares and debt. While this approach has worked for Melrose and is “good for the country as well as the fixer’s pockets”, there are no guarantees for Rosebank, says AJ Bell’s Dan Coatsworth.…

Harrison, New York US consumers close wallets: American households “are in trouble” and “investors are paying heed”, says Aaron Back in The Wall Street Journal. US packaged-food giants PepsiCo and Conagra Brands have both warned that shoppers are under pressure. US inflation cooled to 3% in June, its lowest level in more than three years, due to weaker petrol prices. However, the cost of groceries and other staples has increased in the past year. Pepsi’s second-quarter sales volume fell at its North American crisps and beverages units and the company has moderated its outlook for the year. “Consumers have become more value-conscious with their spending patterns and preferences across brands, packages and channels,” Pepsi said. Conagra, maker of the meat snack Slim Jim, has also experienced a decline in second-quarter…

If Joe Biden’s catastrophic performance in the US presidential debate hadn’t already sealed it, then the attempted assassination of Donald Trump certainly did. It seems inevitable that either the increasingly frail Biden will stand down very soon or he will lose to Trump in the election in November. Whichever way it plays out, the current occupant of the White House will be a one-term president, and when he goes, he will take “Bidenomics” – as the hugely expensive experiment in industrial subsidies and protectionism is known – with him. Biden was elected as a moderate, unifying figure, but on economic issues he has been the most radical US president for a generation. Bidenomics has been a hugely ambitious and highly expensive project to reshape the American economy. Massive subsidies have…

The term “real assets” is most commonly used to refer to physical assets, as opposed to financial assets whose value comes from a contractual claim. Traditional examples of real assets include real estate (both residential and commercial), natural resources (energy, mining and agriculture) and infrastructure (transport, utilities and telecoms). By contrast, stocks and bonds are considered to be financial assets. When you buy one of these, you don’t own something tangible, although the business or loan might in turn be backed by a physical asset. Some assets – such as index-linked bonds – can be expected to deliver real returns (ie, returns explicitly linked to inflation), but are not generally referred to as real assets under this definition. There are three main benefits that real assets can bring to a…

US activist investor Jana Partners has acquired a “significant” stake in cybersecurity firm Rapid7 and is pushing the company to sell itself, says The Wall Street Journal. The plan is for US investment firm Cannae Holdings, with whom Jana has a strategic partnership, to team up with a private-equity firm to buy Rapid7 – a strategy Cannae has executed before. Jana is also calling for Rapid7 to improve its operating performance to boost its share price, which has declined more than 30% this year and by 60% over the past three years. Rapid7 specialises in software that helps businesses assess security risks. Cyberattacks have boosted demand, but Rapid7 recently reduced its 2024 outlook and is under pressure to cut costs.…

“I grew up in the Eighties wanting to work on Wall Street. I read Liar’s Poker [by Michael Lewis] and it seemed really exciting. So I went to business school in Canada and got a summer job on Toronto’s version of Wall Street. When I got there I was shocked. It was not just boring; it was literally just about money. If I look back on my life, I’m really grateful for that job, because it taught me what I absolutely didn’t want to do.” South African restaurateur Kimbal Musk (pictured), brother of Elon, quoted in The Times “Class distinctions do not die; they merely learn new ways of expressing themselves.” Academic Richard Hoggart, quoted in The Sunday Times “The only person who likes all kinds of art is an…

unherd.com Who else but a head of state would “dole out advice every single day” to a new prime minster? That is just what Tony Blair has been doing since Keir Starmer was elected, says Aaron Bastani. Before Starmer’s government was even two days old, Blair was pontificating in The Sunday Times about everything from digital ID cards to reforming public services. Starmer may be “kingpin”, but for many in the party, Blair will “forever be capo dei capi”. Blair’s big idea is that AI will save us. A report from the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) assures us that “more than 40% of tasks performed by public-sector workers could be partly automated” using AI-based software, leading to savings of £41bn a year. You might presume, given the resources available to…

There used to be thousands of tobacco companies around the world, but over the past 50 years, as the industry’s growth has stagnated, they have been forced to consolidate. Today there are just a handful of names that control most of the industry, and only a few of these are public. The largest of the non-public, state-owned names is China National Tobacco Corporation. Of the listed firms, at the top of the pyramid is Philip Morris International (PMI). This company was created out of necessity, through a break-up driven by the tobacco lawsuits of the late 1980s and 1990s. The management team of Philip Morris, which was based in the US, decided to split the ownership of Marlboro, the world’s most recognisable cigarette brand, between a US firm that would…

Is it time to move your money? Digital bank Chase has found that 57% of us keep our money in current accounts, blaming our financial inertia on the hassle of moving money and worries about accessing cash. But keeping your money in a current account means you’re missing out on valuable returns. Most current accounts don’t pay interest. If they do it tends to be low, and it is taxable if your returns exceed your personal savings allowance (PSA) – £1,000 if you’re a basic-rate taxpayer, £500 for higher-rate ones and £0 for the additional-rate band. This means money held in a current account is likely to be shrinking in terms of inflation. “[People] could be making their money work harder… by moving their savings into a high-interest savings account,”…

Is your business thinking about borrowing to invest in the months ahead? If so, a new state-backed scheme might enable you to arrange finance on more attractive terms than a conventional debt facility. The Growth Guarantee Scheme (GGS) is the latest in a series of government-backed loan programmes aimed at businesses seeking to recover from the effects of the pandemic. The scheme, which opened on 1 July and is likely to run until March 2026, is expected to support around 11,000 businesses, primarily smaller enterprises, with ambitions to expand. In practice, the GGS operates on similar principles to previous schemes of this type. The financing comes from private-sector providers – around 40 banks, building societies and other lenders have agreed to take part – but the government stands behind the…

The Labour Party is eager to kick-start growth. A key part of its plan is the so-called National Wealth Fund, spearheaded by chancellor Rachel Reeves. It will see £7.3bn of additional government funding diverted into the three-year-old UK Infrastructure Bank. In addition, reforms will be made to the British Business Bank, an often-overlooked success story. Founded in 2014, the British Business Bank has provided more than £12bn to smaller British businesses via equity and debt. It has been a key means for the government to channel funding to businesses. Earlier this year, it launched the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II, a £660m fund designed to build on the success of the first Northern Powerhouse fund by providing loans from as little as £25,000 to businesses in the North, as well…

Film producer David Ellison, 41, has “emerged from the shadow” of his “centibillionaire father”, Oracle’s co-founder Larry Ellison, says Christiaan Hetzner in Fortune. David Ellison’s Skydance Media has clinched a $28bn merger with “ailing” giant Paramount, making Ellison one of the biggest players in US entertainment. David Ellison and his sister Megan, also a film producer, have been “peppered with unflattering portraits” throughout their careers. For some, they are the “quintessential nepo babies” and “trust fund kids”. Yet “money talks in Hollywood”. In 2010, against the backdrop of the financial crisis, Paramount signed a $350m financing deal with Skydance. Ellison has since co-produced hits including Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Top Gun: Maverick – as well as some inevitable flops. David Ellison may have “bought his way into Hollywood because…

In San Francisco “it is taken as read” that artificial intelligence (AI) “will transform” the world, says The Economist. But for all the hype, the technology has so far had “almost no” discernible impact on business practices or productivity. There are signs of a “backlash” to the AI boom, says Neil Shearing of Capital Economics. Recent investment analysts’ notes have highlighted “the technology’s shortcomings”. Such a period of disillusionment was inevitable. New technologies always see a lag between introduction and wider economic effects. IT developed in the 1980s and early 1990s didn’t raise US productivity until the late 1990s. “The boost to productivity from AI will be substantial,” but it could be a few years yet before that feeds through to corporate earnings and GDP. Just as during the “railway…

CEO Jonathan Akeroyd is quitting Burberry after a tenure of less than two-and-a-half years, say Jennifer Creery and Angelina Rascouet in Bloomberg. The shares slid by almost a fifth on the news. Burberry has also suspended its dividend and admitted that the slowdown in luxury-sector sales had continued into this month. It says that if the backdrop doesn’t improve it could suffer a first-half loss, while full-year earnings will undershoot expectations. Burberry is considering job cuts – mainly corporate roles in the UK – to slash expenses. The trading update certainly makes “tough reading” for investors, say Susannah Streeter and Aarin Chiekrie of Hargreaves Lansdown. Previously highlighted weaknesses have worsened, with sales between April and June down by “an eye-watering 20%”. The decision to suspend dividend payments is a “desperate…

Six to buy Build-A-Bear Workshop The Times Small US retailer Build-A-Bear Workshop has returned more than 300% since 2019. It had struggled owing to its focus on shopping centres, but has thrived by expanding its digital strategy and scoring licensing deals. It is now eyeing global expansion. The stock is on a forward price/earnings (p/e) ratio of 6.8, cheap given its healthy gross margin, strong balance sheet and growth potential. Build-A-Bear could be a good long-term pick. $26 Glencore The Telegraph Glencore has produced a 52% capital gain since 2017, hugely outperforming the FTSE 100 index on 8%. The miner’s performance remains strong, with both production guidance and the marketing segment’s profitability on track. Glencore’s focus on commodities used in renewable infrastructure and electric vehicles aligns with the increasing demand…

Last week’s Nato summit marked the 75th anniversary of the “most durable and successful defensive alliance in history”, says John Foreman in The Spectator. It also underlined its “remarkable transformation” over the past decade, with members agreeing a further €40bn of support for Ukraine over the next year. But the meeting also “missed some important opportunities”, most notably the failure to secure a “multi-year financial settlement” for Ukraine, whose future status within the organisation remains “fudged”. The self-congratulation over the fact that most members now spend at least 2% of GDP on defence masks the fact that one-third still don’t. Finally, the agreement of a new strategic approach to Russia remains “well overdue”. It’s not surprising that the summit was “underwhelming”, as many members are divided, says the Financial Times.…

An Olympics-style event allowing doping and backed by US billionaire tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel is seeking to raise $300m, say Mark Bergen and Eyk Henning on Bloomberg. The Enhanced Games is in talks with investors to finance its first competition next year and hopes to make it an annual event. Various cities are reportedly interested in hosting, although a date and location are yet to be set. A smaller trial event was held last year, permitting the use of performance-enhancing drugs in track and field, swimming, weightlifting and other sports. Competitors must pass medical screenings and only use substances approved by the US Drug and Food Administration, such as steroids and growth hormones. “I believe science is on my side,” claims co-founder Christian Angermayer, pointing to anonymous surveys revealing widespread…

● “Storm overflows spills remain an area of significant focus for our industry” notes Severn Trent, the water utility that last year paid CEO Liv Garfield (pictured) £3.18m for running a firm that’s subjected us to “a shower of sludge”, says Simon English in the Evening Standard. No surprise there. Severn Trent unimpressively aims to halve spills by 2030, while “water bills will go up, of course, to pay for what the water sector was supposed to have been doing anyway”. Garfield – who has pocketed almost £16m over five years – won notoriety last year when she emailed her fellow utility bosses to suggest they “gang up to fend off the threat of nationalisation from a new Labour government”. There’s little sign Labour will do that – “it is…

Marko Kolanovic, former chief market strategist, JPMorgan “It’s been 25 years since Wall Street had a serious bear hunt,” says Alexandra Semenova on Bloomberg. “It appears another one is starting up now.” After 19 years at JPMorgan, strategist Marko Kolanovic has made an “abrupt exit”, seemingly pushed out after “warnings of an imminent equities crash never materialised and the S&P 500 continued to hit fresh highs”. Kolanovic is not a household name outside Wall Street, but he had gained recognition for a series of contrarian calls. Those included a well-timed prediction in 2020 that the market would rebound from pandemic and hit record highs within months, says Christiaan Hetzner in Fortune. But he remained bullish throughout 2022 even as rapid-rising interest rates sent the US market into a slump. Then,…

■ Retail investors pulled a record £1.8bn out of British equity funds in May, according to data from the Investment Association. Losses on that scale are “quite the accomplishment for a sector that has been in outflow for eight years”, says Laith Khalaf of broker AJ Bell. “Even more troubling for UK asset managers is the fact the trend seems to be accelerating.” Since 2016, £54bn has been withdrawn from UK equity funds, driven by structural changes such as passive investing and a growing tendency to benchmark stock portfolios against global indices. British stocks represent just 4% of the MSCI World index, but retail investors have historically been overweight in UK-listed equities. However, they are rebalancing to hold more of their assets in international stocks, which means steady outflows from…

theguardian.com What if artificial intelligence (AI) “isn’t that great”? What if we’ve been “overstating its potential to a frankly dangerous degree”? That, says Alex Hern, is the concern of leading cancer experts in the NHS, who warn that the health service is obsessing over new technology at the expense of patient care, and argue instead for a “back to basics approach”, involving getting more staff and redirecting research to less trendy areas, such as surgery. AI is a distraction from much-needed improvements and is probably just the latest example of the spread of “bionic duckweed”, a term coined by Stian Westlake in 2020 to cover the use of the promise of technology that may or may not arrive in the future to argue against investment in the present. The term…

How many parking apps do you have on your phone? For most of us the answer is several. As more and more car parks require us to pay via an app, the extra charges these apps are imposing become more conspicuous. “There are now about 30 different apps that drivers can use to pay for parking on land owned by private firms and local authorities, with rates varying hugely, from about 70p an hour to almost £14,” says Ali Hussain in The Times. The cost of parking has soared, with the public collectively paying £1.93bn a year – almost £5.5m a day – to park on public roads and council car parks, up from £1.66bn in 2017-2018. But on top of the price of parking, these apps “we are all…

Small and medium-sized enterprises are missing out on £2.29bn of interest payments every year by leaving excess credit balances in current accounts or poor-value savings products. A study published by United Trust Bank says the lost interest is equivalent to the cost of hiring 58,000 full-time staff earning the average UK salary of around £35,000. The data is based on analysis by United Trust Bank of where businesses hold their spare cash. Around £133.5bn of this money is sitting in firms’ current accounts or savings accounts offering instant access to the money. These accounts pay an average annual interest rate of 1.44% a year, and many pay far less. Yet the typical notice account, requiring 30 or 45 days’ notice if a business wants to make a withdrawals, offers 3.15%…

“Rock-drilling group Epiroc will benefit from the upswing in commodity prices” Our investment philosophy is to look beyond the economic and political noise to find continental European companies that can deliver superior returns over a three- to five-year horizon. We look for firms that can deliver sustainable dividend growth, as history shows us that this characteristic is a marker of quality that can help to identify stocks likely to outperform the market. We seek to build a balanced portfolio and look for the best companies across sectors, favouring stocks with strong balance sheets, pricing power and a robust competitive position. Mining for profits Sweden’s Epiroc (Stockholm: EPI-B) is a global leader in underground and surface rock drilling. The company operates in an oligopolistic market and benefits from a very strong…