Innehållsförteckning för 1233 från MoneyWeek

What motivates Donald Trump? Apart from winning bigly and keeping make-up artists in business? For a famously flighty person, he has been remarkably consistent in one key area: trade protectionism. “This is almost all he cares about,” as Janan Ganesh notes in the Financial Times. YouTube videos from the 1980s show him becoming animated on the subject of Japanese imports such as cars and VCRs. For 40 years, he has believed that running a current account deficit with another country is to “lose” to it. This makes no sense economically, and putting up trade barriers hampers growth and development. But US tariffs have become part of the global economic landscape (the Biden administration didn’t touch them) and now we can expect the drift towards mercantilism to become entrenched. “Trump 2.0…

“Crypto is back. The total market capitalisation of crypto assets this year has been within striking distance of its all-time highs in 2021. The crypto sector has been the biggest political donor in the current US election cycle, with contributions flowing to candidates from both parties. In May, the House of Representatives passed a bill that included many of the policy demands of crypto lobbyists. No matter who wins the election, the market could be on the brink of a deregulation-fuelled bonanza. The scammers are only getting bolder, finding new creative ways to rip off retail investors. Should the crypto lobby get its way, the new regulatory regime will clear a path not only for the industry’s ‘respectable’ wing, but also for the wildcatters and criminals. The rules the industry…

Having underperformed their peers during two years of falling sales and profits, shares in the beauty company Estée Lauder plunged by a further 20% last week, say Oliver Ralph and Adrienne Klasa in the Financial Times. The recovery in Chinese demand has proved unexpectedly slow, with sales there falling by a double-digit percentage in the three months to 30 September. As a result, Estée Lauder is withdrawing its outlook for the rest of the year and reducing its dividend to a “more appropriate” level, another challenge for incoming CEO Stéphane de La Faverie. Appointing de La Faverie, who has been at the firm since 2011, may have been a mistake as “he is seen by investors as part of the problem rather than the solution”, says Bloomberg’s Andrea Felsted. The…

Germany’s BioNTech built up a net cash position of €17bn thanks to its mRNA Covid vaccine, says Wirtschaftswoche. That provided plenty of money to fund the development of new treatments. One promising example is BNT327, a bispecific antibody (an artificially produced protein that can bind to two different antigens at the same time). Current drugs in the field of cancer immunotherapy can only attack one antigen. Experts think BNT327 could provide serious competition for Keytruda, the world’s top-selling cancer drug with annual revenue of $25bn. BioNTech’s pipeline contains 43 treatments in total, four of which have reached the final stage of clinical trials.…

Moldova’s pro-EU president Maia Sandu (pictured) claimed a second term on Monday after a “tense election run-off” widely seen as a choice between Europe and Russia, says Paul Kirby on the BBC. Moldova, flanked by Ukraine and Romania, has a population of 2.5 million and an expat population of 1.2 million. Sandu, who won 55% of the vote, warned that Russia was trying to buy the election for her rival, Alexandr Stoianoglo. The Kremlin denied the allegations, much as it did during last weekend’s disputed elections in Georgia, and in turn accused the West of “blatant interference”, reports AFP. Russia’s “industrial-scale vote buying” in Moldova has actually been exposed on film by two investigative journalists posing as pro-Russian sympathisers, says Marc Champion on Bloomberg. The government estimates that roughly 5%…

When Donald Trump was first elected in 2016, I said that whatever else he did, he would surely build things. His background in real estate and his fondness for grandiose plans seemed to make it a certainty. History shows that he did not: it was only under Joe Biden that America began a major infrastructure programme. Whether many of these projects carry on under Trump or get cancelled for other priorities will soon be seen, but in any case it was a lesson in the difficulty of predicting what governments will achieve. That’s why there are no changes to make to the MoneyWeek strategic ETF portfolio, just as there would have been none had Kamala Harris won. The aim of the portfolio is to do okay in all likely scenarios,…

If you’re hunting for income, the UK stockmarket is one of the best places to look. However, investors shouldn’t allow the market’s attractive dividend yields to distract them from the need for international diversification. The UK is a tiny part of the global economy and makes up less than 5% of total global equity capitalisation. And going global doesn’t have to mean sacrificing income. A number of global equity investment trusts offer yields matching or exceeding the yield of UK equities. The average yield of trusts in the AIC Global Equity Income sector is 3.6% on a trailing twelve-month basis (TTM), compared with 3.55% for the FTSE 100. The largest trust in the sector, with £2.9bn of assets and a TTM yield of 3.4% is JPMorgan Global Growth & Income…

US bosses “Britshore” labour costs Melissa Lawford and Lucy Burton The Telegraph Thanks to strong growth and a strong dollar, growing numbers of US firms are “Britshoring” – “exploiting the widening US and UK salary gap”, say Melissa Lawford and Lucy Burton. Nearly one in six jobs advertised in the UK this year was listed by a company with headquarters in the US, according to LinkedIn, up 30% on last year. Although the “flood of money and booming services exports” have become a lifeline for our economy, this “short-term cash injection” could take a long-term toll on British innovation, leaving us “even more stuck in the mud” as the US reaps the rewards. It’s hard for us to compete. US firms have deeper pockets because their markets are so much…

project-syndicate.org In the wake of Brexit, the EU had two main objectives, says Yanis Varoufakis: to “defend the coherence of the EU single market” so Britain could not benefit from EU institutions without paying the cost of following the rules; and to portray Brexiteers as “misguided enemies of a cherished principle: freedom of movement”. Today, the tune has changed. Covid put paid to all pretence of a level playing field as France and Germany reasserted their right to offer state aid. And the wisdom of free movement has been forgotten as both France and Poland seek to “take back control” of their borders. Why the change of heart? “The answer lies largely in Europe’s brittle economic foundations.” Nearly two decades of underinvestment have “reinforced the centrifugal forces tearing Europe apart”,…

Privately, many financial advisers concede that excluding pension savings from the inheritance-tax (IHT) net has always felt like an anomaly. It therefore surprised very few people when the chancellor announced in last week’s Budget that this anomaly will come to an end in April 2027. Thereafter, pension savings passed to your heirs will count towards the value of your estate, like most other assets you bequeath. And that means they could be subject to IHT. Many people will find themselves caught. The government expects 8% of estates to be affected by the change. Some families will face sizeable bills. If you die with £250,000 left in your pension fund, say, and the rest of your estate has already used up your IHT allowance, the bill on the money will come…

The key change in the Budget was the capital-gains tax (CGT) regime. Basic-rate taxpayers’ CGT rose from 10% to 18%, while higher-rate taxpayers will pay 24% CGT, up from 20%. The changes came into effect immediately. There had been rumours before the Budget that Rachel Reeves could increase CGT in line with income tax, which would have seen higher-rate payers face a doubling in CGT. Thankfully, that hasn’t come to pass. CGT is payable on profits you make from selling a range of assets, including stocks and shares; business assets; property (your main home is exempt); and personal possessions worth more than £6,000. Those personal assets could be anything from antiques to art to your coin collection (but your car is excluded). In the past there was a higher rate…

Many businesses will face higher payroll costs from the chancellor’s decision to raise employers’ national insurance (NI) rate. From next April, not only will employers’ NI be due at a rate of 15%, up from 13.8% today, but the threshold on which it will be paid will fall to £5,000, compared with £9,100 today (rates and thresholds for employees’ contributions do not change). However, it’s not all bad news. The government is also raising the employment allowance, which covers part or all of the NI bill for eligible businesses. This is currently £5,000, but it will rise to £10,500 from April 2025. Eligible businesses under the current rules are those that paid less than £100,000 of employers’ NI in the previous tax year, but this cap is being abolished. The…

“Given the state in which they left the country”, you could be forgiven for thinking that if you never heard from the Tories again it would be too soon, says Simon Nixon on Substack. Still, the election of their new leader is “an important moment”. A “healthy democracy requires a credible opposition”, so Kemi Badenoch (pictured), who won a vote of party members last weekend, has an “important job to do”. Her biggest challenge is to “turn the Tories back into a conservative party, one that respects institutions and the rule of law, following its ruinous descent into constitutional abasement”. That will be quite the “journey”, but Badenoch’s has already been “longer and more eventful than most”, says Jon Craig on Sky News. Born in the leafy suburb of Wimbledon…

The Sunday Times has revealed the extent of the property held by the private estates of the King and the Prince of Wales (pictured) – the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall – as part of its “splashy” investigation with Channel 4’s Dispatches programme, says Sam Leith in The Spectator. Some 5,410 properties pay millions of pounds in rents, fees and charges, including those rented by the NHS, the armed forces and the Department of Justice. “Is the discovery that the King is rich shocking? Probably not.” As for the revelation that much of the land was seized unfairly by kings after the Norman Conquest, “that ship has sailed”. But there is a distinction to be made between property owned by the King as king and by the King as a…

Interest rates are likely to stay “higher for longer”, says Mattie Brignal in The Telegraph. Rising UK government gilt yields in response to the Budget have a “knock-on effect” on mortgage rates; more state borrowing effectively acts as additional competition for households with mortgages. The base rate is still heading down, but some mortgage rates are ticking back up in response to the Budget. The net effect? Before the Budget, the average 75% loan-to-value two-year fixed mortgage rate looked poised to drop from 4.5% to 4.1% by 2025, Elliott Jordan-Doak of Pantheon Macroeconomics tells the Financial Times. That rate now looks set to remain stuck around 4.5%. Fuelled by lower mortgage rates, the UK housing market had been gaining strength this year, says Tom Rees on Bloomberg. Mortgage approvals hit…

The FTSE 100 has gained an underwhelming 11% over the past five years, much worse than the stellar 84% gain of America’s S&P 500 over the same period. Still, the FTSE’s underperformance is not quite so severe when you factor in London’s more generous dividends. As of June, the British equity market yielded 3.75%, compared with a measly 1.37% in America. Long-term investors shouldn’t overlook the mathematical power of compounded dividends, says Holly Mead in The Times. A £1,000 investment in the FTSE All-Share index made in October 2004 has risen to £1,969 today (a 97% return). With dividend reinvestment, however, that £1,000 would have compounded over 20 years to £4,011 (marking a 301% return).…

Last week shares in both Meta and Microsoft dipped by 3% after they reported quarterly earnings. While each showed robust growth in sales and operating profits, projections for the next quarter were less optimistic, says Dan Gallagher in The Wall Street Journal. They signalled that the “blowout capital spending” that has been part of the artificial intelligence (AI) arms race will continue. Both firms argue that “AI requires a lot of money going out the door before (hopefully) a lot more comes back in”, arguing that the generative AI services are already boosting sales. However, they have also been wary about showing more details, irritating investors who have “grown a bit weary of the staggering sums being spent”. The size of the “mountain of investment and uncertainty” around AI was…

Indian food-delivery giant Swiggy aims to raise $1.35bn in its initial public offering (IPO) on Mumbai’s market in what could be the country’s second-biggest stock offering this year, says Reuters. The company, backed by Japan’s technology investor SoftBank, is targeting a valuation of $11.3bn as it sells shares for up to 390 rupees (£3.60) each. The shares are expected to start trading on 13 November. Investors’ enthusiasm has spurred bids from Norway’s sovereign wealth fund Norges Bank Investment Management and Fidelity International. Swiggy delivers food from more than 200,000 restaurants in a nation of 1.4 billion people; rivals include Zomato and Tata’s BigBasket.…

While all eyes are on the US election, there are fears that the German government – a coalition of the FDP, Greens and chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats – is on the brink of collapse. Scholz has been holding emergency meetings with his two coalition partners after leaders “put forward contradictory plans” to fix the country’s “ailing economy”, says Nick Alipour on Euractiv. A leaked document by finance minister Christian Lindner (FDP), with its “push” for tax cuts and fiscal discipline, was seen as a challenge to the investment plan put forward by Green economy minister Robert Habeck just days earlier. The German economy, with its weakening industrial sector, slowing productivity and ageing workforce, is in “need of an overhaul”, says Carsten Brzeski on ING Think. High rates of sick…

Forget the Budget. Forget the US presidential election. In the end, neither will make much difference to companies or to investors one way or the other. Something far more significant is happening, even if few are paying much attention to it. A new wave of Chinese consumer brands is starting to push out into global markets. The coffee market might already look hyper-competitive, but it is about to get a lot more crowded. Last week, China’s largest chain, Luckin Coffee, said it was planning to launch in the US market next year. It has already started advertising during sports events and has built up a list of initial locations in cities with lots of Chinese students and expats. It plans to undercut the big US chains by selling coffee in…

The roots of the MoneyWeek ETF portfolio lie in a portfolio set up in April 2013. While there have been a few changes to how it runs along the way, we can track its performance since then. The portfolio focuses on capital preservation with growth – ie, beating inflation by over the long term, while being less volatile than stocks. This makes it very different from the our investment-trust portfolio, which has more of a growth focus, or from individual stock and fund ideas in the magazine. If we look back to April 2014, after the portfolio was fully invested (positions were added month by month during the 2013 tax year), that seems to be working. Returns will depend on how an investor rebalanced back to target weights – as…

France’s CIAM has urged Vivendi’s shareholders to vote against the media conglomerate’s proposed break-up, says the Financial Times. On 9 December investors will decide on plans to list pay-TV business Canal+ in London, move advertising group Havas’s listing to Amsterdam, and float publishing arm Louis Hachette in Paris. The plan is to bridge the valuation gap between Vivendi and its three arms and allow them to grow. But CIAM called the demerger “an extreme case of where minority rights are being undermined” and insisted it would “not close the discount”. CIAM thinks the move will strip Vivendi of key assets and allow owner Bolloré Group to expand its voting rights and control without launching a public offer.…

“I’d seen my Dad getting a pound a word writing ridiculous stuff about nothing for the Daily Mail. He was dashing them off, so I thought that’s what I will do too.” Actress Emily Mortimer (pictured) on considering becoming a journalist like her father, barrister and writer John Mortimer, quoted in The Telegraph “Twenty-six years ago, I was made redundant and given a few grand. I decided that, if I was careful, I could live off the money for six months trying to become a comedian before I had to get another job. I was 37. Worth a punt.” Comedian Ricky Gervais on the risk he took before stand-up success, quoted on X “To me, the excitement about having a lot of money was that I didn’t have to think about…

Unherd.com The Great Cheese Heist – 950 wheels of artisan cheddar were stolen from Neal’s Yard Dairy in London last month– is a sign of the times, says Mary Harrington. How could mere cheese come to warrant such a sophisticated heist? Artisan cheese-making – “artisan everything, really” – has become a “paradoxical phenomenon”, which “turns place-bound rootedness and a meaning-rich life into products that are then sold at premium prices to people who got rich by stripping precisely those qualities from their own and everybody else’s lives”. It all began in earnest with the “Britpopper generation”, exemplified by Jamie Oliver and Blur’s bassist-turned-cheese-maker Alex James (the pair are pictured). The “artful marketing of meaning” as a consumer product may “grate”, but it is also “a flavourful monument to Britain’s refusal…

Since listing on the London Stock Exchange in 1994, DCC (LSE: DCC) has been one of the market’s best-performing stocks. However, in the last seven years the shares have disappointed, but have become much cheaper in the process. The management team has a proven record of value creation and is confident about the future. Given the stock’s cheapness, is it now time to buy it once again? At its current valuation, DCC appears as cheap as it has ever been, having gone through a period of abnormally slow growth. In 2022, the management set out a vision of what the business is to look like in 2030. Since then, the company has outperformed that strategy, but the shares are little changed. Should the firm continue to make progress towards the…

A call option gives the holder the right (but not the obligation) to buy an asset, such as a share, for an agreed price (the strike price), on or before a certain date (the expiration date). When you buy a call option, you pay a fee (known as a premium) to the seller of the option (also known as the granter or writer of the option). If you exercise the option, the seller must sell you the underlying asset at the strike price. Otherwise the option expires worthless and the seller still keeps the premium. You can use call options to bet on an asset rising (“go long”), while limiting your potential loss to the premium. Say Acme Widgets is trading at 100p. A call option to buy at 110p…

Investors in stocks listed on Aim, London’s junior stock exchange, can breathe a small sigh of relief following the Budget. Many analysts expected Rachel Reeves to abolish the inheritance-tax (IHT) exemption that many Aim shares enjoy; in fact, the chancellor only sharpened her axe. At present, investors who hold qualifying Aim shares for at least two years can leave these assets to their heirs without having to worry about IHT. The shares are not included in the value of your estate for IHT calculation purposes. In future, however, this will change. From April 2026, Aim shares will only qualify for 50% relief from IHT. If you leave Aim shares to your heirs and their value is above the IHT threshold, they’ll need to pay tax on the value of the…

● The chancellor announced changes to stamp duty, the tax paid when you buy property. At present, stamp duty isn’t payable on the first £250,000 of a property price. If you are a first-time buyer, this threshold rises to £425,000. Above that you pay duty at 5% on up to £925,000 of the purchase price, then 10% up to £1.5m and 12% on anything above that. The tax-free bands for stamp duty were temporarily increased in Liz Truss’s mini-Budget in September 2022. They were due to end in March 2025 and many hoped Rachel Reeves would keep the increased levels. Instead, it was confirmed that they will end next spring. From 1 April 2025, then, first-time buyers will only get the first £300,000 of their purchase price free from stamp…

Rising capital gains tax (CGT) rates will mean higher bills for many business owners who sell their companies. Prior to the Budget, someone selling a business paid 20% CGT on most of their profits. From 30 October, this increased to 24%. Business asset disposal relief (BADR) – previously known as entrepreneurs’ relief – is also being reduced. This currently entitles business sellers to pay CGT at a reduced rate of 10% on their first £1m of profits, but the rate will increase to 14% from 6 April 2025, then rise to 18% on 6 April 2026. Investors’ relief – a similar break for external investors – will match these rises, while the lifetime limit for qualifying gains will be cut from £10m to £1m in line with BADR. The changes…

Blessed with beautiful beaches, mountains, canyons and buzzing cities, Crete undoubtedly has it all. But it’s also a fascinating window into the ancient past. Minoans, Mycenaeans, Romans, Arabs, Venetians and Ottomans have all come and gone and left their mark, and it’s this rich tapestry of cultures and civilisations that makes the island so special. Crete also plays a central role in Greek mythology. After watching Kaos on Netflix this summer – a reimagining of the Greek gods’ story set in an alternative, modern-day Crete – I felt inspired to return to my favourite mythical island for a dose of autumn sunshine. I started my trip in the picture-postcard coastal town of Agios Nikolaos, 60km to the east of Heraklion. My base was the newly opened InterContinental Crete – the…

The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley Marietje Schaake Princeton University Press, £22 One of Donald Trump’s key supporters in the US presidential election has been tech tycoon Elon Musk. The internet’s most notorious “edgelord” has been at the centre of Trump’s campaign, appearing at rallies, tweeting messages of support and even offering people in swing states the chance of a $1m prize for signing a pro-Trump petition. Trump’s dislike of electric cars sits uneasily with Musk’s leadership of Tesla, leading some to argue that Musk has supported Trump to get behind-the-scenes influence in the event of a Trump victory. Whether or not that bet paid off was still unclear at the time of writing, but for Marietje Schaake, author of The Tech Coup: How to Save…

Emma Sidi is Sue Gray On tour until 30 November berksnest.com/emma Whether the departure of politicians such as Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg was good for the country or not, it has presented a major problem for British political satirists. Their replacements, such as Rishi Sunak, and more recently Keir Starmer, may be more serious and worthy, but they are also undeniably much less colourful. Still, this hasn’t held back comedian Emma Sidi. Her character-driven comedy show, Emma Sidi is Sue Gray, was a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe this summer, and Gray’s recent departure as Starmer’s chief of staff doesn’t seem to have thrown a spanner in the works. Sidi is now taking the show on tour, in a slightly updated version, lasting 75 minutes. Political satire…

What’s an investor’s biggest ally? Time. What’s his biggest enemy? The “Big Loss”. And where’s the risk of the big loss greatest today? From Bloomberg: “The risk of the Federal Reserve pausing its interest-rate reductions, heightened volatility and resilient US growth as well as sticky inflation could push yields on five-year Treasury notes up to about 4.50% over the next three months”, says Ashok Bhatia of Neuberger Berman. They’re yielding about 4.13% now. “Fixed-income investors ought to brace for more downside volatility.” The yield on a 30-year T-bond has already moved up to 4.5% (meaning the price of the bond has gone down). This is big news. The Fed’s interest-rate cut was supposed to be the beginning of more cuts and lower yields. It tells us that things are moving…

Is it “time for a fresh look” at emerging markets (EMs)? asks Russ Mould of AJ Bell. The investment category has underperformed developed markets (DMs) for over a decade, leaving it at a steep discount to the US-dominated DM index. EMs trade at a roughly 35% discount to developed markets, with their weight in the average global mutual fund declining from 13% in 2010 to just 5% today, says Tom Stevenson in The Telegraph. Now, with global interest rates falling, they could be due a revival. The two key ingredients will be “China and commodities”. Beijing’s recent stimulus plan has lifted sentiment: Chinese shares are the largest single component of the MSCI EM index, a widely used benchmark. As for commodities, while the short-term picture is weak, long-term structural growth…

Five to buy BHP The TelegraphBHP recently slashed its dividend by 14% but still offers a 5.3% yield, higher than the FTSE 100 index’s 3.7%. The mining giant aims to pay out at least 50% of profits to investors while investing in operations. BHP is expected to benefit from increased demand for copper, iron ore and potash. BHP’s sound balance sheet and dividend growth potential can “compensate income investors for the prospect of volatile shareholder payouts”. 2,152p Applied Nutrition The Times Applied Nutrition (AN) recently floated with a valuation of £340m. The company sells protein shakes, energy drinks and vitamins in 80 countries, making a £24m pre-tax profit on £86m revenue in its latest financial year. AN sells directly to businesses and consumers and is expanding in the US with…

London Sparked back to life: “With Bonfire Night’s embers still cooling, Marks & Sparks lit up the market with a firework show of its own, delivering a dazzling set of first-half results,” says Aarin Chiekrie of Hargreaves Lansdown. Performance was “strong” in its clothing and home section, “with continued growth reflecting improved customer perceptions of value, quality and style… Credit where it’s due, [CEO Stuart Machin] has done a great job of breathing new life into the business.” In the first half of the year, for example, M&S sold 80% of its clothes at full price. Rivals can only look on in envy. Full-year underlying revenue at online clothing retailer Asos fell 18% to £2.9bn, compared with 2023. Despite some “early positive signs” of improved profitability and cash generation, Asos…

● ”Investors in fantasy and fiction publisher Bloomsbury are living in a dream world at the moment,” says Ian Conway in Shares. First-half sales were up 32% to £180m and profits rose 50% to £26.6m. The Harry Potter series is still a best-seller 27 years after the first book was published, while American fantasy author Sarah Maas has now sold 40 million copies. Bloomsbury’s shares recently hit a record high of 758p and there should be more good news to come. For the full year to February 2025, analysts currently expect a 7% fall in sales to £319m and a 23% drop in pre-tax profits to £37.5m, but Bloomsbury says it expects results to be ahead of consensus. ● “When Ryanair decides to go to war with a foe, it…

“I think Nvidia is undervalued,” says Masayoshi Son, the Japanese tech billionaire known for his bold investments in high-growth companies through his SoftBank conglomerate and $100bn Vision Fund. “The future is much bigger. Nvidia is just one example.” Artificial intelligence (AI) will be more valuable than most investors realise, Son told an event in Saudi Arabia. By 2035, we will have artificial super intelligence (ASI) that is 10,000 times smarter than the human brain. Delivering this will require 400GW of AI data-centre power – bigger than total US electricity supply – and 200 million chips, with cumulative capital expenditure (capex) of $9trn. “It’s too much investment for many people’s view [but] I say it’s still very reasonable capex.” If 5% of economic activity is replaced by ASI in ten years’…

■ The “rejigged board” of PRS Reit “has formally hoisted the ‘for sale’” sign, says Citywire. The private-rental housing fund is considering disposing of its portfolio of almost 5,500 homes, valued at £591m. In September, PRS’s investors ousted former chair Stephen Smith amid frustration over its wide discount to NAV and governance concerns about the extension of its external manager’s contract to 2029. Activists Rob Naylor and Chris Mills, who played a key role in the sale of Hipgnosis Songs Fund, joined the board. ■ Hansa Investment Company, the trust run by the Salomon banking family, is in line for a windfall, says QuotedData. Its largest holding Ocean Wilsons – which is controlled by Hansa and the Salomons – is to sell its 56% stake in Brazilian ports firm Wilson…

cityam.com Whatever the politics of the current chancellor, the Treasury has long been “dogged” by claims that its culture and bean-counting instincts are damaging for long-term decision-making, says Joe Hill. This is often known as “Treasury brain”and is real – but is also “no bad thing”. I worked at the Treasury for three years and met many critics. Most held a grudge because their pet project didn’t get funded, or their preferred tax cut didn’t get made. Such decisions “may seem arbitrary and unfair – and often they are”. But the Treasury’s instinct is right: things will always cost more than planned and deliver less than promised, and that lots of the “investments” it is asked to make are anything but. These instincts harden by experience. The Treasury does have…

A put option gives the holder the right (but not the obligation) to sell an asset, such as a share, at a certain strike price, on or before the expiration date. Just like the call option described on the previous page, when you buy a put option, you pay a premium to the seller of the option. If you exercise the option, the seller must buy the underlying asset from you at the strike price. Otherwise the option expires worthless and the seller still keeps the premium. While a call is used to bet on the price of an asset rising, a put lets you to bet on it falling (“go short”), while again limiting your potential loss to the premium. This time, let’s say that Yoyodyne Industries is trading…

● The Budget provided no further news on when the government will extend the auto-enrolment pensions regime to younger workers and those on the lowest incomes, as ministers have previously promised to do. However, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has promised to explore digital solutions to a problem that excludes people earning small incomes from several different jobs; in total, these workers earn enough to be eligible for auto-enrolment, but HMRC’s systems don’t currently track this effectively. ● Lifetime individual savings accounts (Lisas) will continue in their current form until at least 2030. That pleased those who recognise the value of Lisas, which include state bonuses for savers putting by money to buy a first home or for retirement. But the government did not raise the maximum price first-time buyers…

Cuts to agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR) in last week’s Budget prompted fury from many business owners. While the farming sector has been the most vocal, other asset-intensive businesses could also be hit when they pass down to the next generation. If you may be affected by the changes, it makes sense to take professional advice as soon as possible. Currently, APR and BPR ensure that, when the owner of a farm, a business, or interest in a business, or shares in an unlisted company, dies, their heirs can carry on the business with no liability for inheritance tax (IHT). However, this will change from 6 April 2026. Thereafter only the first £1m of value will pass down tax-free. IHT will be due on anything above…

2019 Mission Hill, Oculus, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada £140, hedonism.co.uk What a difference 30 years makes. Mission Hill Pinot Blanc was my absolute favourite tipple when I ventured to Canada on multiple holidays in the Nineties and early Noughties. Light, clean, bright and accurate, it was one of only a handful of Canadian dry white wines I enjoyed back then, and it has been a long wait to resume my acquaintance with this pioneering brand. Like wines made within our shores, parts of Canada have benefited from warming summers, such that this multi-award-winning winery now makes white and red wines that rival the best on Earth! The 2019 Mission Hill Oculus is the finest Canadian red I have tasted, and it walks a wonderfully dramatic line between the classicism…