Innehållsförteckning för Issue 1277 från MoneyWeek

“There is always someone worse off than you,” as Aesop reminded us. That also means there is always someone to feel superior to. In post-war Europe, Italy was the country everyone made fun of, dismissing it as eternally chaotic, fiscally incontinent, and notoriously minimalist (in the German-speaking world, a goalless draw in football was always described as a “typically Italian result”, as the Serie A league was full of them). No wonder. As Deutsche Bank reminds us, the last time Italy produced a budget surplus was in the early 1920s. And there have been 69 governments since the war. Still, Italy is hardly a basket case. It has managed to reduce its debt pile from 158% of GDP to 135% over the past few years as growth has ticked up,…

Lithium is out of luck. The metal, sometimes dubbed “white gold”, is a vital component of the batteries used in electric vehicles. In 2021 and 2022 investors got carried away, betting that it was about to become the new oil. However, the energy transition is proving slower than expected, sending prices crashing 90% since the rally’s peak in November 2022. Investors became excited last month on news that China had ordered the closure of the massive Jianxiawo mine, responsible for 4% of global supply. “Giddy” traders bet that Beijing was acting to cap chronic overproduction of lithium, says The Economist. Prices spiked 8%. Yet the metal has since given back its gains, while other Chinese mines have had their licences extended. The round-trip illustrates an important point: commodity investors overreact…

India’s rupee has fallen to an all-time low against the dollar as trade tensions simmer with Washington. Donald Trump has slapped the world’s most populous nation with 50% tariffs, partly in response to New Delhi’s intensive buying of Russian oil. Citigroup thinks the tariffs could shave 0.6-0.8 percentage points from Indian GDP growth. The rupee has declined 4.5% against the greenback over the past 12 months. While that will help India’s exporters to recover some of the international competitiveness lost through tariffs, it also raises the risk of higher imported inflation. The currency has lost more than a third of its value against sterling since 2010 (see chart), with one pound now buying about 119 Indian rupees.…

The “bitter” legal battle between the various Murdoch children for control of the 94-year-old Rupert Murdoch’s “sprawling media empire” has ended, says Lauren Aratani in The Guardian. A deal this week will see three of the Murdoch siblings receive $1.1bn each for agreeing to give up their shares in the business. Lachlan Murdoch, along with his sisters Chloe and Grace, will own a new trust holding controlling stakes in Fox Corporation and News Corp. Lachlan Murdoch is now the “de facto heir to one of the world’s most powerful media businesses”, including Fox News, the Times and The Wall Street Journal. At the heart of the dispute was the future of Fox News, one of the “crown jewels” in the empire, says Bloomberg’s Hannah Miller. Rupert Murdoch was worried that…

Klarna is aiming for a US initial public offering (IPO) that values the Swedish buy-now-pay-later firm at up to $14bn, says Karen Kwok on Breakingviews – down from its $45.6bn peak in a 2021 private funding round. The price tag is also a “bargain” compared with its $28.5bn US rival Affirm. Klarna’s growth has averaged 20% over the past two years, and operating losses have slid to $121m. If Klarna keeps growing at this rate, sales could reach $5.8bn by 2028, earning $699m in net income. But it faces challenges from traditional lenders, and slower growth in some markets raises concerns over meeting profit targets. “Investors in its IPO may be buying now and praying later.”…

Indonesia’s president, Prabowo Subianto, has replaced five ministers including finance minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, in a “lightning cabinet reshuffle” after weeks of deadly protests, says Al Jazeera. The immediate cause of the discontent was generous housing allowances for MPs, but “more fundamentally”, Indonesians are “venting unhappiness” about a lack of jobs, a squeeze on incomes and a feeling that the economy only benefits a “small class of oligarchs,” says Robin Harding in the Financial Times. Prabowo’s “expansive” plans include a $28bn free-school-meal programme, three million new affordable homes and growing the country’s $900bn sovereign wealth fund, but he chose to fund them with “massive overnight cuts” in public spending. The result is a “strange combination” of populism and severe austerity. His “apparent response” to public anger is to “ditch the…

The City is meant to be leading the world in the drive towards “green finance”. But over the past few weeks, it has become clear that it has found reverse gear. Patrick Tiernan, the new CEO of the Lloyds insurance market, a sector where London is still a world leader, last week indicated that syndicates would no longer be pressured into refusing to cover fossil fuels. He stressed that the market wanted to be “apolitical”. Earlier in the month, the Net Zero Banking Alliance, a UN-sponsored initiative of which the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney was one of the founders, said it was pressing pause on its work after a whole series of major banks, including Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Barclays, decided to leave. Likewise, a lot of…

Private credit (also known as private debt) refers to loans that do not come through traditional bank lending or bonds that are traded on public markets. Under the narrowest definitions, it means only direct lending, in which an investor or small group of investors makes a loan directly to a company. However, broader definitions include leveraged loans – ie, loans that are arranged by banks but quickly syndicated (sold on) to a large pool of institutional investors. There are differences between direct lending and leveraged loans in terms of the risks, the type of covenants that a loan typically carries and the position that the investor will be in if anything goes wrong (a direct-lending investor is likely to have more influence than one of the many buyers of part…

Activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management has amassed a $4bn stake in PepsiCo and is urging the drinks and snacks giant to overhaul its business. The beverage unit has underperformed peers for “more than a decade”, argues Elliott, with Pepsi slipping to fourth place in US market share. Meanwhile, its food business, once a growth driver, has “begun to falter” amid increasing competition and changing consumer tastes. The group should focus on defending core brands, pursue growth opportunities and dispose of products that don’t fit. It should also copy rival Coca-Cola by franchising its “operationally intensive” bottling network – ie, transferring ownership to local operators – so it can focus on its core operations.…

“My children actually prefer flying commercial to private jet. I don’t know why – I think it’s more of an experience for them.” Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone (pictured), quoted in The Times “Nothing is more useful than water; but it will purchase scarce anything… A diamond, on the contrary, has scarce any value in use; but a very great quantity of other goods may frequently be had in exchange for it.” Adam Smith puzzles out a theory of value, quoted on Bloomberg “I am not rich. I am a poor man with money, which is not the same thing.” Novelist Gabriel García Márquez, quoted in Forbes “The BBC is given an enormous amount of money to lead the way with this stuff. By comparison, Phil Edgar-Jones, who has done…

unherd.com When the anthropologist David Graeber died five years ago, the world lost one of its most important public intellectuals, says Thomas Peermohamed Lambert. “The obituaries all agreed on the breadth and eclecticism of his accomplishments,” giving us new insights into everything from debt to “bullsh*t jobs”. He had an “uncanny knack for writing bestsellers on what seem at first glance to be the most mind-numbing subjects”. The left made a mistake in ignoring him to focus instead on identity politics and their usual pursuit of trying to “hammer the world into defunct paradigms”. But it’s little surprise they did given that Graeber was an anarchist with no time for Marxist, leftist, capitalist or any other kind of hierarchy. In a 2014 debate, billionaire libertarian Peter Thiel was clearly fascinated…

The global alcoholic beverage industry is undoubtedly undergoing a profound transformation. The era of predictable, consistent growth for traditional alcoholic beverages is giving way to a more nuanced and challenging market. The rise of cannabis, the moderation embraced by younger generations, the disruptive influence of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, and the increasing burden of progressive taxation are collectively reshaping consumer behaviour and industry dynamics. For investors, the implications are clear: the future success of companies in this sector hinges on their agility, innovation and portfolio management. Those that are proactively diversifying their offerings, investing in premiumisation and embracing the burgeoning non-alcoholic and wellness categories are better positioned to capture new growth opportunities and mitigate risks. This includes expanding into health and energy drinks, exploring strategic partnerships or investments in alternative substances,…

Pension savers concerned about inheritance tax (IHT) are on the look out for new ways to plan for retirement. The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is one attractive option, and EIS-focused investment managers are launching new products and services as demand increases. The EIS, which has been running for more than 30 years, has often been regarded as a niche investment suitable only for the most sophisticated and wealthy investors. That is understandable – the scheme aims to help small and very early-stage businesses raise cash to fund growth, but such enterprises often fail, putting investors’ money at risk. However, while the EIS was originally conceived as a scheme through which investors would put money into individual firms, several specialist managers now offer funds through which you can spread your money…

While many technology firms seem to have reached the stage where they are making money from AI, other companies have achieved huge valuations based solely on a promise of future profits. And some have not yet even been able to make their technology commercially viable. These companies are particularly vulnerable to any shift in market sentiment. One that may have promised far more than it can deliver is Aurora Innovation (Nasdaq: AUR). Aurora Innovation focuses on the development of self-driving trucks, arguing that by doing away with the need for a driver, it will cut the costs of transportation and be able to grab a large share of the US trucking market – which had revenues of $987bn in 2023. The company boasts it has already conducted many tests to…

At Odyssean Investment Trust we seek to invest in high-quality UK businesses trading below their fundamental value, with scope for that value to grow through proactive management action. One area where we have been active recently is an unglamorous part of the market: British small-cap industrials. The UK industrials sector is overlooked and unloved. Investors often conflate “industrials” with visions of grubby metal bashers serving a diminishing manufacturing base. In truth, this sector is highly diverse, and for those prepared to look, you can find a number of first-rate, globally-focused businesses with exciting growth prospects. To find the gems in industrials we look for three key attributes. First, the most attractive companies utilise their own intellectual property in their products or production processes, allowing them to be global leaders within…

2017 Mouchão, Alentejo, Portugal £57, jeroboams.co.uk My wife’s grandfather, Victor Reynolds, ran this property in the early 19th century, and her cousin and sixth-generation family member, Iain Reynolds Richardson, is the brilliant winemaker at this magnificent estate today. Mouchão is a spectacular celebration of the exquisite Alicante bouschet grape (with a little trincadeira in tow). The grapes are foot-trodden in the original lagares dating back to 1901, and matured in Portuguese oak and mahogany barrels for at least four years, followed by a further year in bottle, ahead of its release, such that it is perfectly mellow when you are finally able to buy it. I have gone on record comparing the wines from Mouchão to the grace, breeding and glory found in Bordeaux’s Château Lafite, and this 2017 is…

The rock now gracing Taylor Swift’s finger, along with US president Donald Trump’s doubling of tariffs on goods from India, has given a welcome boost to the diamond industry. Swift’s engagement lifted the shares in some listed jewellery retailers, while India cuts and polishes most of the world’s diamonds – and Americans are the biggest consumers of diamond jewellery, as Jinjoo Lee notes in The Wall Street Journal. But the lift to diamond prices is unlikely to last much longer than Swift’s wedding cake. That’s because the rise of an almost unlimited supply of synthetic colourless diamonds has tarnished the industry. Colour diamonds, on the other hand, have proved much more resistant. That’s down to a number of factors, not least of which is the rarity of colour diamonds relative…

We are, in fact, no less than “in the midst of a pearl renaissance – dare we call it a ‘pearlissance’,” asks Kristen Bateman for Elle magazine. Tortured puns aside, there’s no doubt pearls have made a comeback in the fashion pages and that has arguably fed into prices at auction. “Pearls are more prominent than ever on runways, celebrities, and in popular culture… [having] been popularised on social media,” says Sotheby’s. Pearls are created when an irritant finds its way into an oyster, which reacts by secreting layers of “nacre” that build up over time. The irritant may be a piece of grit in the case of natural pearls, or a small bead or piece of tissue in the case of cultured pearls. Size, shape, surface quality, lustre and…

French president Emmanuel Macron has named Sébastien Lecornu as the country’s new prime minister. The former defence minister, who is a close ally of the embattled president, will become France’s fifth PM in less than two years as successive minority governments struggle to navigate a fractured parliament. Lecornu’s predecessor, François Bayrou, resigned on Tuesday after losing a no-confidence vote that saw communists and the far-right join forces to bring him down. Bayrou had provoked fierce opposition with plans for €44bn in budget cuts, including scrapping two national holidays. With an annual deficit of 5.4%, France is fast adding to a total debt pile of more than 114% of GDP. Worse than Greece For now there is no panic on public debt markets. French government bond yields have fallen slightly since…

Global mining giant Anglo American has agreed a $50bn all-share merger with Canadian rival Teck Resources to create Anglo-Teck. It will be one of the world’s biggest copper producers, says Emma Powell in The Times. Shares in both companies jumped on the news. The deal comes after both companies rejected bids from rivals. Anglo rebuffed a £39bn takeover approach from BHP, the world’s largest miner, last year, while Teck rejected a $22.5bn bid from Glencore in 2023. The deal, which has the support of Norman Keevil, Teck’s largest shareholder, will take between 12 and 18 months to complete. Combining with Teck will give Anglo-American greater scale in copper, which is in high demand owing to its “key role in the transition to clean energy”, says AJ Bell’s Russ Mould. But…

Five to buy Everplay Investors’ Chronicle Videogame developer Everplay’s half-year revenue fell owing to the timing of licence revenue and new game releases. But in the second half, there should be more releases than last year, including a new LegoBluey education game, which already has more than 800,000 pre-orders. With no impairments this year, the cash profit margin has improved, and Everplay expects full-year adjusted cash profit to beat expectations. The stock is on a small discount to peers and offers a 5% free cash flow yield. 412p Murray International Shares Investment trust Murray International reported strong half-year results, achieving a 6% net asset value (NAV) total return and an 11.6% share-price return. Murray has raised its dividend for 20 consecutive years. Its portfolio includes around 50 companies focused on…

● “Some toppings would even fox Domino’s Pizza,” says Alistair Osborne in The Times. Take the one demanded by investor Browning West, which is “struggling to make up its mind” what it wants from the UK outpost of the fast-food firm. Browning is demanding that Domino’s launches a “blowout share buyback” of £100m, up from £20m now, and also wants management to delay a “distracting hunt” for a second brand for six months. However, the “pepperoni twist” is the suggestion that Domino’s should take the company private with a private equity partner if it wants to pursue a “multi-brand strategy”. Yet the shares are at a ten-year low and the price/earnings multiple has “collapsed” from 20 to 11, as Browning itself points out. “Why would Domino’s put itself up for…

The “Yale model” – which produced spectacular returns at Yale University and other US endowments – is now “widely advertised as the optimal way for all portfolios to invest”, says Burton Malkiel, the author of passive investing bible A Random Walk Down Wall Street. Yet “there are good reasons to believe that it will be less effective in future”. This model, which was pioneered by David Swensen at Yale in 1985 at Yale, uses alternative assets to earn higher returns. Such investments cannot be easily sold and so should offer an “illiquidity premium” to investors that have the ability to hold them for the long term. Between 1999 and 2009, Swensen achieved an 11.8% average annual return, while a broad equity portfolio lost money. Yet shortly after Swensen died in…

● The board of Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon (BGS) says it “will not hesitate to consider all available options” if the Japanese smaller companies fund continues to underperform. The trust is already committed to a 15% tender offer if it lags the MSCI Japan Small Cap index over the three years ending in January 2027. At the half-way point in July it was 19.4% behind, so “the level of underperformance needing to be recouped is notable”. Conversations with shareholders suggest that “patience in some quarters is being tested”. Baillie Gifford is a growth-focused manager and investors have made it clear “the last thing they wish to happen is style drift”. However, BGS should be well-placed to capture growth opportunities in Japanese small caps, and after the recent appointment of new…

noahpinion.blog For years, I have been an advocate of “just giving people cash” as the best way to alleviate poverty, says Noah Smith. Cash benefits are easier to administer than other kinds, don’t seem to do much harm to labour markets or to personal spending habits, and can reach people who would otherwise “fall through the cracks”. But new research has given me pause. Recent studies have shown that giving people cash does nothing to decrease homelessness, can in fact cause people to stop working, and doesn’t do much to improve quality of life. This evidence points to a “deeper truth”, which is that giving people “more TVs, sofas, car and smartphones” may do nothing to relieve many of the social ills we believe result from low income – such…

Will you feel comfortable cashing in your pension savings when the time comes? Pension provider Aegon suggests many people really struggle with this phase of financial planning: 26% feel anxious about withdrawing money from their savings, 18% feel outright fear and 15% experience guilt. No wonder. The “pension freedom” reforms of 2015 have saddled millions of people with enormous responsibility. Before those reforms, the vast majority of people used their pension funds to buy an annuity at the point of retirement, which provided a guaranteed income for the rest of their lives. Today, most people opt for income drawdown arrangements, taking money directly from their pension funds. They have to manage withdrawals and remaining investments with great care to be sure they won’t run out of money later in life.…

Reform UK has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past 14 months. From coming third and winning only five seats at the last general election, they now have large leads in national polls, with some projecting that they could even win a majority at the next election. Nigel Farage was confident enough to tell his activists at his party’s conference that he is preparing for power after the vote he expects to be called in two years’ time. However, Reform will face its first major electoral test a bit sooner when Wales votes next May in the elections for the Welsh Parliament. Reform’s rise in general election polls has been mirrored by a similar surge when it comes to the Senedd, with recent surveys putting it in, or close to,…

“Live Boricua” is the call of Puerto Rico. Originally derived from the indigenous Taíno peoples’ name for the Caribbean island, Boricua now stands for the spirit, flavour, rhythm and pride of Puerto Ricans in this lush tropical island, with its food, music and, of course, rum. It’s the home of piña colada, a blend of rum, pineapple and coconut cream that is believed to have originated from the Caribe Hilton in 1954. Who exactly created it is a point of argument, but you can leave that to the islanders and just enjoy the cocktail. I remember drinking terrible versions of it as a teenager, but, as I sipped one in the hotel rooftop pool overlooking the beach full of frolicking spring breakers, I finally got it. Whoever came up with…

“A scenario where Fed independence is damaged would likely lead to higher inflation, higher long-end rates (lower bond prices), lower stock prices and an erosion of the dollar’s reserve currency status. In contrast, gold is a store of value that doesn’t rely on institutional trust. Should private investors look to diversify more heavily into gold, as have central banks, we see potential upside to gold prices even above our tail risk scenario of $4,500/ [troy ounce], which itself is already well above our $4,000 mid-2026 baseline, given the very small size of the physical gold ETF market relative to Treasury bonds, at only 1%. For example, we estimate that if 1% of the privately owned US Treasury market were to flow into gold, the gold price would rise to nearly…

Furniture retailer Dunelm’s latest set of annual results revealed a big increase in costs, with management warning that it has “yet to see signs of a sustained consumer recovery”, says Mike Sheen in This is Money. The introduction of higher employers’ national-insurance contributions and a hike in the national living wage earlier this year increased expenses. Dunelm says these factors will continue to push up costs during the 2026 financial year, with overall inflation to equal 3%-4% of the group’s operating-cost base. The fall in Dunelm’s share price after the news suggests investors share management’s fears about a “tougher environment... ahead”, says eToro’s Adam Vettese. Still, there are also plenty of silver linings. Yearly sales rose 3.8%, and there was even a slight increase in profit. The group also continues…

Oil prices slipped 10% in the second quarter, a headwind for majors such as TotalEnergies, whose quarterly net income fell 30% year-on-year. Still, the all-important cash-flow metric declined a more modest 5% over the period thanks to extra production that boosted the bottom line, says Bruno Kus in Le Revenu. Meanwhile renewable energy has grown to comprise a “significant” 13% of total income as Total diversifies beyond its historic focus on hydrocarbons. The global energy complex is in a tricky spot, but Total’s production growth and a “relatively low breakeven point” should keep the cash flowing. On a forward yield of 6.5% and with a “generous” buyback programme to boot, the shares are a buy.…

Argentine president Javier Milei has “suffered his worst electoral defeat since taking office” in December 2023 amid a corruption scandal and signs of a slowing economy, say Tiago Rogero and Facundo Iglesia in The Guardian. In local legislative elections for Buenos Aires province (home to about 40% of the population), Milei’s La Libertad Avanza was beaten by the opposition Peronist party by 47% to 34%. This wouldn’t have mattered so much had Milei not cast it as a verdict on his government. It was also seen as a bellwether for mid-term elections on 26 October. Although Milei was unusually contrite, saying he had made “mistakes”, he insisted that he would “accelerate” not “retreat” on his policies. Since taking office, he has “slashed public spending” and led a major deregulation drive.…

Investors are nervous. There are few other ways to read the latest gains in gold – above $3,650 per ounce for the first time this week – or the big moves in long-dated government bonds. Yet some markets look remarkably unperturbed. Take credit spreads – the gap between the yield on government bonds and corporate debt – which tend to blow out at times of stress. Spreads for US investment-grade bonds are instead at their tightest since 1998, barely 0.8 percentage points (pp) above the yield on comparable Treasuries. Eurozone investment grade bonds are similar; they have been tighter at times (eg, 2007 and 2018), but remain very low. Spreads for non-investment grade bonds (known as high-yield) are around 2.9pp, a bit higher than they were earlier this year in…

Managers of open-ended funds must carefully consider the liquidity of their holdings, because they may need to sell assets to meet redemptions. Since small and mid-sized companies are less liquid than larger companies, this means that most open-ended funds will often be quite restricted in how much they can invest in smaller-cap stocks. Some of the best companies are out of reach of most open-ended funds. This is a key advantage of investment trusts when investing in sectors such as this. Investment trusts don’t run the same risk of having to sell assets in a hurry because investors are suddenly pulling their money out. That enables them to take a longer-term and more value-oriented view. Core choices So what are some of the core options in the sector? The largest…

Sanctions backfire on Trump Carol RyanThe Wall Street Journal Donald Trump’s doubling of India’s tariff rate to 50% to punish it for buying sanctioned Russian oil is “backfiring”, says Carol Ryan. Although initially Indian buyers “dumped sanctioned Russian crude”, Moscow has since cut its prices and a “barrel of Urals” now costs India $1 less than it did before Trump’s initial threat. As the amount of crude under Western sanctions has risen to a record 15% of total global supply, the fleet of so-called “shadow vessels” dealing in illicit crude has quadrupled in three years. China and India have been “making hay”. India’s share of sanctioned barrels has leapt from 1% of its imports in 2021 to 37%. Although the new tariff was also aimed at forcing concessions in trade…

bloomberg.com If the US is going to remain a global superpower, it needs to study China. That, says Christopher Beam, is the argument of Dan Wang, a China analyst and author of Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future. But it needs to learn the right lessons. Wang argues that the key difference between the two countries is that China is run by engineers, the US by lawyers. China builds colossal public works such as bridges, dams and airports, as well as products such as toys and smartphones. The US excels at making and enforcing rules. That is a good thing, but the rule-making has “gone too far”, says Wang, and it’s “preventing the US from keeping pace with rivals”. The engineering mindset can go too far, too – the…

● Almost three-quarters of people plan to rely on their partner’s pension in retirement, new research from Hargreaves Lansdown reveals. The financial adviser warns that while it makes sense for couples to plan for retirement together, individual savers also need to consider whether they could get by on their own savings – after a divorce, say, or the reduced benefits that could follow their partner’s death. ● Higher- and additional-rate taxpayers claiming tax relief on their pension contributions via their annual self-assessment tax returns may now face additional scrutiny from HM Revenue & Customs. The tax authority said it would step up its activity in this area following a pilot study that found a third of a sample of such claims were incorrect. ● Three of the UK’s biggest pension…

It has been a generally positive five weeks for my eight long tips, with five increasing and only three going down. Telecoms firm Airtel Africa advanced from 208p to 216p, and videogames company EA also rose from $159 to $168. What’s more, food distribution company Sysco progressed from $79.52 to $81.55. drinks company AG Barr increased from 695p to 707p, while renewables firm First Solar went from $184 to $209. The only negatives were payments firm Corpay which fell from $324 to $311, vending machine firm ME Group which dropped from 216p to 191p and Dunelm Group, which dropped from 1,215p to 1,106p. Overall the gains outweighed the losses with my long tips going from £303 to £380 in the black. Sadly, in contrast to the strong performance of my…

For John Caudwell, the founder of Phones4U, “the giveaway was the bespoke diamond ring”, says Alex Lawson in The Guardian. Caudwell, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, decided to put his investment in Vashi, the diamond retailer, to the test by doing some “mystery shopping”. The ring he bought was “terrible”, the flagship store in Covent Garden empty. “It just didn’t add up.” Caudwell is among a “clutch of high-profile investors nursing losses” after Vashi collapsed in 2023, “leaving a trail of financial wreckage”. The diamond dealer behind the store, Vashi Domínguez (pictured), has now disappeared, says Richard Bilton for the BBC. An investigation found shop staff were told to pose as customers to trick investors. The chain’s promised £157m stock of diamonds was later valued at about £100,000. That makes…

Going… “No one does monsters like [fantasy horror filmmaker Guillermo] del Toro,” says Texas-based Heritage Auctions. “What seems like effortless imagination is, in fact, the result of a man’s lifelong dedication to understanding monsters.” A part of Del Toro’s huge collection of memorabilia, that he keeps in his “Bleak House” property in Los Angeles, is heading for sale with Heritage on 26 September. One lot, the “Big Baby” shotgun used in Hellboy II (pictured with del Toro), has an opening bid of $62,500, with fees. “I believe that collecting is not owning,” del Toro tells Heritage. “Collecting is protecting, a sacred duty, being a keeper of a flame, an acolyte.” Gone… The Spider-Man costume worn by Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker in the films Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3, both…