Market jitters On Monday, 18th May 2020 the markets basked in positive news pushing stocks up. Fed chair, Jerome Powell, said he had more ammunition to help the economy recover from its coronavirus hit. Then came more positive news from a U.S. pharmaceutical company, Moderna Inc., saying that their vaccineRead More →
Unemployment claims increased UK unemployment data released at 07:00 BST Tuesday, 19th May 2020 reported a big rise in benefit claims. The benefit claimant count in April 2020 increased by 856,500 to 2.1 million, according to data released from the the Office for National Statistics (ONS). As UK unemployment claims jumped, andRead More →
Vaccine progress As economies struggle to re-open around the globe and as the Fed said that they have more ammunition to fight the virus, came more good news of vaccine progress. Moderna Inc., a U.S. company, announced yesterday that human trials of its coronavirus vaccine showed good progress in allRead More →
Bounce, Recession or Depression? As economists, traders, investors, politicians and media pundits talk of economic recovery, many countries have already entered recession. The latest being Japan, the third largest economy in the world. The UK, Germany, France and Italy have all entered technical recessions. ‘V’ or not to ‘V’ ?Read More →
Re-opening the UK economy It is generally agreed that economies will be much harder to re-open than they were to close. The UK PM on Sunday evening set out his plan to re-open the UK economy but this plan is still to be fleshed out. Boris Johnson, throughout lockdown, hasRead More →
At 11am (not 12am) on 31st January 2020 the UK will leave the EU After more than three years of indecision, procrastination and paralysis – the United Kingdom will finally cut away from the European Union. Deadline The withdrawal agreement will now come into effect, as the UK moves intoRead More →
Scheduled events 22nd January 2020 World Economic Forum at Davos. UK public sector net borrowing data due. Canada price index data and interest rate decision due. U.S. housing data. Shares in Asia made gains, as earlier investor concerns about the coronavirus in China eased. Netflix results Netflix reported results forRead More →
U.S. President Donald Trump yesterday used the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos to remind us of his success! Trump used the ‘global’ economic platform – (WEF) – to tout trade deals for U.S. Inc. and schmooze the business world elite to place his America first message back in theRead More →
The International Monetary Fund – (IMF) – lowered its forecast for global economic growth for 2020 to 3.3% and 3.4% in 2021. Slightly lower forecast Although these are slightly lower than previous IMF forecasts they do represent a modest acceleration in growth compared with 2019. Weaker growth 2019 saw theRead More →
A report issued 20th January 2020 by charity Oxfam calculated that 2153 billionaires hold more wealth than 4.6 billion people combined! Oxfam called on governments to implement policies that may help to reduce wealth inequality. Extreme wealth inequality The charity urged policymakers to increase taxes on the world’s wealthiest byRead More →