“Amazon made millions but paid no tax.” You can substitute Facebook or Google for Amazon and, these days, you can probably substitute “billions” for “millions” but it remains a story we’ve told countless times. One of the tech giants has reported bumper revenues and/or profits and while doing so paid less tax than a moderately […]

In April it was announced that the UK and Australia had agreed the “vast majority” of a trade deal. Although talks between International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and her Australian counterpart broke up without a deal, both countries were “confident that the remaining issues will be resolved.” The final deal is expected to be completed […]

Introduction  In some ways, May was a relatively quiet month. Although, it did bring us the marriage of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the first PM to marry in office since Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, in 1822. Having eaten a slice of wedding cake and gone straight back to the office, Boris Johnson will […]

A suggested tweak to the rules around accessing money from your pension, tax free, could have really positive ramifications for those looking to make the most out of their retirement. Currently, it is not uncommon for savers to withdraw their entire pension pot in cash. In fact, according to the Financial Conduct Authority data, between […]

For many years it has been the accepted wisdom that you should diversify your investment portfolio. That means diversifying by types of investments – with say, your exposure to the stock market balanced by more cautious investments in bonds and, perhaps, funds that invest in property. Common wisdom says you should also diversify geographically – […]

Introduction  Some of the numbers in this month’s Bulletin are simply staggering. Whether it’s Amazon’s profits or the ‘investment’ (which could alternatively be considered ‘spending’, depending on your political viewpoint) announced by President Biden. There was a time where the ‘standard unit’ of currency we talked about was a million. Company profits and valuations were […]

As we look back on the 12 months since the UK first went into lockdown one thing is abundantly clear – financially, the last year has been good for some people. We’re not talking about the billionaires who have seen their shares rocket during lockdown but rather the many, many people who have saved money […]

For the last seven years the title of the city with the most billionaires has been held by New York, but this year a new name has taken over and that city is Beijing. According to the latest Forbes annual rich list, the Chinese capital added 33 billionaires last year, taking its total to 100 – one […]

At a seminar in March, Haruhiko Kuroda, Governor of the Bank of Japan, suggested that the central bank should immediately start “preparing thoroughly” for a future with its own cryptocurrency. While there were no immediate plans to introduce a cryptocurrency Kuroda stressed the importance of being ‘thoroughly prepared’ should the need arise. In April it […]

Introduction  This market commentary has been produced for some time now but March 2021 was the first month when a ship made the headlines. Anyone who watched a news bulletin will have seen the mega-container ship the Ever Green firmly wedged across the Suez Canal. The ship, which is 400m long, was finally re-floated having […]