MoneyWeek

The longest continuous Budget speech on record is William Gladstone’s in 1853. It lasted four hours and forty-five minutes, and he needed some sherry to get through it. The longest Budget build-up on record came this year. By the time Rachel Reeves f

America’s seven battleground states are all polling within a percentage point or two ahead of the presidential election, says pollster Nate Silver in The New York Times. Odds of 50-50 for Donald Trump versus Kamala Harris “is the only responsible for

The rise of private markets has long had “a feeling of inexorability about it”, says John Plender in the Financial Times. Private assets under management hit $13.1trn globally last year. Low interest rates since the financial crisis have done much to

Walking a tight rope: Chancellor Rachel Reeves (pictured) pulled off a “tricky balancing act of increasing borrowing to fund growth projects, without rattling” bond investors, says Susannah Streeter of Hargreaves Lansdown. The £40bn rise in tax conta

How big is the sector? The night-time economy – including restaurants, bars, nightclubs and other night-time services – contributes 6% a year to the UK’s GDP and accounts for 8% of employment. In 2022, that meant that in terms of consumer spending, t

So many siren voices are urging investors to avoid the “overvalued” US market on more than 20 times earnings for the next year and invest instead in the UK on just 12 times that it is almost contrarian to advocate the opposite. Thanks to the formidab

Silver has surged almost 50% in US dollar terms over the past 12 months. Gold’s performance hasn’t been quite as stellar, though a near-40% dollar return over that time frame is still pretty good. Yet fellow precious metals platinum and palladium are

The gnostic utterances of Jerome Powell, chairman of the American central bank, are these days pored over ever more intently by investors and analysts seeking to divine the future direction of interest rates. And for good reason: the interest rate se

At first glance, the data on small-business finance looks worrying. A study by the British Business Bank suggests that lending to small businesses fell in every area of the country other than the southeast last year. That followed the experience of 2

A good piece of advice for investors in general is to avoid the motor-insurance industry. It has a terrible record when it comes to making money. Since 2008, the UK motor-insurance industry has reported an average combined ratio of 104%. A combined r

There was no shortage of inflammatory commentary during Donald Trump’s rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden last Sunday. But the owner of the venue was studiedly apolitical. “As a business we are neutral in political matters. We rent to either s

Ockenden Manor Hotel & Spa in West Sussex is “the perfect place for a weekend of indulgence”, says Lisa Joyner in Country Living. It is “a countryside haven of luxury that captures the essence of historical grandeur”. The 28 bedrooms are split betwee

Chainhurst Farm House, Marden, Tonbridge, Kent. A Grade II-listed, late 16th-century farmhouse with a walled garden, a kitchen garden, orchard, duck pond, a range of farm buildings and a paddock. It has panelled walls, inglenook fireplaces and a kitc

Audi is “hedging its bets” with its all-new A5, says Seth Walton in Car magazine. For environmental reasons, “combustion engines are most likely destined for the gibbets”. But in Britain, at least for now, “a question mark still looms over the exact

How would you handle the South hand after Pass – Pass – One Spade? First thoughts are to jump to Three Notrumps. But will West really be gullible enough to lead a Spade after that unsubtlety? Or maybe simply jump to Five Clubs? Maybe – but you can al

The most obvious narrative for future economic historians probably goes something like this. In the early 21st century, politicians lost control of spending. Debt rose much faster than GDP. Then, inflation made it much harder for central banks to con

The “biggest risk” to the US stock rally is a strengthening yen, say Robert Armstrong and Aiden Reiter in the Financial Times. That’s the “contrarian” position of BCA Research analyst Dhaval Joshi. He notes that the current tech rally started in mid-