We did a v interesting pod with Mark Slater. Lots on the funds, on specific stocks he likes and on the UK market as a whole (it is going to be fine.. honest) bloomberg.com/merryn-talks-m…

UK inflation, Aug '24: broadly as expected CPI: 2.2% (BoE tgt 2%) prev. 2.2% - forecast was for 2.2%. Core CPI: 3.6% (prev. 3.3%) vs expected 3.6%. RPIX: 2.8% (old BoE trgt, 2.5%) prev. 2.7% Context: Pay: +5.1% y-o-y in quart thru' Jul (+4.0% inc. bonus)

One thing to note in passing - pipeline inflation figures (ie input costs and factory gate prices) all came in lower than expected, which all else being equal, bodes well for future CPI

Fiscal policy and monetary policy are meant to be separate. In reality, they affect each other - they can't help it. But the two streams risk crossing in a rather more overt way at tomorrow's Bank of England meeting bloomberg.com/news/newslette…

The Bank of England’s mild fiscal headache bloomberg.com/news/newslette… via John Stepek

I squeezed a Ghostbusters reference into this. I blame sleep deprivation

Good news on investment trust cost disclosure. Sensible move which bodes well for pragmatic approach to regulation

8-1 vote to hold at 5%, no surprises from the Bank of England today

Also ducked any controversy over QT by sticking to the £100bn expected

No surprises from the Bank of England, pretty big surprise from the Federal Reserve, what's it all mean for us mere mortals? Today's Money Distilled. bloomberg.com/news/newslette…

I don't generally buy into the idea that you can "talk an economy down" ("money in pockets" trumps "vibes") but this real-time experiment in the UK may yet prove me wrong bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

On the other hand, while consumer confidence may have slipped, consumers are still spending - UK retail sales in August beat expectations. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

“You get books out of the machines” The best response to degrowth is to share Hans Rosling’s experience of washing machines

Handy chart to go with those consumer confidence stats

New Merryn Talks Money podcast! Merryn Somerset Webb talks to Fidelity's Alex Wright, who makes the case that the UK stock market should outperform the US over the next decade. Controversial? Listen to his rationale here bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

New podcast. With Fidelity Investments's Alex Wright. One key point. The biggest determinant of long term performance is the price you pay in the first place. So if you want to outperform sell the US and buy the UK. That's all. Then we talked stocks. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

I wrote earlier this year for Bloomberg Opinion about how we have to get going with mini nukes. The kind Rolls-Royce can build. We are still thinking. The Czech gov is acting - with an order to RR for a fleet of mini reactors. #leftbehind bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

Another new high from the US market. UK doing fine - and equities still cheap. But a healthy stock market needs growth - and a government that understands how to facilitate it (repeating the word "growth" ad nauseam is not enough... ). bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

This is fascinating and amusing but also an instructive cautionary tale - long story short, when you find an area where people apparently live unusually long lives, it's about paperwork (its lack, or its fraudulent nature) rather than lifestyle ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2024/…

Britain's productivity "puzzle"