In Reeves We Truss

Just how worried is the Gilt market about increased borrowing by the new Labour government? This chart from Simon French of 10 year UK yields versus a G7 average shows that the spread has been widening of late, suggesting there is a UK specific issue behind the rise in 10 year yields: The FT has been peppered …

The Two Weeks That Will Be (26th August 2024)

1. VolatilityWe started our last monthly missive with the phrase “On Wednesday the Bank of Japan will hike interest rates“, which suggests that a Japanese rate rise was at the very least a known unknown. The record collapse and then recovery in Japanese stock markets in the wake of the interest rate decision was far more of a Black Swan-esque unknown …

Co-Cohabitation

++ France is an accident waiting to happen. The European Commission warned its “debt sustainability analysis indicates high risk over the medium term”. It cannot be governed effectively and it faces severely challenging debt/deficit dynamics. There should be a higher risk premium on French assets ++ If only forming a government in France were as simple …

The Two Weeks That Will Be (15th July 2024)

1. The USHollywood could not have written a more astonishing script for an electoral battle between two well-known pensioners whose combined age is two-thirds that of the United States of America itself. With all the impeachments, porn stars, felonies, dementia, constitutional chicanery and now assassination attempts, the public has almost certainly decided who the victor …