The month began with the Conservative party annual conference, and the aftershocks were still being felt as the month ended. The prime minister sounded much more pro ‘hard’ Brexit than the markets had expected, and the home secretary was willfully misquoted by everybody – especially overseas – as saying that UK companies would have to publish lists of their foreign workers.
From an investing point of view the main impact arose from May’s critique of quantitative easing:
“People with assets have got richer. People without them have suffered. People with mortgages have found their debts cheaper. People with savings have found themselves poorer….. A change has got to come.” – Theresa May, UK Prime Minister, October 2016
Lest you wondered whether the change needed is the Government’s problem or the central bank’s problem, William Hague (a former Tory leader) helpfully clarified the next day that the Bank of England’ ‘days of independence could be numbered’ unless its policies change. If this didn’t look like political interference, what would? This, after all, was from the party which strongly opposed giving the Bank of England independence back in 1997.
Just as I was beginning to contemplate whether we might be in for a full-on Sterling crisis if Mark Carney, the foreign Bank of England governor, decided he’d had enough, the latest news is that he will be staying until mid 2019. Hopefully the Tories have seen into the abyss and will step back from it. Carney may not be perfect but there is no better anywhere in the world and right now losing him would be a big mistake.
Continue reading “My performance – October 2016. Carney-gate abated.”
FIRE v London 