The Great Debate UK
The benefits of early ISA investment
- Rachel Mason is public relations manager at independent financial service providers Fair Investment Company. The opinions expressed are her own. -
The financial media has been packed full of ISA news over the past few months. Most of the advice has been ‘invest in your ISA before it’s too late’. And now it is too late. The media has found something else to write about because the tax year is over, and if you missed it, tough luck.
Are the markets right to fear a hung parliament?
-David Kuo is director at The Motley Fool. The opinions expressed are his own -
There is a well-trodden saying that markets hate uncertainty. Elections are inevitably uncertain, so until the votes in the next election are counted we cannot be certain which party will govern the UK.
Currently, there are suggestions that no single party may get sufficient votes to form the next government outright. It is true that the Conservatives have a strong lead over its rivals. However, with a first-past-the post voting system, it only takes a small swing away from the Conservatives to change the complexion of the next parliament.
from The Great Debate:
Icelandic, Greek sagas show sovereign risks
-- James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. --
Developments in cash-strapped Iceland and Greece nicely illustrate two themes for 2010: sovereign risk and financial balkanization.
Iceland is balking at crushing terms demanded as part of its making whole overseas depositors in its ruined banking system, while Greece is involved in a game of chicken with the euro zone authorities over how, when and with whose assistance it heals its fiscal difficulties.
Where Next For The Stock Market?
-David Kuo, Director at the financial website The Motley Fool. The opinions expressed are his own.-
It wasn’t supposed to happen. Shares were not supposed to rise between May and September. That is if you believe the old stock market adage that says you should sell in May and go away, and don’t come back until St Legers Day.
Shareholder confidence vs. value investing
- Brendan Wood is Chairman of Brendan Wood International, a global intelligence advisory firm. Recently, BWI published the World’s TopGun CEOs as ranked by 2500 institutional investors, which provides insight into the executives in whom shareholders feel the greatest confidence. The opinions expressed are his own. -
The Brendan Wood International’s panel of 2500 institutional investors suffered through last year’s markets believing value would somehow prevail. Those value investing “diehards” indeed died hard.
The stockmarkets: irrational nonchalance
- Laurence Copeland is a professor of finance at Cardiff University Business School and a co-author of “Verdict on the Crash” published by the Institute of Economic Affairs. The opinions expressed are his own. -
Before the credit crunch, we had what I called a Prozac market. Investors on both sides of the Atlantic seemed to be in denial, as irrational as the people who end up in the bankruptcy court because for years they have kept on smiling while the bills piled up unopened.
Deflation? It’s inflation you need to watch
– David Kuo is a director at the financial Web site The Motley Fool. The views expressed are his own. –
What are consumers supposed to make of the latest inflation numbers? Do we have inflation, deflation or a bit of stagflation?
