helpful articles

“Spend now, pay later.” – Helen Miller, chief exec of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, nicely framed.  This week’s quote pertains to the deep dive, as usual, and I tackle the Budget summary from a

“Property taxes are an interaction between stamp duty, council tax, capital gains tax, and inheritance tax. You don’t solve that problem by just adding another wealth tax to it.” – Lord (Mervyn) King, former Governor

“By sticking to our deficit reduction plans we can keep interest rates low. And it is, I think, hard to overstate the fundamental importance of low interest rates for an economy as indebted as ours…

“AI won’t replace humans, but those who use AI will replace those who don’t.” — Garry Kasparov, Chess Grandmaster   This week’s quote is a reference to the AI-powered experimental version of the Supplement –

“London isn’t as sought after as it was a decade ago” – Damian Shepherd, Bloomberg News. This week’s quote pertains to the deep dive, as I take a look at the rumoured demise of Prime

“The decline in output has been caused by multiple factors that go beyond planning policy” – The Home Builders Federation.   This week’s quote pertains to the deep dive, as it often does, and I

“The Bank of England’s decisions having such large fiscal implications at a time where the chancellor wants to be fiscally tight is clearly not helpful. Furthermore, the losses the central bank makes are gains for

“Many leaders are tempted to lead like a chess master, striving to control every move, when they should be leading like gardeners, creating and maintaining a viable ecosystem in which the organization operates.” – Stanley

“I don’t believe in guardrails” – Mary Elizabeth Truss, the “Lady Jane Grey” of Prime Ministers   This week’s quote goes straight to the deep dive and tells you just how seriously the former PM

“Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer.   This

“Intergenerational justice, intergenerational fairness and equality is going to be the issue of the next 10 or 15 years. Is this generation, my generation, going to do right by the younger generation?” Ed Miliband, January

“Let it work, For ’tis the sport to have the enginer Hoist with his own petard; and ‘t shall go hard” – Hamlet, Act 3 Scene 4, Shakespeare   This week’s quote goes straight to

“The Bell never rings of itself; unless someone handles or moves it it is dumb.” – Plautus, Roman playwright.   This week’s quote again looks forward to the deep dive – the Bell in question

“The only way is up.” – Yazz and the Plastic Population, 1988 (Originally written by George Jackson and Johnny Henderson)   This week’s quote again looks forward to the deep dive – tax, tax and

“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations.” – George Orwell, visionary and author   This week’s quote again looks forward to the deep dive – I felt

“In a way the philosopher and the barber are of the same guild; the barber cuts hair and the philosopher splits hairs.” – José Ortega y Gasset, Spanish Philosopher   This week’s quote again looks

“A black swan is an event with three attributes: it is an outlier, it carries extreme impact, and it is retrospectively predictable.” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author, The Black Swan   This week’s quote again

“Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future” – Niels Bohr, physicist (and comedian, it seems)   This week’s quote is one about the subject matter of the deep dive – it is

“I was an advocate of the deregulation movement and I made – along with a lot of other smart people – a fundamental mistake. The financial industry undergirded the entire economy and if it is

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.” – Martin Luther King Jr.,

“Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it” – origins from Aesop’s Fables.   This week’s quote is one about caution and consequences – and you will see just why in the

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and sixpence, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.” – Mr Micawber, from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. 

“It all comes down to interest rates. As an investor, all you’re doing is putting up a lump-sum payment for a future cash flow..” – Ray Dalio, macro investor of note.   This week’s quote

“Use a picture. It’s worth a thousand words.” – Arthur Brisbane, newspaper editor   This week’s quote pertains directly to the deep dive and the diagram I’ve shared this week about the impact of the

“The next Labour Government will deliver the biggest boost to affordable, social and council housing for a generation… we’ll start by rebuilding the dream of a safe, secure, affordable home.” – Angela Rayner, October 2023

“The downside of coming off junk was I knew I would need to mix with my friends again in a state of full consciousness.” – Mark Renton, character from “Trainspotting”, the movie   This week’s

“Don’t be afraid of looking down, sometimes that’s where you find your strength” – Unknown This week’s quote takes us all the way into the deep dive, and finding money – a lot of it