“FTSE falls as Trump warns on virus, Brexit trade hopes wane”

Jul 21, 2020 | Brexit

An independent (financial adviser’s) view

A leading fund manager told us in a presentation this week that only 4% of their global portfolios are currently invested in the UK. The technical term is ‘underweight in UK equities’ and 4% is positively anorexic. Of our other, main recommended portfolios, one has 11%, the others around 25%, more the norm (as opposed to the ‘new norm’, of which I’m sick of hearing!) Why the differences? As I write, our stockmarket is still some 15% below where it was in January, while the US is just 5% down, despite Trump’s appalling handling of the pandemic. So one view is that the UK offers ‘good value’ and could come back strongly; the other that Brexit approacheth with the government’s eye firmly off the ball. Both could be right.

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“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”

“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”

Why did she/they (in the old sense) think that tinkering around with IHT and CGT would be enough to sort out the NHS; and the potholes; and…and the list goes on. My guess is  that they asked the Treasury for a list of anything not involving income tax that they could get away with lightly, although they should already have learned from the winter fuel stuff that all publicity is not good publicity.