So here’s the thing. We’re all better off now than we were a year or so ago. Some more than others, of course, and at the expense, should this survey have gone in another direction (unlikely, as it’s for a wealth management company) of many of the poorest who will have become poorer still in the same period. Anyway, the comfortable middle are still more comfortable on paper, but don’t feel it. On said paper, most have had above inflation pay rises, the value of their investments and property has risen by 10% or more and interest rates on savings are up. Yet there is no resulting feel-good factor and we’re feeling poorer, not richer. Perhaps because the messaging from above has been perpetually downbeat, black holes, belt in-pulling and we need Growth, Growth, Growth. The sun may be shining, yet we see only the remaining clouds. It’s all in the mind, but then it probably always has been.
“Trade war: Stock markets rally as Trump rows back on Fed and China threats”
Yet another reminder, should one be needed, of how quickly things can and will change. A nod and a wink in the right direction from himself and/ or an underling can provide the solace the money men crave and turn a plummet into, if not a soar at this stage, then certainly a bounce.
