A brand new year, and a brand new resolution from the folks at the Just Williams podcast. What won’t be changing is the regular focus on current events and how they impact on the global financial markets, the up-to-the minute insight into the investment sector or highlighting what we need to be watching out for…
12 months ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell, noted “The question of when to moderate the pace of increases is much less important than the question of how high and how long to keep monetary policy restrictive”. At the time, U.S., UK and Eurozone rates were 4%, 3% and 2.5% respectively. After their December 2023…
Look out, it’s the Christmas Special edition of the Just Williams podcast! Tune in as John & Duncan, resplendent in their Christmas Jumpers, close out the year by taking you through some of the highs (and the not-so-highs) of global economic conditions and the investment markets over the course of 2023. Whilst sticky inflation and…
Saul Bellow, Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, noted “a great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep”. This neatly segues into the travails of short-term office lessor, WeWork, which recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Whatever value remains (if any), once it emerges,…
At its November meeting, the U.S. Federal Reserve maintained interest rates within a 5.25% – 5.50% range. The Bank of England did likewise, keeping its key rate at 5.25% while the European Central Bank (ECB) also opted to maintain the status quo at 4.0%. Not for the first time, we are left wondering why they…
It’s the post-Thanksgiving, pre-Advent edition of Just Williams and it’s coming at you with twinkly lights, frosty paths and the faint whiff of a warm mince pie. As always we catch up with the last global economic news before Duncan & John offer pithy insight into the investment markets with that laser-like focus that you…
RIP Charlie Munger, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, who died on the 28th November just shy of his 100th birthday. While always attracted to the investment philosophy of Munger’s more famous business partner, Warren Buffett, as time progressed I became more Charlie than Warren. Munger said less than Buffett but it resonated more. He also cared…
We have been reminded over the last few weeks that whatever happens the world always continues to turn, which means there is always something for us to get our teeth into when it comes to matters of financial investment. So for this recording we talk about the latest on how stubborn underlying inflation continues to…
Will interest rates stay higher for longer? The rise in global bond yields suggests that’s the way investors are leaning. Central banks, having been wholly ignorant of inflationary dangers, now have a serious credibility problem with regard to getting it back under control. Their only remaining policy option is to hike interest rates which is…
Ex the United States, the global economy increasingly looks stuck in a low growth orbit and even the U.S. cannot continue deficit spending 8% of its annual gross domestic product without serious consequences. One may conclude the Federal Reserve’s hiking of interest rates from virtually zero to more than 5%, over an 18 month period,…