Well, it’ll make a change from writing works of fiction, says David Cowell of Myddleton Croft Investment Managers…..
As if to illustrate Tesco’s woes, their store in Aberystwyth has offered customers free erections. Seemingly they translated ‘free cash’ into ‘codiad ad ddim’ instead of ‘arian ad ddim’. Seemingly the residents didn’t know that Tesco had gone into the cut-price construction business.
So, Old Mutual are on track to swallow Quilter Cheviot to become an even bigger ‘me too’ operation. The group chief executive said that expanding on the £5 million of its £16 billion in assets that Quilter Cheviot had invested in Old Mutual funds, and cross-selling advice to its clients were obvious opportunities. They certainly are – especially if they start targeting the assets introduced by IFAs and switching them to OM products.
Interesting figures produced by the FT on which economies are growing and which not. GDP figures are notoriously inaccurate, if not actually ‘misspoken’, whereas PMI figures tend to be more accurate. The chart below encapsulates this well:
Chart courtesy of Financial Times
There is little doubt that Chinese GDP is likely to be a truthful 3-5% rather than the official 7.5%. Also if Draghi doesn’t act soon, the eurozone is in deep doo-doo.
The Office of National Statistics’ 2014 Pink Book released last Friday revealed that the UK’s net contribution to the EU budget in 2013 was £11.3bn – much higher than the £8.6bn initially forecast by the Treasury and a 32% increase on the previous year. The figures also showed that the UK’s net contribution to the EU budget had more than quadrupled since 2008. I listened with incredulity this morning to some eurocrat trying to tell John Humphries that the UK benefitted by €70 billion a year so our contribution was tiny in comparison. Unfortunately JH was so busy being incredulous that he failed to ask the guy how the figure was derived. Not that anyone at the BBC knows enough about such figures to understand.
Seen in a Glasgow cemetery: PERSONS ARE PROHIBITED FROM PICKING FLOWERS FROM ANY BUT THEIR OWN GRAVES.
Have a good weekend.
David Cowell
Director
For and on behalf of Myddleton Croft Investment Managers
1 Woodside Mews
Clayton Wood Close
Leeds
LS16 6QE
Tel: 0113 274 7700
Fax: 0113 274 7711
