April 2012 - The currency of chaos
A long pre-Easter weekend in France stretched into an unscheduled holiday thanks to air traffic controllers. It played havoc with my diary but I was at least able to polish off the fascinating Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis by James G. Rickards. Rickards, an experienced financial adviser, investment banker and risk manager, paints a disturbing picture of global chaos and even potential armed conflict as nations use currency to exert economic hegemony.
Read more
March 2012 - Going Austrian
Our website has been refreshed and I'm much happier now that it reflects my stance on the way wealth should be managed in difficult times. You'll see we're positioning ourselves as 'The Thinking IFA'. You'd hope all financial advisers would be of the thinking variety but from what we have seen analysing our competitors and the industry in general, too many of them just follow the playbook. They have not awoken to the new realities of investment and they appear not to share our conviction that the system is broken and requires more deft handling.
Read more
January 2012 - Time For A New Set of Rules
While the world around us grapples with the turmoil of economic uncertainty and upheaval, independent financial advisers across the UK are busy swotting up to fill the gaps in their technical knowledge.
Read more
2012 - The Great Deception
For 2,500 years civilisation had a universal money system based upon gold. It replaced bartering as a means of exchanging goods. Gold became a store of wealth in its own right.
Read more
August 2011 - Markets in turmoil
The unprecedented decision by Standard & Poor's to downgrade America's credit rating from AAA to AA+ was the straw that broke the camel's back, shattering investor confidence and sending global stockmarkets into panic...
Read more
