Morning Brief – Bank of England

Bank of England

As most readers know, the Monetary Policy Committee is due to pronounce on the next move or pause in UK interest rates next week on 2 November. Having paused at 5.25% in September after 14 consecutive rate rises, the expectation despite the stubborn 6.7% rate of inflation is that there will also be a pause next week. The reason for that is the employment statistics that showed 82,000 fewer people in work at the end of August which followed a fall of 133,000 in July. With an employment rate of 75.7% the UK economic alert indicator is only flashing amber at present on the dashboard, but the spectre of high interest rates and higher unemployment is expected to be sufficient to temper the inflation fighting instincts of the MPC.

GBP/USD 1.2205.

Brand (Mis)management

This time it is the turn of Chinese brewer Tsing Tao whose beer is famously popular not only in China but across the world. Until now that is with a video of a brewery worker relieving himself in a container of beer. The video has gone viral and the damage has been done with punters already showing reluctance to drink potentially contaminated Tsing Tao beer. No jokes about taking the piss please.

USD/CNY 7.3090.

Crypto

If the ongoing FTX/Sam Bankman Fried saga and trial respectively is insufficient to put you off crypto, do examine your green conscience: it turns out in case you doubted it, that mining crypto consumes more electricity than some whole countries. Before you sneer at this suggestion and think that it’s a case of very small countries, Bitcoin mining consumes more electricity than…Pakistan with 230 million people. United nations have helpfully suggested that an offset would be planting trees but then spoil it by explaining that the area required to compensate for all this electricity usage would equate to the Netherlands…and Switzerland….and Denmark.

Woman in Love

This day in 1980 this song became Barbra Streisand’s fifth Number One US Single. Written by Barry and Robin Gibb of Manchester band the Bee Gees, Woman in Love came off the Platinum album, Guilty. Barry is the only surviving member of the Bee Gees with Robin and Maurice both having departed this world, and he is still a revenue generating phenomenon -to give you an idea Robin left $150M behind.

Life is a moment in space
When the dream is gone
It’s a lonelier place
I kiss the morning goodbye
But down inside you know
We never know why
The road is narrow and long
When eyes meet eyes
And the feeling is strong
I turn away from the wall
I stumble and fall
But I give you it all

I am a woman in love
And I do anything
To get you into my world
And hold you within
It’s a right I defend
Over and over again
What do I do?

With you eternally mine
In love there is
No measure of time
We planned it all at the start
That you and I
Live in each other’s hearts
We may be oceans away
You feel my love
I hear what you say
No truth is ever a lie
I stumble and fall
But I give you it all

I am a woman in love
And I do anything
To get you into my world
And hold you within
It’s a right I defend
Over and over again
What do I do?

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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