So much to write about so many different aspects of the political maelstrom in which UK plc is currently being buffeted, but in the end it comes down to just three potential outcomes:
1. NoDeal Exit. 2. Exit with a Deal. 3. No Exit.
Such is the frustration caused by all this in the markets, that incredibly and very dangerously, the current perceived “wisdom” is that it would be better/less bad for Boris Johnson’s government to be replaced by a Jeremy Corbyn led coalition government. Unfortunately the collective market memory does not go back 50 years to the decade of 1969 to 1979. If it did, there would be NO flirting with such a dangerous and damaging concept. But that is where we are and while GBP is slightly weaker than the highs of the end of last week, it is unwisely and naively partly buoyed by this latest thinking.
No nothing to do with trade, but rather to do with the Al Thani rulers being impervious to the practical problems of Qatar hosting the World Athletics Championships by insisting on not relaxing the rule of segregated gyms. As long as female athletes have female trainers, no problem, but all too frequently this is not the case -and vice versa with male athletes.
It does beg the question of just how footballers will manage in the absence of their very many female gym trainers in pursuit of the World Cup in Qatar in 3 years time.
We wrote at the time of the launch of the Indian space mission Chandrayaan 2 back in July of the quest to put an Indian vehicle on the surface of the Moon. On Saturday morning the lander vehicle probe named Vikram disappeared from monitor screens as it approached the Moon’s surface to the consternation of mission control in Bengaluru. So the quest for India to be the first nation to reach the Moon’s South Pole looks to be over. No chapatis and champagne this weekend and it’s back to the drawing board.
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

FX Rates in 2035 Goldman Sachs yesterday published their long term forecasts for FX rates in 2035. Those forecasts are based on the “mean-reverting behaviour of real exchange rates adjusted for structural factors such as productivity growth and terms of trade”. Before getting too excited, it is worth pointing out that using that methodology is exactly how […]
Friday night US Markets There was an element of the US stock market temporarily running out of oxygen at the heady heights that it had reached and looking for an excuse to take profits/sell. That excuse was provided in spades by POTUS who pronounced that he would implement much higher tariffs against China. That was […]
UK Productivity The OBR or Office for Budget Responsibility has likely downgraded its forecast for UK Productivity by the time that you are reading this. Despite taking a leaf out of her boss’s PM playbook and jetting off on an overseas business trip when unwelcome economic news is in the offing, for Chancellor Reeves there […]