Sintra, Portugal and the ECB Governor
Mario Draghi ECB Governor despite the reported highest rate of wage growth reported earlier in the week saw weak inflation and growth as key challenges in his speech at Sintra yesterday. He also said that further rate cuts remain an option that the ECB may choose. So it is not only politically that the UK looks to be at odds with Europe, as Governor Carney and the MPC are contemplating rate rises rather than cuts!
Facebook: the next frontier-Libra.
The expected news that Facebook will be launching their own global currency called Libra which will be kept in a wallet called Colibra was unveiled yesterday. All sorts of questions kicking off with, why? After all Facebook have been here before with Facebook credits that were meant to be a global payment mechanism and also it should be remembered were quietly dropped after two years having failed to gain interest. Facebook said: “In time, we hope to offer additional services for people and businesses, such as paying bills with the push of a button, buying a cup of coffee with the scan of a code, or riding your local public transit without needing to carry cash or a metro pass.” Small point: all of the above can be accomplished now either through our phones or credit cards, so no need to wait for two years until Facebook launch!
If you have dropped a Euromillions lottery ticket with those numbers down the back of your sofa, it would pay you to hold off watching Love Island and fish it out before proceeding to claim the prize of £123,458,008 which has remained unclaimed from the 11 June draw. If you would like to convert your winnings into Yen, USD, EUR or actually pretty much any currency, SGM-FX’s James awaits your call-and says he is happy to share!
Conservative Leadership and PM contest
At 6pm yesterday the 313 Conservative MPs delivered their verdict in the second round for who should progress to the third round of the contest. Despite early promise and good progress from Stewart, it was big beasts Boris and Gove ahead of Hunt, Sajid Javid and Stewart who made it -thereby eliminating Raab.
Colonel Sanders’ KFC is the latest chain to climb aboard the no meat train with an Imposter Burger following in the meat substitute footsteps of Byron, Burger King and Greggs. Those interested should get themselves over to KFC Gloucester Road SW7 together with SGM-FX’s part-time vegan, Sam where the men in white coats and clipboards are trialling the Imposter Burger. Early reports suggest that plenty of ketchup and mustard required to spice up the BB as in bland burger..…
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder
POTUS in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia As one of POTUS’ travelling companions on this week’s visit, Larry Fink of Blackrock represents everything that a US President might want to burnish his credentials in the desert kingdom: head of the largest asset manager on the planet, hugely influential and totally credible. Just a shame that he […]
UK Borrowing Another one for the pub quiz in case it comes up: UK government borrowing stands at £2.8 trillion or £2800 billion. While you digest that number over the chicken in the basket if indeed you are already in the pub, it will have increased by the time you get to the end of this […]
The Art of the Deal Today the UK Prime Minister will be announcing the fruits of his weekend labours after meeting the EU not as an accredited delegate but in a side session on the fringes of the EU Summit in Albania. What was on the table? Youth mobility, which is pol speak for 24-30 […]