At long last, UK inflation has hit target…but soon, so too will unemployment.                 The graph says it all. Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), hit 2.0% in December 2013, … Continue reading →

The Autumn Statement gave the green light to National Savings and Investments (NS&I) to raise more money. Hidden in the small print of the Autumn Statement was the news that the Treasury had increased the forecast money to be raised … Continue reading →

HMRC is winning its battles against complex tax avoidance schemes…and it needs to. The many pages of Treasury documentation issued in the wake of last month’s Autumn Statement included a ‘Scorecard’ listing the revenue impact of the Chancellor’s actions.  Of … Continue reading →

Are you better off than your parents?   In an attempt to answer this question, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has been looking at wealth for the generations born between the 1940s and 1970s.  It has come up with some … Continue reading →

2013 came to a close with the US Federal Reserve finally putting investment markets out of their misery. When Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, started talking about the tapering of quantitative easing (QE) last May, the … Continue reading →