This excellent video**, from the irascible Karl Denninger, offers a salutory perspective on tax give-aways funded by borrowing at times like this. And to think we once wondered whether it was to be inflation or deflation.
(On the subject of individual portfolios, BTW, the Drew household is up to the eyeballs in NS&I inflation-plus bonds. This is not financial advice, just a personal note.)
ND
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** as ever, sourced via Sackers' excellent blog.
8 comments:
The Leeds BS does an inflation-linked cash ISA.
... RPI plus 2%, I see:
http://www.leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk/savings/rates_taxfree.html
Well spotted, DM, and thanks for the tip.
Thanks also for your kind mention, ND.
I'm into some German and French inflation indexed bonds right now. I didn't get a very good price on them, but I like it better than USD.
I've actually moved into some equities. I got lucky and snagged a quick 10 percent from equities in Singapore in March and it is holding steady since then.
I'm running a little experiment with small-time cash right now - moving into some ETFs indexed to Singapore, Holland, Hong Kong, and prospectively Belgium + Switzerland. Basically, the experiment is that the country must have a current account surplus and not have an enormous unilateral trade surplus with the United States. The idea is that they will have secondary (rather than direct) effects of weak U.S. consumers. Clearly, this means investing heavily in economies dominated by financials (a minus of which I'm well aware).
I'd love to hear some feedback on this experiment. For now, I'm just moving chump change in slowly - maybe 10,000 USD by August.
RPI+2?
That's pretty good of them isn't it?
There's also a non-ISA version, presumably intended for non- taxpayers.
http://www.leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk/savings/inflation_buster_bond.html
I am so angry.
What sort of weighting does housing have in the RPI? If there's a 20% fall in house prices will it still be higher than the CPI? Most people will still have to make similar repayments after all.
Nice blog. Thats all.
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