Isn’t £1,457Bn the same as £1.457T?
Yes.
Time we went back to a billion meaning a million x million. (UK norm until last couple of decades)
Numbers would look better 
Doesn’t look good.
But it’s nothing new:
And since I were a lad, there have been numerous such warnings. Pre t’interweb, I mean, when you had to buy a large piece of printed paper called a newspaper to get the lowdown on what was happening in the world.
This too shall pass.
Always look on the bright side of life (à la Monty Python).
The last 6 months media outlets have shouted that consumer debt is at its highest value since other era’s, though they state the value in £ pound terms rather than percentage terms.
Of course debt is higher in £ pound terms than the 1990’s or 1970’s because things cost more so the number will be larger.
What’s currently happening is a forest fire which will wipe out the weak and from that point will begin growth from afresh… like it always will.
Non of the middle class will fight together to protect what they have and the wealthier ones above are continuing to pounce on their freedoms & assets.
Regarding the newspaper sentence above, I still find it wild that people en masse would go out of their way to pay for a piece of paper which manipulated and lies to you. The better route would be for people individually to go and push themselves harder at skills and abilities to gain their own actual understanding of what’s going on. Rather than be told by a manipulative media outlet.
When you push yourself for more than a decade, your mindset can quickly respond to BS lies and PR campaigns naturally. So you can then in turn make better decisions and be much more confident as a long term investor.
Don’t disagree with what you say overall; I never read the Mail, it was just an example I put up to show that these headlines are nothing new.
Of course there are winners and losers in whatever economic situation exists; it’s always been the case and it’s hard to see that ever changing.
You are absolutely right that more people need to educate themselves more about personal finance in general, and that should start in schools.
In my opinion, the single biggest flaw in the current economic setup of the world is the (possibly deliberate) reluctance of governments etc., to tackle this financial illiteracy. In my simple and simplistic head, the better off people are generally, surely the better news for the economy overall.
I cannot understand, and I’ve tried and tried to see this from all different perspectives, why so much wealth is concentrated in so few hands, and how that makes economic sense.
But what do I know.
Why the dip this week?
(Sharecast News) - London stocks were still in the red by midday on Tuesday amid continued uncertainty over whether a US debt default will be averted, and as data showed that shop price inflation in the UK edged higher in May.
I know all too well why the majority of wealth is concentrated in so few hands. You can generalise the answer by putting these people into two groups. I’ll write later.
Here is one quick hint posted today which goes hand in hand why the wealthy get ahead and stay ahead.
You don’t get rich spending your own money. Spend other peoples.
Bunch of very interesting links this week:
- 10 bad takes on this market including 5 Stocks Driving It
- Investment Mistakes Even Smart Investors Make and How to Avoid Them
- Why Down & Sideways Markets are Bullish
- Regret optimized portfolios and optimal retirement income
- Are we headed for a massive bout of deflation?
- Why are large companies so dominant?
We sold our wealth, industries, and future economy to China in exchange for low rate products that have long since been sent to landfill.
They played us as the greedy fools we were, and now they have the last laugh.
They also repeatedly de-valued their currency to make sure that their exports were attractive. It appears that we are playing China at their own game - and it is what more recently successful voters have been demanding, although probably unaware that in order to have competitive exports there are broader consequences!
So much great reading here, this week:
- Vanguard updating their 10-year asset class return expectations for different markets
- Lots of interesting insights on factor investing
Few interesting topics in this week’s review:
- How to rebalance your portfolio including Vanguard study on frequency
- The risk of owning equities declines as the time horizon increases, or does it?
- Become a passive Investing Ninja – the definitive guide to slashing ETF Costs and Taxes
- Is the Bear Market Over?
- Is a GDP Weighted Index a source of superior returns?
- The Power of Uncorrelated Assets
- The Fastest Rising Asset Classes in 2023
- Druckenmiller: AI is Dominating My Long Portfolio
- Universa’s Taleb on Inflation, Global Financial Markets, & Crypto
- New Measure of Firm-Level AI exposure
- Mapped: The Growth in House Prices by Country
Can you feel 10% rates coming?