Inflation concerns

[1nvest]

Gordon Brown felt it's time was over and sold most of gold reserves at a fraction of what they would be worth now.

Sold (around half of) UK gold to buy Euro's i.e. support the EU of which the UK was a part. Two big mistakes. The UK still has modest gold reserves available in readiness for if/when a run against the Pound might occur. Potentially very useful/valuable under certain conditions. Many central banks have been accumulating gold for similar reasons. Not so Canada, who dumped their gold to transition over to ultimate faith in infinite intangible currencies.

The UK spending trillions in the EU (can't be considered as having invested as its never paid a dividend and we even had to pay in order to leave it) was a far far bigger mistake compared to Gordon Brown's gold selling mistake.

[RockRabbit]

Gordon Brown felt it's time was over and sold most of gold reserves at a fraction of what they would be worth now.

The UK spending trillions in the EU (can't be considered as having invested as its never paid a dividend and we even had to pay in order to leave it) was a far far bigger mistake compared to Gordon Brown's gold selling mistake.

The UK never spent "trillions" in the EU.

[1nvest]

The UK never spent "trillions" in the EU.

Inflation adjust the UK's contributions to the EU, to for example uplift roads in Ireland and elsewhere ...etc. and compared to had that been invested for the UK's benefit and the loss is over a trillion. Foodbanks, potholes, first generation to be less well off than its parent generation and massively lowered working standards/pay ... all confirm that wastage. In contrast look at how much better many EU states are now, and much of that was a consequence of the UK's 'generosity'.

[forrado]

Markets will always find a Wall of Worry to climb.
12 months ago it was the end of life as we know it. This time 'round it's inflation. Siren voices will always have the ear of investors to give them something or other to fret about.

[GrahamPlatt]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/li ... iness-live

4:13pm
Professor Costas Milas of the University of Liverpool points out that the Bank of England doesn’t have an infallible record of forecasting inflation....

BoE policymakers have different views about inflation. Andy Haldane ‘sees’ an inflation threat whereas Dave Ramsden thinks that inflation risks are broadly balanced. One way of resolving this is to assess the MPC’s collective judgement. I plot actual inflation together with the one-year and two-year ahead BoE forecasts. Since 2006, the median bias of the one-year ahead forecast is almost zero (equal to 0.02) whereas the median bias of the two-year ahead forecast is slightly negative (i.e. -0.17). So far so good, you could say. Not at all!

The correlation between actual inflation and the one-year ahead forecast is very weak (only +0.17). The correlation between actual inflation and the two-year ahead forecast is negative (-0.34), that is, inflation moves in opposite direction to the forecast. Therefore, I wouldn’t feel very confident about the Bank’s collective judgement on inflation risks...

Hope I haven't quoted too much for the mods here. On the web page, there's a graph below this, illustrating his point.

[GrahamPlatt]

Extract from NAIT fund manager's report, 31st Jan:

"Regarding monetary policy, even with increased prospects for fiscal support from the new administration, in his most recent commentary, US Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell commented that his top concern – even greater than inflation – is the economy falling short of a full recovery. Given that the Fed is still a long way from meeting its stated employment and inflation objectives, we see his stance as pointing to continued strong support on the monetary policy side (particularly continued low interest rates)."