UK Wealth, Editor at large, Bloomberg. Ex Ed in C @Moneyweek. Ex Columnist/Contrib Editor @FT Opinions personal. NED: THRG and Schroder Japan.Author #SharePower

Joined August 2010
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The original white paper for Bitcoin described it as a “peer-to-peer version of electronic cash." That's it. No mention of an investment/inflation hedge/new asset class. So if we value it on those terms (as cash), what's it worth? Spoiler: almost nothing. bloomberg.com/news/newslette…
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Surprise!
EU students vanish from UK with £893million in loans trib.al/fmabg3R
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Thriving economy, low tax and cheap points. A few good policy choices and the U.K. could have this too.
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It's just a different mindset. Hugh Fearnley-W. Arguing for Covid style interventions over obesity. Extreme end of something must be done ism.
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That's what they all say...
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I have 9 shares. Just to be clear.
Almost the entire British establishment media turned its collective nose up at this IPO and now this flash: *SPACEX SHARES JUMP TO SESSION HIGH OF $169, 25% ABOVE IPO PRICE You could not make it up
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Not going to encourage employers much
Britain is facing a surge in people taking their employers to court, with claims up 55% year on year, following Angela Rayner’s sweeping workers' rights reforms. dailysceptic.org/2026/06/12/…
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Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
Does the SpaceX IPO mean public markets are back? What's going on with gold? Should the government issue IHT-free "patriot bonds" to fund our defence budget? All this and more in the latest @MerrynSW Talks Money market wrap open.spotify.com/episode/5Ds…
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Update: 9.
Can't wait to find out how much SpaceX I own.
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Two banks have spent $1bn "without generating a significant return on investment." Yikes.
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Who is keeping this year's list of things that have been promised by politicians.. but that definitely will not happen? Please add this.
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Can't wait to find out how much SpaceX I own.
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People have gone mad. First spending $100k on a wedding. Then using magic spells to try and make the weather nice. Everyone... just stop... bloomberg.com/news/features/…
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Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
*IRAN AGREES TO OPEN STRAIT OF HORMUZ IN RETURN FOR SPACEX IPO ALLOCATION
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This is so so shocking. But also apparently perfectly normal.
This really worries me A month ago in Wales I suffered a ruptured aneurysm in my abdomen. I lost over 2 units of blood But the Welsh ambulance service refused to send an ambulance. I was still breathing so apparently didn't need one I spent 7 hours lying on the ground in a car park. Every time I moved I threw up from the pain. The owners of the car park called 999 6x One of the people there was a fireman. He couldn't believe that 999 treated each call as a separate incident and couldn't see the details or link to previous calls. He was frustrated because they could see I was seriously ill but you can't see internal bleeding and so there was no way to persuade 999 that it actually was an emergency Eventually my husband arrived by taxi, journey of more than 3 hours from our home He gave me my pain meds (the car park people were worried about liability and I was too ill to get them myself). This meant I was able to crawl into the car and he drove me to A&E He got me into a wheelchair. We waited 75 minutes to see a doctor. I was shivering, heaped with blankets and threw up all over the floor As soon as a doctor looked at me I was taken straight to resus. The next day I was transfered by blue light ambulance to another hospital, had a blood transfusion and spent 5 days on the high dependency unit If my husband hadn't been able to come and look after me I have no idea how I would have survived. As it was I nearly didn't I would not have been able to get myself to hospital nor would I have been able to log into some digital triage system This scheme seems to assume if you're seriously ill you'll arrive by ambulance and if not you're well enough to navigate a digital portal My experience suggests that's a dangerous assumption A week later, back home in England I had another ruptured aneurysm. This time an ambulance came in 2 hours and again I was taken straight to resus It wasn't the same because I had a recent diagnosis of a ruptured aneurysm so we could tell 999 I was almost certainly bleeding internally. But I was too ill to get myself down the stairs and out to the car. We still needed that ambulance and I still wouldn't have been able to fiddle around with an ipad Proper triage REQUIRES an actual doctor to look at the patient. It takes a matter of minutes to differentiate between a life threatening emergency and not a life threatening emergency. That's not minutes to get a diagnosis but to know that the person is stable or not stable and if not that needs immediate attention Seriously ill people can't do it themselves. It doesn't matter how smart or articulate they are normally. Or how tough. Expecting people to manage their own emergency care isn't what a modern health service should do telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06…
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Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
Announce the end of the triple lock, approval of new N Sea oil and gas licences, and bridge the inevitable financing gap until these savings/ revenues come in with IHT-exempt War Bond issuance (which would probably be hugely oversubscribed and push down the average cost of borrowing). To govern is to choose.
This is very significant - Defence Secretary quits over defence spending saying govt plan 'falls well short' of what is needed - Healey has always been loyal to Labour, but looks like he felt he had to be loyal to his commitments to defence too
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Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
Some of the comments up the back of the May RICS report are strikingly bearish. "Flats - nightmare"; "Landlords continue to flee the market"; and intriguing one from the Isle of Man: "We are continuing to see unusually high levels of interest from UK based purchasers relocating"
Pretty bearish UK house price expectations from @RICSnews. The lowest net balance since August 2023. With offered interest rates and inflation set to impact in the second half of the year, surveyors' views are consistent with a double-digit real terms house price fall. FWIW I think this is too bearish given hhld balance sheet strength, but this has been a reliable leading indicator in the past.
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That should make those with student debt feel better. Wow.
Chief Treasury Secretary Lucy Rigby has defended the Government’s decision to not reduce interest rates on student loans, saying the money is being used to fund benefit schemes including ‘free breakfast clubs’ and lifting the two child benefit cap. Trapping graduates in a lifetime of debt in order to fund breakfasts for children whose parents should be feeding them at home is not beneficial to anyone - children, families or young adults starting out in life.
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Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
This should be a wake-up call for the UK… (Note that this is a per-capita chart)
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Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
IHT exempt war bonds would get away at a very significant premium. I’m generally not in favour of hypothecation - but this might be a rare exception
Indeed.
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