It is depressing that the American election has developed into charges and counter-charges of corruption. Senator Obama has been attacked for historic property deals. Senator McCain has been attacked for his relations with a lobbyist.
February 28th, 2008 | William Rees-Mogg | 2 comments | ContinuedArchive for William Rees-Mogg
Leading political editor William Rees-Mogg is former editor-in-chief for The Times and a member of the House of Lords. He has been credited with accurately forecasting glasnost and the fall of the Berlin Wall – as well as the 1987 crash. His political commentary appears in The Times every Monday. His financial insights can only be found in the Fleet Street Letter, the UK's longest-running investment newsletter.
Europe is About to Suffer an Outbreak of Obamamania
There has been an extraordinary shift in the age group which dominates political life, in Europe as well as the United States. Those of us who are older than the baby boomers, saw them take over from our generation and now see our children’s generation taking over from them.
February 25th, 2008 | William Rees-Mogg | 6 comments | Continued
Gold is Not Perfect
A short note on gold, sent to us from our old friend Lord Rees-Mogg: “In 1908, good farmland in England was worth about 45 pounds per acre. Similar land would now be worth about 4,500 pounds an acre… On that basis, land has risen by about 100 times… over the last century. “We can be [...]
February 25th, 2008 | William Rees-Mogg | 0 comments | Continued
McCain vs. Obama, a Battle of Major Political Figures in the Presidential Election
If the Presidential election is finally a contest between the two Senators, McCain and Obama, it will at least be a contest of major political figures. I would myself vote for Senator McCain, because he has the experience, and the proven character, to fill the role of Commander-in-Chief.
February 15th, 2008 | William Rees-Mogg | 7 comments | Continued
South African Power Crisis Anxieties Cause Gold Price Increases
In January 2007, the gold price was around $600 an ounce; at the end of January 2008, the gold price touched a new peak of $929 an ounce. That is a rise of 50 per cent in twelve months. The rapidity of the rise invites the question whether it can be sustained. I have expected [...]
February 1st, 2008 | William Rees-Mogg | 1 comment | Continued
Cycles of the Economy
I cannot remember such a flurry of interest in cyclical trading theories since the aftermath of the panic of 1987. They used to come by airmail, usually well argued, and now they come by Email often in a more abbreviated form, and repeated to countless other correspondents. If one were old-fashioned, one would think that [...]
January 25th, 2008 | William Rees-Mogg | 3 comments | Continued
Purchasing Power of Paper Money Declines, Gold Price Climbs
All paper money has historically proved defective in terms of one of the classic functions of money. Nineteenth century economists such as William Stanley Jerons – a great economist by any test – taught that money ought to act as a “store of value”. There is no fiduciary issue which has survived the period since [...]
January 18th, 2008 | William Rees-Mogg | 1 comment | Continued
Prudent Bankers are Still Concerned to Strengthen Their Balance Sheets
Anyone who has had to reconstruct a balance sheet knows what a depressing experience it can be. Normally, the starting point has been a pattern of risk which seemed prudent at the time it was incurred, but has been overtaken by events. The result is that reserves have been drawn down, and net asset values [...]
December 20th, 2007 | William Rees-Mogg | 2 comments | Continued
U.S. Extradition Laws Create Anxiety in U.K.
There are now a number of issues of extradition and procedure on which there is potential conflict between American and non-American law. The extradition issue has caused considerable anxiety among United Kingdom businessmen, who have been alarmed by the case of the so-called Nat West Three and other high profile business cases. After 9/11, there [...]
December 7th, 2007 | William Rees-Mogg | 1 comment | Continued
Inland Revenue’s Loss of Data Confirms Worldwide Lack of Privacy
I do not think that the Inland Revenue’s loss of records which cover 25 million people will prove to be a local incident, of importance only in Britain. It certainly is important in Britain, where it has shaken Gordon Brown’s Labour administration, but it shows a fault line in the modern world. All administrative systems [...]
November 23rd, 2007 | William Rees-Mogg | 0 comments | Continued
Defence of Acquis communautaire a Danger to EU Survival
Perhaps Europe’s biggest problem is that the European Union is unreformable. The European Union itself has generated 80,000 pages of regulation, known as the “Acquis communautaire”. When the new members joined from Eastern Europe, they were made to swallow the whole of the acquis communautaire, with minor adjustments, mostly by timing. This is not an [...]
November 16th, 2007 | William Rees-Mogg | 2 comments | Continued
Reform’s IPOD Generation Unlikely to Become Homeowners
The world is governed by the baby boomers. The only thing that is surprising is the way in which economic trends have, so far, favoured them. The baby boom generation started in 1947, when the babies were born who had been fathered by the returning soldiers after the end of the Second World, War. The [...]
November 1st, 2007 | William Rees-Mogg | 5 comments | Continued
Nils Taube: UK Fund Manager Bullish on Gold & Energy
I have known Nils Taube, the London fund manager, for over fifty years. He has a unique long term track record since I first met him as a young partner in Kitcat and Aitken, a pre big bang firm of London stockbrokers. In the 1980s we were both members of one of Jacob Rothschild’s boards. [...]
October 25th, 2007 | William Rees-Mogg | 0 comments | Continued
The Scourge of Global Inflation is Rising Again
The U.S. dollar is weak, at $1.42 to the Euro; oil prices are rising, at $86 a barrel; the gold price is rising, at $756 an ounce. These are all signs that the risk of global inflation, the scourge of the 1970s, is rising again. In The Daily Telegraph for Monday, October 15th, Ambrose Evans [...]
October 19th, 2007 | William Rees-Mogg | 0 comments | Continued
European Union Treaty Questioned by Eurosceptics in Britain
Hardly anyone even in Britain understands the constitutional relationship between Britain and Europe, let alone the changes that have been proposed. Most of my American friends think that the European Union is a good thing because it is some sort of continental federation, like the United States. They suspect Britain of being isolationist in resisting [...]
October 12th, 2007 | William Rees-Mogg | 3 comments | Continued
