I keep reading personal finance bloggers saying there’s no recovery in sight because unemployment is rising.
This is backwards thinking. Unemployment is a lagging indicator.
In this post I’ll explain what that means, and why unemployment only turns down after the economy picks up.
A lot of people arrive at this site after asking Google: Is it safe to invest in corporate bonds?
It’s a reasonable question, yet the answer is complicated.
Many people are confused about what a ‘bond’ is, with good reason given how freely the financial services industry throws the word about.
Even with true corporate bonds, safe investing will depend on:
- The type of corporate bond you invest in
- The performance of the company that issued the bond
- Interest rates and inflation
- Whether you invest in individual bonds or via a fund
- The timing of your investment, and the price you pay
I feel a bit sorry for this banker – especially as the reliably-hypocritical Daily Mail is already spreading the story – but the video is funny.
An employee of Macquarie Bank in Sydney found Australia’s non-interest rate hike earlier this week even less interesting than you or I. Presumably bored of recalculating his annual bonus in Excel for kicks, he instead turned to a photoshoot of model Miranda Kerr in GQ.
Miranda isn’t wearing a great deal of clothing.
Everyday life for a banker – maybe even for a financial blogger – but most of us have a gut instinct to avoid doing it while one of our banker chums is being interviewed behind us on live TV.
Just a quick note to say the London Stock Exchange’s move to improve government and corporate bond trading starts today.
According to the LSE’s official blurb:
Traditionally private investors have only been able to invest in bonds via a managed fund or ETF (Exchange Traded Fund). However, their ability to invest has just become a whole lot easier.
Why? Through the introduction of our new electronic trading service for bonds – investors, via one of our many member brokers, now have the ability to buy and sell bonds in retail-size (typically lots of £1000) as simply as shares.
The centralised trading mechanism concentrates liquidity, provides all market participants with equal opportunity to see price information and trade at the best available price.
This means that the UK gilt and corporate bond market is no longer just the domain of market professionals, it is now open to investors like you*.
I continue to think the UK economy will surprise ‘to the upside’ in 2010, as city boys – and rappers – like to say.
Today’s booming manufacturing PMI figure will be shocking if you’ve read too many gloomy pundits still partying like it’s 2008.
Yet this jump from one superficially meaningless number to another (to 56.7, for the record) represents:
- Manufacturing activity expanding at its fastest rate for 15 years
- New orders rising at their quickest pace for six years
- Output growth back at mid-2006 levels
