Justin's Commentary
Time to end this misleading Mis-Labelling
September 1 2010
There is nothing more infuriating than thinking you are buying one thing - and then getting another. Still, when that happens with a mail order shirt then it is very simple, you just post it back and get your money back. If you buy something which is clearly labelled as one thing but turns out not to ‘do what it says on the tin’ then you chuck it back at them. However, just in case none of that works we also have the power of the law to back us up in the form of a whole range of Trades Descriptions Acts. more...
Fighting off the British Malaise
August 26 2010
After several weeks' sojourn in South Asia I came back refreshed and reassured that actually the global economy is in quite rude health. It is only when one lands back in the UK that the pall of determined pessimism starts to flow back across you. I had forgotten our astonishing ability to not only assume the worst outcome as the most likely but also our trenchant views towards normally rejecting any form of positive prognostication. more...
How low can it go?
August 23 2010
"How low can it go?" - Whilst this phrase was once synonymous with the ever plummeting waistband of Britney Spears' jeans, and the depths to which Kerry Katona's drug-fuelled life could sink, it is a phrase now more commonly heard in the challenging world of bond investing. more...
Going long is the new black
August 17 2010
Oscar Wilde once said "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months". In fact, it was just recently reported to me by an enthusiastic friend that 'greige' is the new black. Greige, in case you are as puzzled as I was, is apparently a blend of grey and beige. It's a relief one doesn’t have to stick to this bizarre colour for more than a few months. more...
Great Expectations... (of the unexpected)
August 9 2010
When you live a single life in this constantly busy metropolis of London, you're reliant on certain things that are imperative to maintain the on-the-go lifestyle. Good friends who possess great energy, an 'in' with the party hosts at the best clubs, flat shoes to run around in (heels are to be kept in a hold-all so one can slip into them moments before making an entrance)... and last but by no means least, a functioning freezer. Yes, you did read that right. Being able to go from pack to plate in under five minutes is essential when you're regularly racing the clock. more...
So who is Frank Dodd?
August 2 2010
Forget Frank Dodd, it is in fact Dodd Frank that we should remember. Chris Dodd is the chairman of the US Senate banking committee, and Barney Frank (who should be a cartoon character, surely) is chairman of the House (of Representatives) financial services committee. more...
Cocking a CNOOC?
July 23 2010
At the time of writing this, the BP gusher appears to have been capped. If true and sustained, then in Churchillian terms this is "Not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps, the end of the beginning", because this is just the stopping of the core damage and nowhere near the stopping of the financial damage. It seems almost inevitable that the BP we know today won't be the same BP this time next year. From where we are and what we know today, BP is unlikely to go bust, unless this 'spill' becomes an unstoppable flow. more...
Double dipping?
July 21 2010
I always thought that a double dip was some terrible faux pas at a cocktail party with limp celery and the warm houmus. Now I know better – it is of course a non specific economic term that appears to have now become common parlance. It certainly has little precision, as some imply that it could mean a dip back into recession and others that it is a mere slowdown. Either way though it seems to be talked about in the terms that imply that only dark days and doom lie ahead. more...