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    Merryn Somerset Webb

    Former personal finance & investment commentator

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    • Friday, 23 September, 2022
      Paul Volcker
      Central bankers fighting inflation need good political fortune as well as skill

      The Bank of England might be about to get lucky with Liz Truss as the Fed did with Ronald Reagan

      Paul Volker, wearing suit and tie, sits a desk with a microphone in front of him and his right hand cupped behind his right ear
    • Friday, 16 September, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Tech giants’ dive follows a new Cult of Performance

      Remember the lessons of the Nifty Fifty and the MegaCap-8 when you invest over the next few years — price matters

      Pop group The Supremes demonstrate Polaroid cameras in 1965
    • Friday, 9 September, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Second chances loom in the commodity bull market

      The investment case for fossil fuels, driven by climate change policy, remains entirely intact

    • Friday, 2 September, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Coming UK house price plunge has a silver lining

      You may not benefit, but your children could

      A row of terraced houses
    • Friday, 19 August, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Soaring rental car costs make taxis a better travel option

      Customer patience is being put to the test by high prices and outdated technology

    • Thursday, 21 July, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Pensions — a Roman legacy needing reform

      Increasing longevity means we need more in our retirement savings and more advice

    • Friday, 15 July, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Take cover and look for dividends

      In unsettled markets, consider income-focused investment trusts

      Millennials discuss investing and cryptocurrency trading
    • Friday, 8 July, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Uncomfortable echoes of the 1970s

      Time to look again at a difficult decade with the help of some summer holiday books

      A pedestrian walks to work amid piles of rubbish in 1970s Britain
    • Friday, 1 July, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Why we need to make pensions interesting

      Take-up of saving has improved no end — but millions still have no idea about their retirement options

    • Friday, 24 June, 2022
      Markets
      Investors are on recession watch

      The combination of a bear market and an economic downturn has historically been ugly

      Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. A recession can make a bear market very significantly worse – or, at the very least, longer
    • Friday, 17 June, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Time to cut your stock market losses — or not?

      Bear market history suggests staying invested beats cashing out

      Illustration of bitcoin
    • Friday, 10 June, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      To investors seeking income — there’s still plenty of it about

      Interest on cash deposits remains paltry, but some companies are throwing off dividends in the here and now

    • Friday, 27 May, 2022
      Equities
      A good tale can tempt us to forget the truth about markets

      Stories have driven an unnatural division between growth stocks and value stocks

      Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange
    • Friday, 20 May, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      What are investors supposed to trust in now?

      Equity and bond markets appear to be imploding at the same time

      A selection of gold bars and coins
    • Friday, 13 May, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Growth stocks almost look cheap

      Buying opportunities are starting to emerge

      A television screen with the Netflix logo and a Tesla car charging
    • Friday, 6 May, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Passive funds are no place to hide from a bear market

      The world has changed — and so should our portfolios

      Sliced pak choi cooking in woks
    • Friday, 29 April, 2022
      ESG investing
      There is far too much groupthink in ESG investing

      Definitions are at once so fluid and so rigid as to be almost nonsensical

    • Friday, 22 April, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Better pensions await generation rent

      Many younger savers lack own homes but have better retirement funds

      City workers cross London Bridge
    • Friday, 15 April, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      House prices to fall? Definitely, but not quite yet

      While values are high, real interest rates are negative, making homes surprisingly affordable

      A woman cycles past  a row of terraced houses
    • Monday, 11 April, 2022
      Personal Finance
      FT reader event: An evening with Merryn Somerset Webb

      Meet our investment columnist at the FT’s historic Bracken House headquarters

      Merryn Somerset Webb with the cover of her book ‘Share Power’
    • Friday, 1 April, 2022
      Corporate governance
      Nagging is still the best way to make boards more active

      Retail investors continue to have few means of effectively demanding any change

      Ewan White illustration of Merryn Somerset Webb column ‘Nagging is still the best way to make boards more active’
    • Friday, 25 March, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Alas poor Rishi, in charge of fixing the unfixable

      Most of our underlying problems are well beyond the reach of the chancellor

      Chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak stands in the House of Commons delivering his Spring Statement
    • Friday, 18 March, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Retirement could be on hold if you follow the misery index

      Gloomy forecasts for inflation and unemployment over the next few years

      Woman surrounded by happy retirement balloons and cake
    • Friday, 11 March, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      An energy shock and high inflation: are the 1970s reborn?

      One thing is for sure. We won’t be going back to the 2010s

      A sign reads ‘Sorry no petrol’ at a filling station during the petrol shortage in the 1970s
    • Friday, 4 March, 2022
      Advice & Comment
      Are defence stocks now ESG?

      Surely supplying weapons to the invaded underdog in an unprovoked fight is a social good

      Saab Gripen E fighter jet
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