Capital Compass: Alphabet’s 100-Year Bond
Thinking in centuries The decision of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, to issue a 100-year bond is a striking sign of just how far the Artificial Intelligence (AI) investment cycle has evolved. This isn’t a short-term trend anymore. Building AI scale now requires enormous, long-lasting infrastructure – and investors are willing to fund it. […]
Capital Compass: Beyond the EV Reset
EV pullbacks hurt, but autonomy may shift the balance European carmakers enter 2026 in a difficult position. New car sales rose for a third consecutive year in 2025, yet profits have fallen sharply from the post-pandemic highs as affordability, policy shifts, and intensifying global competition erodes margins. Last week’s Capital Compass explored how autonomous driving […]
Capital Compass: Look, No Hands!
How will driverless vehicles shape our future? If you live in London, you may well have seen Waymo’s driverless taxis manoeuvring their way through the traffic. At the time of writing, these test vehicles are an odd sight as they have drivers straining at the steering wheel to avoid delivery vans and rental bikes. The […]
Capital Compass: House Prices – The End of the Easy Gains
Why the next generation may struggle to repeat the property windfalls of the past. We all think we understand the property market – particularly residential property. For many of us, our family home is our largest financial asset. Those of us with grey hair (or no hair) have often enjoyed very strong returns from home […]
Capital Compass: Pricing the Unpriceable
Are investors under-reacting to a changing United States? There is a well-known phenomenon in finance that markets tend to under-react to news, good or bad. The news breaks, perhaps economic or company-specific, and prices react straight away, either up or down. However, that initial reaction is often an under-reaction, and as investors digest the news, […]
Capital Compass: Wise Men, Wise Choices
Lessons from the Gifts of the Magi When you were at school you might have scratched your head when you heard about the Three Kings bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Most adults have no idea what these gifts are, and they are doubly mysterious to schoolchildren. Enigmatic as they might be, the gifts […]
Capital Compass: Hitting an unbuilt wall
How do we get Britain building again? The UK is not the most expensive nation in the world, nor is it the most densely populated, but according to recent research it is the most expensive place to build a nuclear reactor, and the third most expensive place to build a railway line. Our Byzantine planning […]
Capital Compass: Navigating post-Budget Britain
Optimise your affairs The headlines around November’s Budget are subsiding, and everyone has had time to reflect. Many are considering the steps they might take next to preserve and grow their wealth – and keep tax bills to a minimum. Failure to keep an eye on the small details can have damaging consequences – just […]
Capital Compass: Leakonomics
The OBR gave the game away Hugh Dalton had to resign as Chancellor of the Exchequer when he leaked a portion of the 1947 budget to a journalist as he walked to the Commons to give his speech. Fast forward nearly 80 years, and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has made the same gaffe, […]
Capital Compass: Market Mania
Are markets becoming more irrational? Francis Galton once observed a game at a country fair over a century ago in which people had to guess the weight of an ox. Individual guesses varied wildly, yet when he calculated the average of all the independent guesses, the crowd was remarkably accurate. You may have seen something […]