First of all I have a few announcement’s to make about our web site, there are several services that we now offer direct from the site; Wills, Insurance and now starting this year Mortgages, so take a look at these pages as they are full of information and also the Mortgages are whole of market and there are no broker fees, so it is well worth looking into.
Larry Summers, The Economist has just spent a few days in the UK. Among his other claims to fame are that he was an economic adviser to President Obama and he taught Ed Balls economics at Harvard University. Almost everything he said on Radio 4 was totally in-penetrative! And do remember that I used to lecture on economics at one time, so I am not totally thick on the subject.
It was largely berating the UK and Europe for what it is doing to tackle our difficulties but he seems strangely silent on what was going to happen regarding the American economy. He seems to think, and he’s a Democrat, that growth is going to put everything right but I don’t think that the unemployment rate is falling as fast as was hoped and I cannot see that the President has any alternative but to start making cuts with or without Republican assistance or borrowers may just draw up and dry up.
I would have thought they would be beyond the help of others but, time will tell. 
Talking of Ed Balls, now that he has become Shadow Chancellor he has it all very nicely wrapped up and then his wife will be shadow Home Secretary. The big question now is we have Ed Miliband and Ed Balls effectively in charge of the opposition, are two Ed’s better than one?
Mr Summers was asked what interest rate and the markets will do in Europe. His reply was “they will fluctuate” One of my clients has recently remarked to me that it’s the situation overall that’s problematical from a world point of view.
I think probably she was referring largely to the oil price but I don’t think the impact with Egypt will have on that will be tremendous and in any event I think that there is quite a lot of spare capacity within OPEC and the rise in the oil prices being overdone. What would help if the Government could reduce the fuel regulator and do some things in power that they said they would do in opposition. I still think that it’s crazy that diesel or haulage contractors and so on cost more than petrol as in Italy it is the other way around quite remarkably so in fact.
The unrest in Egypt and in parts of the Middle East
I think is likely to spread but it will not lead to the sort of democracy we have had in Eastern Europe as the culture and mind set is completely different. Let us hope however that things will settle down.
I know I have been on about it many times but I still feel that the deficit is unwieldy and in fact it is now reached nearly one trillion pounds in this Country. It would be worse if the bank debts 
are added to it when it will almost double but in actual fact there are now signs of the banks becoming profitable again and there is a very fair chance that they may get denationalised sooner rather than later which will give the Government a tremendous boost. Let us not be too dismissive of banks making very large profits because they then have to pay large Corporation Tax which the Government needs. Indeed profits should not be a dirty word for anyone because if surpluses are not made and the appropriate Taxes paid there is nothing to add to the national cake which can then not be distributed however unworthy some of the distributions may seem to some of us at present.
The Answer to last months Competition was: Eas a Chual Aluinn which is the highest waterfall in Britain
To David Pyke from West Sussex who had the correct answer.
If you would like to see more information about the highest waterfall in Britain please click here
This month we are giving away a Bootle of:
Fortnum and Mason Claret - Vintage 2008.
All you need to do for it as ever is answer a simple question.Which this month is this,
Earlier on in my newsletter I mentioned OPEC – what I want to know is, what is the name OPEC short for. Also I would like to know in what year was it founded
