Original Broadcast: Thought for the Week
Abolition of NHS England reverses the de-politicisation of the health service, but it leaves intact all the inefficiencies of being a monopoly: thereby rendering people complacent and satisfied with mediocrity, unless they're moved by the Florence Nightingale mindset. Competition enables progress, efficient delivery and innovation, but most of all it respects individuals as customers, not simply treating them as account numbers. No wonder that the Competition & Markets Authority encourages government to use competition effectively on behalf of consumers. Background music: 'Hopeful Freedom' by Asher Fulero
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Original Broadcast: This is Money
Investors this week have been hit by the 'Trump Slump.' Why is the US President rattling markets, and is it the end of the US bull market? Georgie Frost, Simon Lambert and Lee Boyce discuss what you should be doing to make your investments great again. How will the UK handle potential tariffs, should investors be in panic mode and what do experts say you should be doing to navigate the geopolitical turmoil? Pension freedom rules came into play ten years ago — these allowed retirees to take control of their pension savings, shifting away from the obligation to buy an annuity and moving towards flexible drawdown and investment options. So a decade on, how have the class of 2015 fared? Nationwide is handing out more money — £600 million of it — to 12 million eligible members as a 'big thank you' following its acquisition of Virgin Money last year. That’s £50 each. And it’s separate to its Fairer Share Scheme, which will be announced in May. And lastly, what can you do if a neighbour cuts back hedges and trees which have given you privacy for decades?
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Adam Cox is joined by Chris Roe, former Chaplain of Crystal Palace Football Club and current Chief Development Officer at Rowland Brothers Foundation. They discuss the impact of knife crime and National Day of Reflection on 9th of March. http://www.rowlandbrothers.com/
Guests: Chris Roe
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Original Broadcast: This is Money
Technically, £100k annual earnings would meet the 'rich' definition, but many would say 'no'. Simon Lambert and Georgie Frost discuss with a psychologist how to address this vexed question. Also, following the new energy tariff changes, should you fix or not fix? And finally, Carol Knight explains why reducing the tax benefits on Cash ISAs will not make more people buy shares.
Guests: Carol Knight
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Original Broadcast: Modern Mindset
Adam Cox is joined by Thea Watson from Bright HR. They discuss a new report carried out by Bright HR, all about business confidence. What did it find? Well, it shows how 68% of UK businesses who have embraced a technology strategy see growth as their number one objective for 2025.Shockingly though, over half of all survey respondents — many without a tech plan — say they are not expecting to grow in 2025, and more than a quarter are simply looking to survive. https://www.brighthr.com/
Guests: Thea Watson
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Unabridged and without comment from Share Radio, here's the King's Christmas message as broadcast on 25th December '24.
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The past year has seen a litany of climate change disasters of which the wildfires in Los Angeles are the latest. Yet Americans still supported Trump's call to 'drill, baby, drill' in the presidential election. This is just the latest disaster that financial markets have to contend with. How much pressure can the insurance and investment markets take? The one thing that we know for sure is that, while the American people may have locked in their choice for the next four years, there's no such insurance for the bond market — it can strike at any time. Background music: 'Trap Unboxing' by Jimmy Fontanez_Doug Maxwell
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Original Broadcast: This is Money
You have to feel for Rachel Reeves. After establishing a solid reputation in opposition, things haven’t gone to plan as Chancellor so far. Her Autumn Budget led to widespread criticism over tax rises on employment and extra costs for businesses, while questions abound over whether her plans will deliver the growth Labour promised voters. Now, a slow burn rise in the UK’s borrowing costs has led to gilt yields surpassing the levels seen after Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s ill-fated mini-Budget. Unfortunate, for a Labour party that has spend the past couple of years citing a gilt yield spike as evidence while banging on about Liz Truss ‘crashing the economy’ and Tory mortgage penalties. But is Britain’s current predicament Rachel Reeves' and Sir Keir Starmer’s fault, or do they just find themselves caught out by an unfortunate set of circumstances? Or is it a bit of both? Where did things start to go wrong? Was it the Budget, or was it the claimed ‘£22 billion black hole’ and months of miserabilism? And what are gilts and why do yields even matter? In this episode, Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert dig into what’s gone wrong with Britain’s finances and what it means for people. Plus, in better news, Lee looks at the jobs that delivered the biggest pay rises last year and why. Simon explains what’s going on with the US hedge fund staging a raid on seven investment trusts — and why investors should make sure they vote. And finally, Lee catches up with Dave Fishwick as the new 'Bank of Dave' film is released.
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Original Broadcast: Thought for the Week
Turnout at the 2024 general election was 59.7%, the lowest at a General Election since 2001, and 7.6 percentage points lower than in 2019. We are all keenly aware of the disproportionate number of Labour MPs (63.2%), notwithstanding their low overall polling (33.7%), but only now are we starting to see how young people have been disenfranchised by their poverty. This correlation between youth and poverty supports our consistent and strong calls for inter-generational rebalancing, and the need for more long-term focus in western democracies. If we don't take action, we run the risk of oscillating between an over-sized self-interested state driven by socialism and self-interested reactionaries driven by populism. Background music: 'Generations Away' by Unicorn Heads
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Original Broadcast: This is Money
Georgie Frost, Simon and Lee Boyce with their annual review episode: Simon and Lee assess the last twelve months, looking at what's happened to mortgage and savings rates, house prices and investments, and what changes may be to come in 2025. It's been quite an eventful year with changes of government on both sides of the pond ...
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