Original Broadcast: This is Money
Almost five times as many people will soon be paying 40% tax than in the early 1990s, when it was seen as a tax bracket reserved for the rich, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned this week. It said that fiscal drag triggered by freezing the higher rate tax threshold would pull 7.8 million people into its net by 2027. The study suggested that the threshold would have to be almost doubled from its current level, at £50,271, to almost £100,000 to return the tax band to the level intended for it. Alongside the report, came the IFS’s warning that 40% tax had stopped being the preserve of high-earning professionals and was now hitting electricians, plumbers, teachers, nurses and more. The taxman nabbing 40p of every pound earned from a pay rise rather than 20p comes at a time when workers are running to stand still, with inflation at just above 10%. So, is it time the government stopped taxing by stealth and using tools like fiscal drag – instead raising thresholds with inflation or wages? And is it time to hike the higher rate threshold and pull people back down to basic rate tax? Georgie Frost, Lee Boyce and Simon Lambert discuss the thorny issue of tax and who counts as wealthy. The debate moves on to inheritance tax – another levy designed for the very rich but now hitting the wealthy middle classes. Why is IHT so unpopular when most don’t pay it and does it need reform? Plus, how much have you lost to inflation, will you get Nationwide’s new £100 Fairer Share bung, and finally, would you buy food two years past its best before date for big savings?
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Original Broadcast: Motley Fool Show
The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates 10 times since 2022. But you probably wouldn’t notice those hikes in a traditional savings account. Dylan Lewis caught up with Robert Brokamp to discuss how banks benefit from your inertia, and how that costs you, ideas for managing cash for the next few weeks, months, and years, money market funds paying more than 4%, and the caveats to understand before utilizing those accounts, and who can benefit from I Bonds and less-liquid savings vehicles. Website mentioned: https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/ Host - Dylan Lewis; Guest - Robert Brokamp
Guests: Robert Brokamp
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Original Broadcast: Motley Fool Show
Late Monday Berkshire-Hathaway filed a 13-F with the SEC, so we're taking a closer look at what they've been buying and selling. Jim Gillies discusses Home Depot's lackluster 1st-quarter results masking an otherwise strong business, Capital One getting a boost from the Oracle of Omaha, and the surprising energy stock the Berkshire Hathaway team took a stake in. Plus, 19 minutes in, Alison Southwick and Robert Brokamp dip into the mailbag to answer your questions about investing, retirement, and more. Companies discussed: HD, BRK.A, BRK.B, COP, USB, BK, TSM, RH, BAC, OXY, AAPL, HPQ, ATVI, VTS. Host - Chris Hill; Guests - Jim Gillies, Alison Southwick, Robert Brokamp
Guests: Jim Gillies,Alison Southwick,Robert Brokamp
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Bang! Are you frightened by thunderstorms, fireworks or gunshots? And is it the bang itself, or the anticipation of it coming, which disturbs you the most? Anticipating fear may well be linked back to childhood, an embedded state of mind. So this episode introduces a new approach of resourcefulness designed to cope with such anxieties. Please be aware! - there are some sound effects built in to the programme, all designed to build in this new resilience.
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Adam Cox is joined by Erin Lee, CEO of Flow Neuroscience, to discuss the issues with current treatments for depression, and how sufferers are affected. They also look at the Flow headset, how it works, and the advantages of using it over antidepressants and other treatments. https://www.flowneuroscience.com/
Guests: Erin Lee
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Original Broadcast: Modern Mindset
Adam Cox is joined by Liam Humberstone, Technical Director of Totally Wicked, to delve into the brand's innovative vape recycling scheme. Together, they explore the pressing environmental consequences of vapes without such initiatives and question whether recycling truly holds the solution to the issue of single-use vapes. www.totallywicked-eliquid.co.uk
Guests: Liam Humberstone
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University says that Labour's ideas are becoming clearer, with Starmer's promise to boost housebuilding outmanoeuvring the Conservatives and setting the cat among the pigeons. He discusses whether immigration is out of control in a world where people are moving more than ever and explains why he thinks Labour will take exactly the opposite stance to the Tories. And he picks up on a largely unreported comment by Donald Trump, that America will eventually default on its debt, to highlight the battle that is looming over the future of money and the banking system.
Guests: Professor Tim Evans
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson takes Simon Rose through the latest box office charts, with Guardians of the Galaxy 3 still ruling the roost, though down 56%. Book Club 2: The Next Chapter is #4 with Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen. James found it awful and surprisingy smutty, treating the elderly as alcoholic bubblebrains. He found Brainwashed: Sex - Camera - Power fascinating, being a persuasive documentary about how cinema technique has disempowered and objectified women. He found action thriller The Mother, with Jennifer Lopez, utterly implausible and pointless.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin updates Simon Rose on the latest tech. NASA have developed autonomous EELS to see if there's life on one of Saturn's moons. There's an extinction level event camper trailer to keep you safe in the event of a Zombie Apocalypse, a gadget to make sea water drinkable, a wheeled suitcase that is supposed to operate your hotel aircon, lights & TV while a US company is giving away free tellies in return for bombarding you with ads. There are claims that Uber charges more if your phone battery is low while American scientists have found that airborne DNA is sufficient to identify people.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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'Stop the boats' calls the UK Prime Minister, but there's no linking of his short-term strategy to the big global issues which are driving migration: conflict, poverty and climate change. That's why the Archbishop of Canterbury called for a new approach in the House of Lords last Wednesday, seeking to tackle the causes rather than just the symptoms, and calling for a long-term perspective to address these challenges. This episode contains his full speech in parliament. Background music: 'Freedom' by Dan Lebowitz
Guests: Archbishop of Canterbury (House of Lords)
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