UK Wealth, Editor at large, Bloomberg. Ex Ed in C @Moneyweek. Ex Columnist/Contrib Editor @FT Opinions personal. NED: THRG and Schroder https://xitter.cf/t.co/ojIBNzZwBO #SharePower
Joined August 2010
- Tweets39.8K
- Following2.4K
- Followers66.5K
- Likes9K
Pinned Tweet
Stop being polite to your AI agent. No more please and thank you. It's a machine not a person. Treat it like one. This really matters (for the future of humanity...) bloomberg.com/news/newslette…
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
You would have thought less carbon intensive gas compared to imported LNG would be welcomed by environmentalists.
It is economically rational and environmentally sound to supply the UK’s ongoing gas demand through the lowest carbon-emitting sources.
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
To make this chart even clearer: from 2001 to mid-08, real annual wage growth averaged 2.3%. From mid-08 to late 2014, real wages fell by 1.1% annually on average. And from late 2014 to now, real annual wage growth has averaged 1% (and been more volatile).
If you want to know why folk in the UK seem to be grumpier than they were before the 2008 financial crisis, a chart of real wages goes a long way. Prior to 2008, real wages rose consistently and strongly. Since then? Sporadic and unpredictable.
bloomberg.com/news/newslette…
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
UK inflation, Sep '26: on the punchy side (PPI stronger too)
CPI: 3.5% (BoE tgt 2%), vs 3.4% forecast. (Aug was 3.1%).
Core CPI: 2.8%, vs 2.8% forecast. (Aug 2.6%).
RPIX: 3.9% (old BoE tgt, 2.5%), no forecast. (Aug 3.3%).
If you think about the cost of immigrant workers in the care system in terms of wages plus long term welfare/benefits for them and family with ILR....it might be significantly more financially efficient for the state to top up care worker wages to the extent that our unemployed fancied it. No one's that into it for 20k. What about 50k? 75k?
Finally
NEW: The Jackdaw gasfield will be given the go-ahead on Wednesday, signalling Andy Burnham’s commitment to the North Sea fossil fuel industry and threatening to trigger a row with climate campaigners and Labour MPs.
Story by @kiranstacey theguardian.com/environment/…
7.1m people. Even if that is out by a million it's still extraordinary. And, key point...we have not expanded our infrastructure or public services to match.
🌍 European countries that added the most migrants (2000–2024)
1. 🇬🇧 United Kingdom: +7.1M
2. 🇪🇸 Spain: +6.8M
3. 🇩🇪 Germany: +6.4M
4. 🇹🇷 Türkiye: +5.8M
5. 🇮🇹 Italy: +4.4M
6. 🇫🇷 France: +3.0M
7. 🇦🇹 Austria: +1.4M
8. 🇳🇱 Netherlands: +1.4M
9. 🇨🇭 Switzerland: +1.3M
10. 🇧🇪 Belgium: +1.3M
11. 🇸🇪 Sweden: +1.3M
12. 🇵🇱 Poland: +917K
13. 🇮🇪 Ireland: +840K
14. 🇳🇴 Norway: +720K
15. 🇷🇴 Romania: +521K
16. 🇵🇹 Portugal: +476K
17. 🇩🇰 Denmark: +475K
18. 🇭🇺 Hungary: +393K
19. 🇨🇿 Czechia: +386K
20. 🇫🇮 Finland: +378K
Europe's migrant population grew by 40.8 million between 2000 and 2024, up 67%. The UK, Spain and Germany together account for almost half of that increase.
Source: UN DESA
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
If you want to know why folk in the UK seem to be grumpier than they were before the 2008 financial crisis, a chart of real wages goes a long way. Prior to 2008, real wages rose consistently and strongly. Since then? Sporadic and unpredictable.
bloomberg.com/news/newslette…
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
My usual (frustrating) chart on labour market report day. . . . this is totally unsustainable!
Who is better off since Labour won power?
#labour #ukeconomy #ukmacro
Basically buying indulgences at this point.
We’re committing a portion of Anthropic’s shares to the Anthropic Public Benefit Fund, a new wholly owned entity dedicated entirely to the public benefit.
It will start off with 5% of our shares. For every 50% increase in the company’s value over a set baseline, we can contribute up to an extra 2%, subject to our board’s discretion.
In total, this means that roughly 20% of Anthropic’s shares are committed to the public good. Our co-founders have already pledged to donate 80% of their equity, and around half our employees are donating a portion of their equity as part of a donation matching program we’ve run since our founding.
In the post below, we share more details about our new fund.
anthropic.com/news/public-be…
Centuries of evidence that rent caps are awful. But apparently we need more. Because most modern politicians are economic history denying idiots. Here is some. economicaffairs.co.uk/p/berl…
The problem with inheritance tax in the UK is same as the problem with all our taxes. It is too complicated and far too high. bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
This is quite funny. They've tried everything else. Now have to flirt with rationalism.
Under John Swinney’s leadership, it is warming up to growth, drilling and data centres economist.com/britain/2026/1…
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
Solving a housing crisis the traditional way - by crushing supply with price and planning controls while vigorously stoking demand with tax incentives and subsidised mortgages <so proud>
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
We have nationwide rent controls now.
This tribunal didn’t just stop a rent rise within a tenancy, it cut the rent to below what had been agreed between the landlord and the tenant at the start of the tenancy based on a judgement of what the property is worth.
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
This is turning out to be v popular. And for once IFAs are agreeing with us! See what you think.
New series! Making money seems simple: put your money into a passive tracker. Yet as we discuss in our new four-part series.. maybe passive is kind of active - and success is not a given.
open.spotify.com/episode/46k…
can't be right
Let me get this straight. Work all your life building a business. Sell that business to a rando - charged at 24%. Try to pass it on to your family - charged at 45%. Genuinely insane telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…
Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
New series! Making money seems simple: put your money into a passive tracker. Yet as we discuss in our new four-part series.. maybe passive is kind of active - and success is not a given.
open.spotify.com/episode/46k…