Your cash could end up all but worthless

More than one in five of the world's countries have suffered hyperinflation in recent history. And with 'QE infinity' around the corner, that does not bode well for your wealth, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

I have a list pinned above my desk of things I want to write about when I get around to it. Over the summer I added "coming hyperinflation in Iran" to the list in capital letters. Sadly, the market has beaten me to it.

This week, the collapse of the Iranian rial hit the mainstream news. It has been falling since the US and the EU imposed sanctions in 2010 but in the past few weeks that fall has accelerated and the usual side effects of rampant inflation have been reported.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.