MoneyWeek Roundup: George Osborne's Gordon Brown impression

James McKeigue highlights the best pieces from the MoneyWeek team, including: why George Osborne sounds like Gordon Brown; Japan's housing market; and is your stockbroker about to go bust?

When the Budget was announced, financial journalists breathed a collective sigh of relief. Not because it was so good, but because it meant they would be spared reporting on yet another leaked' measure. Treasury officials seemed to have given up on any notion of secrecy, with a slew of leaks making it one of the least surprising budgets in recent times.

As for what was inside the red box, it feels like "Gordon Brown never went away", said John Stepek in Thursday's Money Morning. The "pointless, symbolic changes to income tax. Micro-management of benefits. Raids on pensioners", were all Brown-esque' touches and fell short of the radical changes the government promised when it was formed.

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James McKeigue

James graduated from Keele University with a BA (Hons) in English literature and history, and has a certificate in journalism from the NCTJ. James has worked as a freelance journalist in various Latin American countries.He also had a spell at ITV, as welll as wring for Television Business International and covering the European equity markets for the Forbes.com London bureau. James has travelled extensively in emerging markets, reporting for international energy magazines such as Oil and Gas Investor, and institutional publications such as the Commonwealth Business Environment Report. He is currently the managing editor of LatAm INVESTOR, the UK's only Latin American finance magazine.