Why we shouldn't listen to City analysts

City analysts failed dismally to forecast what was obvious to many of us: the house price crash and the dramatic increase in oil prices. So why should we listen to anything they have to say?

My sister is trying to sell a one-bedroom flat in Battersea. It is on the fourth floor of a Victorian mansion block. It is perfectly decorated and, being on the corner, has two terraces with fabulous views over the park. If one single property were to be immune from the housing collapse in the UK, this would be it. But it is not immune.

Last year, less perfect flats in the building were selling for £375,000-plus. This year, my sister's agent advised her to put her flat on at £350,000. Three weeks on, she's had one offer at £300,000.

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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.