China’s cheap and happy

The Chinese stock market isn't as expensive as it was, says Merryn Somerset Webb. Now could be the time for a speculative punt.

The US economic recovery isn't perfect and it may not be long-term either. As Bill Bonner points out, a large part of the improvement in the statistics simply involves Americans heading back to the economic structures that have served them so badly for so long. Borrow, spend. Borrow, spend.

The same can be said for the UK see Matthew Lynn for more on this. But that hasn't stopped the bulls extrapolating it forever and making a case for a new secular bull market in America. We'd like to believe this (we have huge faith in new technology) and we are happy to be convinced on the growth bit. But we can't quite see ourselves coming round to the secular bull market bit.

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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.