This week in MoneyWeek magazine: Donald Trump’s legacy could mean the death of the euro; you can’t trust your pension fund trustees; and the insane money pouring into tech funds.
This week in MoneyWeek magazine, Dan Denning examines if Donald Trump's political legacy could include the death of the euro; Max King asks if you can trust your pension fund trustees; and Matthew Lynn is alarmed by the huge amounts of money pouring into tech funds.
Plus, advice for expatriates on tax planning; the moats surrounding successful businesses; and should you buy a ski chalet?
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Donald Trump looks to have shot himself in the foot one too many times frankly, it's amazing the man has any toes left at all. But now, after his "long, loud and vulgar descent into the politics of the gutter", says Dan Denning, "it seems safe to say that Hillary Clinton will be the next American president".
There is still a slim chance Trump could win, of course. We all saw how spectacularly wrong opinion pollsters and the bookies got it before the EU referendum. But "a lot would have to go wrong" between now and then. However, even if he does lose, his influence will continue to be felt.
Before Trump's deep unpleasantness and seemingly uncontrollable misogyny completely overshadowed his campaign, he was "gaining ground in the polls by attacking one woman in particular: Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen". His tactics worked, says Dan, leading to widespread hatred of quantitative easing and ultra-low interest rates. Dan believes "his attack will survive him and spread to other countries".
In particular, it will cross the Atlantic, and "expose the fault line directly at the heart of the European project". Dan looks at the reasons behind this, and explains how you should be positioning your portfolio to protect your wealth. Find out how by signing up to MoneyWeek magazine now.
Can you trust your pension fund trustees?
Max King has one simple question for people paying in to a collective pension scheme: "How has your pension performed and what are the assets in it worth?" Members of defined-benefit schemes shouldn't have to worry, he says unless the company goes under. But for those in defined contributions schemes which is more and more of us every day it's a different story. They rely on investment growth to provide them with an income at retirement, so they need to take some risk. But they can afford to be patient. It could be up to 40 years till they retire.
"Unfortunately", says Max, "that is not how thosethey have entrusted their money to seeit." Many of the trustees and consultants in charge of these schemes "are more worried about their reputations in the short term than the long-term interests of the members of their scheme.
Max has some sage advice for scheme members to help them preserve their assets. Find out what it is by signing up to the magazine.
Too much money is pouring into tech
If you're a tech entrepreneur looking for some startup capital, there has "never been a better time to be raising a few tens of millions", says Matthew Lynn. "Money is literally swilling around the City, looking for a home". It' coming from some very big companies, including EasyJet, Aviva and L'Oreal. "Pretty soon", says Mathew, "every big company is going to be pouring a few tens of million or billion if they are Saudi into a tech fund."
Matthew isn't sure this is a good idea. Bit companies are "remarkably good at wasting money", he says. And this is unlikely to be any different.
Do your stocks have moats?
"US investor Warren Buffett argues that an economic moat is one of the main factors an investor should look for when choosing long-term investments", says Matthew Partridge in this week's investment strategy. "A moat protects a company from competition, allowing it to hang on to its market share and maintain its profit margins."
But what is an "economic moat", and how do you find companies that have them? Find out in this week's magazine.
Share tips, ski chalets and "reassuringly boring" stocks
On top of all that, I look at Unilever and Tesco's short lived Marmite wars, plus we have our usual roundup of all the best share tips from around the financial press; Sarah Moore looks at the pros and cons of buying a ski chalet, and the best place to do it, and professional investor Nitin Bajaj picks three "reassuringly boring" stocks to buy now.
Plus, five pages of travel, toys, wine and property this week Chris Carter looks at some of the world's more offbeat ski resorts Kyrgyzstan, anyone? All this can be yours. Why not sign up now?
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Ben studied modern languages at London University's Queen Mary College. After dabbling unhappily in local government finance for a while, he went to work for The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh. The launch of the paper's website, scotsman.com, in the early years of the dotcom craze, saw Ben move online to manage the Business and Motors channels before becoming deputy editor with responsibility for all aspects of online production for The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News websites, along with the papers' Edinburgh Festivals website.
Ben joined MoneyWeek as website editor in 2008, just as the Great Financial Crisis was brewing. He has written extensively for the website and magazine, with a particular emphasis on alternative finance and fintech, including blockchain and bitcoin.
As an early adopter of bitcoin, Ben bought when the price was under $200, but went on to spend it all on foolish fripperies.
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