Look East for investment opportunities

As Merryn Somerset-Webb predicted, the US housing bubble is finally deflating and the US consumer losing confidence. But America's loss is Asia's gain.

At the end of last year, looking forward to this year, I limited myself to just one prediction for safety's sake: that the American housing bubble would deflate and the US consumer finally start to lose confidence. It wasn't a particularly brave forecast, given that house prices in America have doubled over the past decade, but it is gratifying to see that it looks like I will be right long before the year is out.

The number of unsold houses in America is at a 10-year high, sales fell 4% in July and prices are at best stable and, according to anecdotal evidence, at worst starting to fall quite fast in some parts of the country.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
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.