Merryn Somerset Webb

Home sour home 2- Apr -2008
I HAVE been writing here for years now about all the horrors that are finally coming to light – the end of the credit bubble, recession in America and so on.  Nuclear energy 27- Mar -2008
THERE’S much talk these days about how everything from solar energy to wave energy and giant offshore wind farms are “the future”. And maybe they are.  ?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?> Just go with the grain 18- Mar -2008
THERE is now little getting away from the fact that the good times are gone.  Gold is the ultimate safe-haven 12- Mar -2008
THERE is chaos in the jewellery markets. It’s a stinker of a year 3- Mar -2008
THIS time last year, house prices were still rising fast and estate agents in London were swearing that 40% annual rises were both acceptable and sustainable. Warren Buffett’s test of health 26- Feb -2008
FOR someone who’s frequently and accurately cited as one of the world’s greatest investors and hailed as a guru by millions, Warren Buffett hasn’t exactly been splashing his cash about over the past few years. I’m nuts about Brazil 19- Feb -2008
These days everyone wants a piece of Britain. Hedge fund managers and bonus-rich bankers have long sought status in owning hobby farms, but now that soft commodity prices – from wheat to meat – are soaring, big commercial farmers from Denmark and Ireland are getting in on the game too. Electricity supply is a real power struggle 11- Feb -2008
IMAGINE living near the sea, where the weather is nice all year round, where a four-bed-room house with a lovely garden and direct beach access costs you a mere £100,000 and where the kind of cash that buys you a few hours baby-sitting in Britain gets you a full-time housekeeper. Sounds nice, right? The markets offer no safety in a storm 4- Feb -2008
AT a lunch just before Christmas, a well known fund manager told me that 2008 would represent one of the best chances ordinary people would ever get to make a “material difference” to their wealth.  Asia is no safe haven 29- Jan -2008
So many myths have been shattered in the past few weeks, it’s hard to know where to begin.  Food, profitable food 21- Jan -2008
TIMES are tough in Japan. Not only do its residents have to put up with regular doses of bad economic data and a stock market that – unjustly – has spent the year so far in freefall, but now the prices of most of their favourite foods are soaring too.   Shares have a way to go before rock bottom 14- Jan -2008
AT the end of last year I had started suggesting that cash might be no bad thing to hold in 2008. So far so good. If you are holding cash you are at least evens on the month so far, but if you’ve been in the stock market you’ve lost money – and in many cases quite a lot of money.  Your pound in a pickle 8- Jan -2008
IN November and December last year it was all but impossible to turn to the feature pages of the papers without reading about the joys of shopping in America.   Winning with Africa 23- Dec -2007
THIS is a tricky time of year for anyone who writes about money - the time to flick through the year’s columns and admit what went wrong and why. But let’s start with what went right.  This is a bears’ party 19- Dec -2007
ON the Today programme on Radio 4 last Thursday, Tim Congdon of Lombard Street Research told me he wouldn’t consider the current state of the financial system worthy of the word crisis. Be a clever giver 18- Dec -2007
CHRISTMAS is supposed to be the season of giving, but when it comes to actually doing so most of us are horribly confused. I’m stopping shopping 3- Dec -2007
FEEL like shopping today? No, nor do I. My finances are just fine. I don’t have a mortgage (we rent), I’ve got plenty of savings, my outgoings are smaller than my income, my job is fairly secure and I’ve sold out of most of my stock market-related investments.  A plague on houses 28- Nov -2007
NOT long now, a fund manager said to me the other day on the way out of a round table debate on the future direction of stock markets (the consensus was that markets will be down). Not long until what? Until you can finally buy a house, he said.  Art will hit the canvas 18- Nov -2007
ABOUT seven years ago I fell in love with a piece of art at a private view in Shoreditch. Avoid City rip-offs 12- Nov -2007
WORKING in the City is mostly boring. Analysts fiddle with balance sheets, wondering what might happen if you moved a number here or there; brokers tell clients much the same stories about the same stocks every day; fund managers buy and sell the same stocks as they go up and down; and traders do much the same – just faster. Apart from the money, not many of these jobs have a lot going for them. Time to bet on Europe 5- Nov -2007
A FAVOURITE topic of desperate property magazines and supplements these days are the bargains on offer in the US. Out of my Facebook! 29- Oct -2007
TIDYING out a few drawers of papers with the help of some toddlers at the weekend I came across a fascinating piece of paper. It was the notes to go with the invitation to the Paribas (now BNP Paribas) Christmas party in 1999, when I was working there as a stockbroker.   The trouble with India 25- Oct -2007
I’VE been going on about the risks of investing in property for far too long now, but I’m no longer such a lone voice. The Money section is filled with bad news this week. Land of the rising stock 18- Oct -2007
I STARTED suggesting that investors buy into Japan in early 2004. Nothing happened for a while, but at the end of that year it started to look like a brilliant call.   Time to rent, not own 4- Sep -2007
BACK in January when I finally managed to sell my flat to a more-money-than-sense foreign buyer I registered my details with all the local estate agents. Why I’m in no rush to join the private equity club 9- Jul -2007
In the past six weeks I’ve been given complimentary membership to two “exclusive” clubs. Initially I was flattered.   Asia’s lesson for the West 2- Jul -2007
I do not normally have a good memory, but I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing 10 years ago tomorrow. The Chinese Las Vegas 25- Jun -2007
WHEN I was a stockbroker I used to go to Hong Kong every few months. I’d fly in from Tokyo and spend two days having a series of excruciatingly dull meetings.   Finding the silver lining 14- Jun -2007
I have been reading two interesting publications this week. The first comes from Capital Economics and is called Global Inflation Watch. Go off the beaten track 4- Jun -2007
OVER the past year or so I’ve become increasingly obsessed with investing via exchange-traded funds Bubbles are everywhere 21- May -2007
LAST year the Chinese market rose 130%. This year it’s already up another 45%. Property is not a pension 14- May -2007
I HAVE been out and about discussing money a lot over the past few weeks, promoting my new book on women’s attitudes to cash, and time and again the conversation has returned to how everyone believes their property is their pension. Women and money don't mix 9- May -2007
Green bags, Kate Moss shorts. Oh, grow up girls, says Merryn Someret Webb Avoid the pain in Spain 30- Apr -2007
In January, Dresdner Kleinwort, the investment bank, published a report called Spain: when will it end? Last week they may have got their answer. Love is a ring from Argos 23- Apr -2007
My engagement ring has a platinum band on it, so my husband and I agreed that my wedding ring would also be made of platinum. Why big isn’t beautiful 16- Apr -2007
IT HASN’T been a great Isa season for the big fund managers. Pitfalls of foreign property 2- Apr -2007
I WATCHED a property programme on TV last Tuesday. Profit and save the planet 26- Mar -2007
I SPENT most of Wednesday morning high up on the London Eye doing occasional broadcasts for the BBC on budget-related subjects. A hot tip from the Antarctic 11- Mar -2007
Regular readers will know that I am oddly interested in fish farming. I’ve written here before about the resurgence of the salmon trade. Beat the field and put shares into ploughs 5- Mar -2007
THE odd thing about the mini-crashes across the markets over the past week is the way nobody can make up their mind exactly about the cause of it all. Africa, a forgotten continent 26- Feb -2007
THEMATIC investing has been a buzzword over the past few years. Private equity's secret recipe 20- Feb -2007
It used to be that when you looked for an investment, you sought out a company you thought had more value in it than the share price reflected. The Gift of Debt at Valentine's 12- Feb -2007
Three days to go and the Valentine’s sales pitches are already completely out of hand. Time to make a killing in Japan 4- Feb -2007
The Japanese stock market had a bad year in 2006 but there is every reason to think this should change. Making money from apathy 28- Jan -2007
FIGURES out last week claimed that 1.8m British adults never review their financial situation. That isn’t true, of course. Quit while you're ahead 22- Jan -2007
IT MUST be irritating for Gordon Brown that during his long wait for Tony Blair to go, his reputation as an economic manager is taking a battering. When oil runs out, go nuclear 15- Jan -2007
I THINK I have got to the bottom of why City salaries are so high: it’s because of the regular humiliation the recipients of the cash have to put up with. Switching is worth the stress 7- Jan -2007
IT IS all very well getting your investments right, but most of us are losing out by having the wrong mortgage, the wrong broadband and gas suppliers and the wrong savings accounts than we ever make from shares. Trouble lies ahead - but you can still turn a profit 31- Dec -2006
Trouble lies ahead - but you can still turn a profit Cash-strapped shoppers get a chance for revenge 11- Dec -2006
LAST weekend it finally began to feel a bit wintry, which made me realise my baby didn’t have a proper coat. Holiday hotspots are no property mecca 4- Dec -2006
ONE of the consequences of the general bull market in all asset classes of the past few years is that when the price of something falls, nobody seems to worry much. Private-equity players up the ante again 27- Nov -2006
THE new James Bond film out last week may have received splendid reviews, but it has also made Hugh Hendry of Eclectica Asset Management nervous. Diamond shortage cuts no ice with me 23- Nov -2006
I HAVE not been in the Tiffany store in London's Sloane Street since its launch party a few years ago. Mid-term blues: it was the economy, stupid 12- Nov -2006
WHEN the news came in from America’s mid-term elections last week, the headlines were pretty clear on what had caused the Republicans’ heavy losses: the war. But that isn’t what the polls of voters really said. Hey big spenders — it's time to get real 6- Nov -2006
SELF-RESTRAINT has become an alien concept to large numbers of British women. We want things — the “must haves” we see in the magazines and newspapers — and so we just get them on credit. Christmas is cancelled 23- Oct -2006
When Christmas company Farepak went into administration last week (for reasons that remain unclear) its customers were completely shocked: 170,000 of them had been saving for their Christmas presents and meals through the firm and had put in an average of £200 each — some a great deal more. Hardly a model investment 16- Oct -2006
I’m quite sad about the state of the hedge-fund industry. When the hype started it all sounded so good. The perils of 'diworsification' 11- Oct -2006
One of the investment world’s great heroes is David Swensen, the man who has managed Yale University’s endowment money since 1987. Oil is still a long-term buy 2- Oct -2006
I’ve just come back from a two-week holiday during which I read no newspapers, watched no television, listened to no radio and had absolutely no conversations whatsoever about the world’s financial markets. It was an absolute delight. US loss may be Asia's gain 10- Sep -2006
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. A new way to gain from grain 3- Sep -2006
THIS column is not known for its readiness to praise the financial-services industry, so readers may be surprised to find that today I bring good news. Take a lesson from the chavs 29- Aug -2006
THERE’s a new fashion outrage doing the rounds of the chav community — its members have started keeping the price tags on their clothes so that everyone can see them all the time. A very liquid investment 21- Aug -2006
I’M IN the mountains in the south of France. I’m supposed to be on my summer holidays, but I can’t go outside because the rain is so heavy I’d be drenched in seconds. Sympathy for the £800,000 woman 14- Aug -2006
A FEW weeks ago Beverley Charman suddenly found herself in possession of £48m. Then a few days later Helen Green was handed a cheque for £800,000. You need a calamity account 7- Aug -2006
THE e-mail inboxes of personal-finance journalists can make for terrifying reading. End of the American dream? 31- Jul -2006
IT IS an unusual state of affairs, but the fund-management community has come over all miserable. It's picking markets that matters 24- Jul -2006
THE more I think about investing, the more I wonder why we humour the financial-services industry as much as we do. Africa's time is still to come 17- Jul -2006
THE first anniversary of the Gleneagles G8 summit, which was supposed to end poverty in Africa, passed relatively unnoticed a few weeks ago. How to be the next Buffett 11- Jul -2006
A few weeks ago I wrote about the weird way in which all fund managers consider themselves to be value-investing contrarians. The fact that so few actually are is made clear by all the hoo-ha surrounding the retirement of Anthony Bolton, who has been managing Fidelity’s Special Situations fund since 1979, and over that time has managed to turn an initial investment of £9,000 into £130,000. Asia is set to go nuclear 3- Jul -2006
ASIAN markets have not been kind to investors this summer -many are still 20% off the highs they hit this year. My Property Pram Test 27- Jun -2006
I USUALLY take my little daughter for her afternoon walks in central London’s Hyde Park, but as the summer has gone on we have found it less and less peaceful. Land of rising confidence 18- Jun -2006
Visit Japan today and you’ll find it booming. Tokyo’s restaurants are once again dropping bits of gold leaf into miso soup and its shops are packed with people buying luxury goods as fast as they can be manufactured across the water in China. I still predict a golden age 11- Jun -2006
When I was at university, one of the biggest complaints from professors and the non-finance companies that turned up on the milk round looking for graduate trainees was that the best students wanted to go into the City. Happiness is a cheap frock 4- Jun -2006
A SURVEY out last week in Institutional Investor's Alpha magazine showed the salaries of the world's top hedge-fund managers. I had to read it a few times before I really believed it. I just saved my mother from a guaranteed flop 28- May -2006
THE men of the financial services industry are marketing masters; there's no bad product they can't make sound good. A warning from nowheresville 15- May -2006
LAST week was an important one for the residents of Omaha. For most of the year this mediocre little town in Nebraska is of no interest to the rest of the world, but last week its airport was a hive of activity, its hotels were booked out and you couldn't get a reservation in any of its uninspiring restaurants for love nor money. There's no magic wand to get us out of debt 30- Apr -2006
THE illusionist David Copperfield is a truly remarkable man. Mugged at gunpoint in Florida last week, he apparently used "magic" to make the robbers think that his pockets were empty. They gave up and ran away, leaving him still in possession of his wallet. Real returns, after a fashion 2- Apr -2006
IF YOU live in London and like to shop you should thank God for hedge-fund managers. Why? Because one way or another they finance most of the fashionable little boutiques where you do your shopping. Don't trust your children 26- Mar -2006
I AM not sure I entirely approve of the child trust fund (CTF), despite Gordon Brown's extra dollop of cash for them in the budget. The myth of the 22% return 6- Mar -2006
Would't it be nice if you could find an investment that would return you a regular 22% a year? And, given how much everyone likes investing in houses, wouldn't it be even nicer if that investment was a property in the UK? The coming liquidity crisis 27- Feb -2006
Ask any fund manager what liquid is the most important to the global economy and he’ll tell you oil. The tight supply-and-demand situation has pushed prices up to a level that threatens economic growth and is kicking off inflation around the world, he will say. Just a blip in the metals markets 20- Feb -2006
What’s the difference between a boom and a bubble? The answer is a simple one. A market is showing signs of being in a bubble when prices reach levels that are entirely unjustified by the fundamentals. But it is booming when prices are rising fast but those price rises are justified by the fundamentals. The next big China play 13- Feb -2006
A few years ago I wrote in this column that one of the best reasons to buy into Japan was because it was “the China play.” China’s new manufacturing plants needed both basic materials and sophisticated machinery, so ship loads of steel, machinery and electronics were pouring out of Japan and into China. This dangerous obsession 6- Feb -2006
I mention the British obsession with property so often in this column you could be forgiven for thinking I'm obsessed with everyone else's obsession. And in a way it's true. Greenspan: why he's not my hero 30- Jan -2006
It’s tough being a contrarian these days. All the investments I used to write about, in the happy knowledge that I would be the only one tipping them, have come over all mainstream. No need to panic in Tokyo 23- Jan -2006
I recently watched the CEO of a large US listed company being interviewed on TV. His life, he told the interviewer, was his work. He looked forward every day to getting to the office because of the endless amounts of fun he had. A simple way to make the world a better place 16- Jan -2006
Fancy a “free holiday home” or perhaps a few “foolproof investments” to pep up your portfolio in 2006?” Well look no further. Have property sales frim Assetz got a deal for you. Soft commodities for 2006 10- Jan -2006
In December most City analysts were assuring us that oil prices wouldn’t be anything to worry about in 2006. The bull run was to be firmly left behind in 2005 and oil would soon fall back to the $40 range, a level at which it could safely be ignored as being both no threat to anyone’s inflation or interest rate forecasts and of no investment interest. Nothing to change in 2006 5- Jan -2006
I try not to make too many predictions at the turn of each year on the basis that the more I make the more stupid I am likely to look when the next year comes around.   Put an ingot under the tree 19- Dec -2005
I have a wonderful book, published in 1977 and left by an Arabist great uncle. It is called Oil Sheiks: Inside The Supercharged World Of The Petrodollar, by Linda Blandford, and traces the path of the money that poured into the Middle East and out again during the last oil boom. Why you should still get a SIPP 12- Dec -2005
My husband and I spent last weekend in Lisbon. We could have gone anywhere for the weekend. Perhaps Rome, Paris or Prague. But instead, under the impression that it would have a kind of faded charm about it, we chose Lisbon. It wasn’t quite what we expected. What the real pessimists worry about 6- Dec -2005
December normally makes me happy. I love shopping and I love eating so the idea that Christmas is just around the corner is enough to cancel out pretty much any amount of misery. But not this year. Ideas and reality 28- Nov -2005
At the FT-Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year awards this week I listened to a speech made by Gordon Brown from beginning to end. What China really needs 21- Nov -2005
China has been the answer to every question the financial markets have needed to ask for some time now. Follow the money not the spending 14- Nov -2005
Are you too old for popular culture as soon as you hit your 30s? I used to think not, but I¹m beginning to wonder. You see I don¹t really understand TV ads any more. Why no bids for housebuilders? 7- Nov -2005
Two stories stood out last week. The first is the fact that the City is once again completely gripped by bid fever. A bad omen for investors 31- Oct -2005
It¹s hard to put too much store by market indicators for the simple reason that as soon as everyone agrees that a particular indicator works pretty well, it generally stops working as everyone starts trying to act on it at the same time. Small but differently formed... 18- Oct -2005
If you want to see what’s going on in the UK economy or the market there’s really no need to read the heavyweight financial pages every day.