Opinion

Over the past few months, investors and their advisers have been treated to a rare sight - asset managers producing a genuinely interesting and useful array of new discretionary products.

ASHBY'S ANSWERS

The UK has spent the last few days discussing how to pay for retirement and old age.

GOSLING'S GROUSE

Yesterday saw the 16th annual Investment Week Fund Manager of the Year Awards, with the normal array of plaudits and criticisms that go with such events.

A fund manager recently told me an adviser asked him to speak to a group of his clients. Nothing unusual in that, you might say. The manager turned up at the venue - a local library outside of London - and expected a modest crowd of 20 to 30 people.

UCITS IV REGULATION

The programme of US bond purchases, affectionately known as QE2, has only just ended, yet there are already calls in America for a new initiative (presumably to be known as QE3) to be introduced. QE is dead, long live QE!

Last week, the Financial Policy Committee of the Bank of England produced its first Report.

At any point in time, the engine of economic growth depends on the strength of the four cylinders on which it is driven; the household sector, the banking sector, the government and the non-financial corporate sector.