Opinion

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.

The rumpus over ETFs just will not die down. Every week or so, another new skirmish breaks out, with the latest bruising delivered by expert pugilist Terry Smith of Fundsmith.

The financial adviser Arthur Childs, of Surrey-based Arch Financial Planning, likened a pension to a kitchen in a recent note to his clients, which is a novel and more accessible way of describing them to the average person who is not embroiled in the...