The Big Issues for the financial world which might have featured in The Speech weren’t there. Have rumours of the disappearance or death or Inheritance Tax been premature? Is anything else big likely to happen to pensions? The former is seen as a potential vote-winner, so my guess is, were abolition to be coming, it would have been in there with the headline-grabbers. As previously discussed, however, it would come with the same sort of trade-off as the Braverman’s longer prison sentences for some (many shorter, or none at all for others), with a gift tax replacing it. And as for pensions, a guaranteed eye-glazer, rather than vote-winner. Of course, it may all be saved for J Hunt’s Autumn Statement in a week or two. That will certainly, I’d say, be the case for the inevitable further pension-tinkering.
“US labour market continues to show resilience with 303,000 jobs added in March”
Good news is not, of course, always good news. The US economy is doing well, higher interest rates haven’t led to unemployment and more jobs are being created rather than lost.
