Perspectives

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Modern Tulips

September, 2021

The Dutch tulip mania in the 17th century saw the price of tulips rise precipitously before crashing back down to earth. Generally considered to be one of the first ever recorded asset bubbles in history, it remains unclear what precisely was the catalyst that precipitated the scramble for the flowers. Wealth certainly played a part. […]

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US Hegemony

September, 2021

We have written many times about the dominance of US technology companies and how countries such as the UK, Germany and France have been left behind by the technological revolution of the past 20 years. But we do not believe it is only over the past couple of decades that competitors have struggled to keep […]

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Why invest in an Investment Trust?

September, 2021

Tacit strategies have always had significant exposure to investment trusts due to their inherent benefits over other investment vehicles such as open-ended funds. This week we consider their inherent advantages to UK investors: A fixed pool of assets A ‘closed-end’ investment trust issues a fixed number of shares. This means the portfolio managers always know […]

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Unintended consequences

August, 2021

Gordon Pepper, a founder of Greenwell Montagu’s gilt-edged business in the 1970s had the unusual background of a Cambridge economics degree, actuarial training and, as a young graduate, a job on the floor of the old stock exchange as a dealer. He was the widely respected author of Greenwell’s Monetary Bulletin, required reading in those […]

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Characteristics of Chinese Technology Companies

August, 2021

China’s economy is often described internally as “socialism with Chinese characteristics”. Its stock market, largely driven by the large technology companies, can also be described using such idiosyncratic phrasing. The large Chinese tech companies are not quite like the tech companies in America, Europe or anywhere else. They come with their own unique characteristics. The […]

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Characteristics of British Technology Companies

August, 2021

Britain has a long history of innovation. The Lunar society in Birmingham had members such as Joseph Priestly, Erasmus Darwin and James Watt, who were some of the catalysts behind the industrial revolution in the 18th century. In the 20th century, Frank Whittle, the co-inventor of the turbo jet engine, ushered in the age of […]

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COVID and The Housing Market

August, 2021

Record low interest rates, stamp duty holidays and a government guarantee for mortgages are some of the reasons behind the recent rise in UK property values. An emphasis on subsidising demand instead of increasing supply has naturally led to a substantial rise in residential property prices. This is not unique to the UK however as […]

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Consider You May Be Wrong

July, 2021

To manage the funds that are entrusted to us we have to build a model of how we think the world economy is working. The inputs into that model are multi-variate; some are quantitative, and some are qualitative. Quantitative inputs include the level of interest rates, cost of capital, expected inflation rates, implied discount rates, […]

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Return Free Risk

July, 2021

Robert Heinlein, one of the most prolific sci-fi authors of all time, was a sceptic of specialisation. To quote: “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, […]

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The Advantages of Backwardness and the Opportunities in Change

July, 2021

In Saffron Walden, where one of our colleagues lives, there is a broken and battered old building next to the common emblazoned with the word “GASWORKS” and underneath dated 1836. Victorian England was lit by gas. Gas mantles were used in domestic houses until the late 1940s and early 1950s when the post-war slum clearances […]

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