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Merryn Somerset Webb

Former personal finance & investment commentator

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  • Friday, 23 September, 2022
    Paul Volcker
    Central bankers fighting inflation need good political fortune as well as skill

    The Bank of England might be about to get lucky with Liz Truss as the Fed did with Ronald Reagan

    Paul Volker, wearing suit and tie, sits a desk with a microphone in front of him and his right hand cupped behind his right ear
  • Friday, 16 September, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Tech giants’ dive follows a new Cult of Performance

    Remember the lessons of the Nifty Fifty and the MegaCap-8 when you invest over the next few years — price matters

    Pop group The Supremes demonstrate Polaroid cameras in 1965
  • Friday, 9 September, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Second chances loom in the commodity bull market

    The investment case for fossil fuels, driven by climate change policy, remains entirely intact

  • Friday, 2 September, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Coming UK house price plunge has a silver lining

    You may not benefit, but your children could

    A row of terraced houses
  • Friday, 19 August, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Soaring rental car costs make taxis a better travel option

    Customer patience is being put to the test by high prices and outdated technology

  • Thursday, 21 July, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Pensions — a Roman legacy needing reform

    Increasing longevity means we need more in our retirement savings and more advice

  • Friday, 15 July, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Take cover and look for dividends

    In unsettled markets, consider income-focused investment trusts

    Millennials discuss investing and cryptocurrency trading
  • Friday, 8 July, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Uncomfortable echoes of the 1970s

    Time to look again at a difficult decade with the help of some summer holiday books

    A pedestrian walks to work amid piles of rubbish in 1970s Britain
  • Friday, 1 July, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Why we need to make pensions interesting

    Take-up of saving has improved no end — but millions still have no idea about their retirement options

  • Friday, 24 June, 2022
    Markets
    Investors are on recession watch

    The combination of a bear market and an economic downturn has historically been ugly

    Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. A recession can make a bear market very significantly worse – or, at the very least, longer
  • Friday, 17 June, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Time to cut your stock market losses — or not?

    Bear market history suggests staying invested beats cashing out

    Illustration of bitcoin
  • Friday, 10 June, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    To investors seeking income — there’s still plenty of it about

    Interest on cash deposits remains paltry, but some companies are throwing off dividends in the here and now

  • Friday, 27 May, 2022
    Equities
    A good tale can tempt us to forget the truth about markets

    Stories have driven an unnatural division between growth stocks and value stocks

    Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange
  • Friday, 20 May, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    What are investors supposed to trust in now?

    Equity and bond markets appear to be imploding at the same time

    A selection of gold bars and coins
  • Friday, 13 May, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Growth stocks almost look cheap

    Buying opportunities are starting to emerge

    A television screen with the Netflix logo and a Tesla car charging
  • Friday, 6 May, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Passive funds are no place to hide from a bear market

    The world has changed — and so should our portfolios

    Sliced pak choi cooking in woks
  • Friday, 29 April, 2022
    ESG investing
    There is far too much groupthink in ESG investing

    Definitions are at once so fluid and so rigid as to be almost nonsensical

  • Friday, 22 April, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Better pensions await generation rent

    Many younger savers lack own homes but have better retirement funds

    City workers cross London Bridge
  • Friday, 15 April, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    House prices to fall? Definitely, but not quite yet

    While values are high, real interest rates are negative, making homes surprisingly affordable

    A woman cycles past  a row of terraced houses
  • Monday, 11 April, 2022
    Personal Finance
    FT reader event: An evening with Merryn Somerset Webb

    Meet our investment columnist at the FT’s historic Bracken House headquarters

    Merryn Somerset Webb with the cover of her book ‘Share Power’
  • Friday, 1 April, 2022
    Corporate governance
    Nagging is still the best way to make boards more active

    Retail investors continue to have few means of effectively demanding any change

    Ewan White illustration of Merryn Somerset Webb column ‘Nagging is still the best way to make boards more active’
  • Friday, 25 March, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Alas poor Rishi, in charge of fixing the unfixable

    Most of our underlying problems are well beyond the reach of the chancellor

    Chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak stands in the House of Commons delivering his Spring Statement
  • Friday, 18 March, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Retirement could be on hold if you follow the misery index

    Gloomy forecasts for inflation and unemployment over the next few years

    Woman surrounded by happy retirement balloons and cake
  • Friday, 11 March, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    An energy shock and high inflation: are the 1970s reborn?

    One thing is for sure. We won’t be going back to the 2010s

    A sign reads ‘Sorry no petrol’ at a filling station during the petrol shortage in the 1970s
  • Friday, 4 March, 2022
    Advice & Comment
    Are defence stocks now ESG?

    Surely supplying weapons to the invaded underdog in an unprovoked fight is a social good

    Saab Gripen E fighter jet
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