This is Money Blog

Nationwide Building Society's slipped halo: Part II

ANM Blog — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:21:22 +0100

In March, I asked whether Nationwide was losing its halo? The response from readers was astonishing with 55 comments (plus a handful of other unpublishable messages!). A previously treasured financial brand was apparently alienating many of its loyal customers. Most...

Wrath, grapes and a lesson in international isolationism

ANM Blog — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:01:28 +0100

It has been a while since I last blogged on the Great Depression, but don’t worry: nothing about the thirties has changed. History can be relied on to stay roughly where it is while we pause for thought. Which is...

2-for-1 Jongleurs Comedy Club tickets

ANM Blog — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:29:55 +0100

Fancy a laugh? Well we've gone and done it again: This is Money has joined forces with Jongleurs, the world’s largest comedy chain, to offer every reader 2 for 1 tickets. This offer is valid from today, right through until...

Is now the time to get out of the property market?

ANM Blog — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:15:35 +0100

If you haven’t done so already, with house prices staging a mild revival is now the time to bail out of the property market? Statistics put house prices down about 20% from the August 2007 peak (Halifax). But speak to...

House prices debate on Radio 4 Moneybox

ANM Blog — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:18:51 +0100

With house prices apparently stabilising, I was asked today to debate the issue on Radio 4's Moneybox [ listen here - at 11mins. Or the link just for house prices] with the programme interested in my previous comments about affordability...

Retire at 70? No chance. Our unfixable demographic problem

ANM Blog — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:51:04 +0100

This demograhic problem is really coming home to roost. It's a pet subject of mine... - Demographic investments - I'm loving the returns (Apr 2009) - How baby boomers will extend the financial crisis (Jan 2009) - Demographics make emerging...

My buy-to-let barometer swings from plus to minus

ANM Blog — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:32:53 +0100

In April 2009, I launched the This is Money buy-to-let barometer, a very slightly more sophisticated follow--up to my dismal house price predictor which, in June 2007, pointed to house price falls. How the buy-to-let barometer works We're lucky enough...

The top 10 movies about money

ANM Blog — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:59:37 +0100

Hollywood is gearing up for revenge on uber swindler Bernard Madoff, surely it is. After all, many Tinsel Town alumni - Steven Spielberg, John Malkovich and Kevin Bacon, are reportedly among those who were taken for a ride by the...

Will Tesco buy Northern Rock and why would it?

ANM Blog — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:23:17 +0100

Will Tesco buy Northern Rock? A report in today’s Times claims the supermarket giant has expressed ‘provisional interest in buying the bank’. There's nothing really in the report backing up the story, so essentially it's a rumour, although a Treasury...

We have the rail system that we deserve

ANM Blog — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:16:11 +0100

As a nation of whingeing motorists the British public has no right to lament the latest twist in the debacle that is the UK rail system. For decades the great British motorist has made it perfectly clear where his priorities...