UK Wealth, Editor at large, Bloomberg. Ex Ed in C @Moneyweek. Ex Columnist/Contrib Editor @FT Opinions personal. NED: THRG and Schroder Japan.Author #SharePower
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Slowing down scary AI also slows the path to the rev/profits driving valuations. The new story doesn't help the old. Add in rising costs of energy/credit/ success of SLMs..and you sure you want all that AI exposure? Plus why CEOs need to love panopticons. bloomberg.com/news/newslette…
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Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
Good thread and pertinent to the discussion of "anthropomorphisation", which is rapidly becoming a politicised word, and thus one which is losing its meaning.
We need to educate the public about the nature of AI, now.
The public discourse is totally misguided and shaped by unrealistic fearmongering and other narratives that are out of touch with the technical reality.
The obvious sign of this is the talk about "dangerous" models.
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Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
1.1% of people EACH YEAR. Not the same people every year. Also that 1.1% number is historic. Allowances have fallen significantly. Also you can't compare CGT and income tax rates... because of inflation. CGT operates as a wealth tax over longer holding periods.
Capital gains tax affects just 1% of Britons - those who by definition are better off than the majority. They currently enjoy a 50% discount to income tax rates - for no good reason. Changing this is about introducing fairness into our tax system - one tax rate for us all.
What is wrong with that?
buff.ly/PlDfzxS
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Surely easier just to learn the stuff.
Kurdish immigrant caught using Bluetooth earpiece to cheat in driving theory test three times avoids jail trib.al/Y2hMmYJ
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It's not their money. It's taxpayer money. It's quite nice to hear these things said aloud again...
"Isn't it patronising? To tell people how to spend their own money?"
@bbcnickrobinson asks shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately, as the Conservatives promise to prevent benefit claimants from spending their welfare payments on alcohol, cigarettes and gambling.
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Not like it works anyway. So what difference.
Glasgow drug services to be combined in £2m savings drive bbc.in/3VdfCFF
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We talk about this on the pod today. Democracy requires participation.
More than a third of adults don’t pay a single penny in income tax.
That is fiscally unsustainable, morally irresponsible – and not the historic norm.
Forget the fiscal cost of raising the personal allowance for a moment - we need to speak more about the moral toll.
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May have
Police officers who Tasered and pepper-sprayed one-legged dementia sufferer, 92, in care home may have contributed to his death, inquest hears trib.al/TGslU6G
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Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
A desperately sorry tale of luxury beliefs overriding economic growth and prosperity in my home town of Hull.
The most depressing line in the whole article: "the BBC understands workers across the sites will be kept on while Ineos tries to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) directly from the US at lower prices"
Sourcing that LNG will come at four times the carbon footprint of domestically-extracted gas. Well done everybody for an energy policy that makes us poorer, more polluting, and less resilient.👋👋
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw30…
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This will make it the highest wealth tax in the world - unless he reintroduces indexing. Completely mad.
Labour is considering raising capital gains tax (CGT) to fund a £20bn handout for the lowest earners.
The Prime Minister and Chancellor are understood to be reviewing proposals to raise CGT to as high as 45pc to increase the income tax personal allowance ⤵️
telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/ca…
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Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
In his interview with @PeterMcCormack Russell Napier points out that a 50-year French government bond issued in 2021 with a 0.5% coupon has, as of the interview, lost roughly 78% of its capital value, while French CPI has risen 18% over the same period. This has effectively wiped out the purchasing power of the supposedly "risk-free" asset.
piped.video/watch?v=hF9tWw1g…
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Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
Why can’t Andy Burnham do “everything possible” to bring down the cost of welfare, or do “everything possible” to fund defence properly?
Why is giving away this territory such a priority for Labour that they are willing to give away billions to do so when there’s little money for anything else?
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Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
Slowing down scary AI also slows the path to the rev/profits driving valuations. The new story doesn't help the old. Add in rising costs of energy/credit/ success of SLMs..and you sure you want all that AI exposure? Plus why CEOs need to love panopticons. bloomberg.com/news/newslette…
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This article was written by the CEO of Taylor Wimpey. What the housebuilding sector needs and what people looking for a home need are different things.
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Merryn Somerset Webb retweeted
Government borrowing up 19% year on year. At least something is growing in Labour's Britain ons.gov.uk/economy/governmen…
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