Over the past five years, Britain’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC) — the average rate of return businesses must offer to attract debt and equity — has quietly surged from around 5% to over 8%, and could rise to 10% or more under a full-scale deregulation agenda. This shift matters far more than most … Continue reading The Cost of Capital: Britain’s Hidden Economic Pressure Point →

How Structural Untrustworthiness Forces the Public to Foot the Bill Every few years, the public is told there’s a “black hole” in the nation’s finances. Productivity has fallen. Growth has stalled. The deficit has widened.And every time, the remedy is the same: raise taxes, cut services, and tighten belts. But what if the real deficit … Continue reading 💷 If Finance Had a Conscience, You Wouldn’t Be Paying 2p More in Tax →

Why the FCA’s next consultation could collapse the AUM fee habit — and usher in a trust-first model What’s happening. The FCA has confirmed it’s working toward a Q1 consultation on changes to the rules governing ongoing advice — the annual-fee model most wealth firms rely on. This follows its multi-firm review of 22 large … Continue reading 💣 The End of Asset-based “Ongoing Advice” Fees? →

When St. James’s Place announced that State Street would run its new range of tracker funds for just 0.0075%, the financial press celebrated it as proof that investment costs had reached rock bottom. But dig deeper, and you’ll discover a startling truth: over 99% of what investors pay never reaches the people actually managing their … Continue reading 💰 Over 99% of What the Investor Pays Never Reaches the People Managing the Money →