Financial Independence

Sunak reverses Sutton’s Law on you

When the famous bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he famously responded, “Because that’s where the money is.” This insight led…

The energy crisis at the end of the rainbow

While UK energy users shut off their appliances to avoid a blackout, their electricity gets sent to Ireland… UK savers who tried to prepare for…

King dollar is dead. Long live… whatever’s next?

In 2012, US authorities confiscated and kept US$20,000 of a Danish policeman’s money because he tried to buy Cuban cigars from Germany. You might think…

Readers explain how tighter monetary policy actually causes inflation

Last week we received the highest quality and quantity of reader mail I have ever seen. You flooded the Fortune & Freedom inbox in response…

The evil twins of inflation and taxes are robbing you blind

“Taxes are the price we pay for civilisation,” claimed Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Judging by the current record high level of taxation in the UK,…

Will “monetary martial law” be implemented in Britain?

I have some New Year reading for you. It’s not very cheerful, I’m afraid. But it is very important. Warning you about a profound threat…

Christmas with the cannibals?

And you thought the last two Christmases were bad! Surging power bills, gas shortages, strikes, transport chaos, healthcare chaos, blackouts, the prospect of nuclear war…

The Ministry of Truth is in trouble now

I don’t often shout at books or bang tables. But in November, I interviewed comedian, social commentator and Triggernometry podcast founder and host Konstantin Kisin…

The UK is praying for a Kamikaze to fan its Himmelfahrtskommando energy policy

English is a boring language. “Suicide mission” doesn’t leave much to the imagination. Other nations have elegant euphemisms to describe European energy policy. The Japanese…

Reader mail on the limits of QE, the property bubble and shrinkflation

It’s time to dip into the reader mailbag. And I must say, I’m disappointed. I used to get the most wonderful hate mail. The words…

What if populism has barely begun?

Brexit and Trump happened under comparatively benign conditions compared to the last two years. So… what’ll the future hold for populism? Will governments raid pension…

Who is Jeremy Hunt? Robin Hood or the Sheriff of Nottingham?

Are you feeling suitably austere yet? Because austerity is back! But will it be with a vengeance? The financial markets didn’t seem to think so.…

Green energy gets the blues as it goes into the red

The Green Energy Transition continues to spiral out of control. And if we weren’t paying for it with the highest electricity bills in the Europe,…

They’re finally running out of other people’s money

Wobbling bond markets around the world are signalling that Margaret Thatcher’s famous criticism of socialism may finally have been affirmed. They’re finally running out of…

The social consequences of inflation are creeping in

This inflation thing is getting nasty. Strikes, protests, blame games and snarky comments are springing up. It’s as if all the textbooks and history books…

Will people accept the new regime?

How the worm has turned over the past few months. The very pillars of our society are wobbling away. The things we believed and presumed are gone. They’ve been replaced with alternatives that were unthinkable only months ago.

The demographic destiny of your brokerage account

Demographic decline is an unfamiliar problem for investors. Populations haven’t shrunk before. Well, not outside of a pandemic. But, now that the pandemic is over…

Buy when there’s smoke in an empty theatre

The best thing about bitcoin was how everyday people finally got one up on the City. While professional investors were busy denigrating cryptocurrencies, punters made millions or even billions off the new tech. It was the first bottom-up investment boom since the last gold rush.

How should I pay off my mortgage?

Why are mortgages a hot topic today? Complaining about interest rates has become a national sport. Actually, it’s become an international sport. That’s because central…

The big answers to the three big questions: the mini budget, the recession and the euro’s demise

All the crises we’ve been writing about in Fortune & Freedom are rearing their ugly heads at the same time. Currencies like the pound and…