If the coming trade war kicks off in earnest, then getting hold of blue jeans, Harley Davidson's and Bourbon might soon become a bit more difficult.
But don't worry. There will always be the simple pleasure of the week in news. On that note, let's begin.
1) Help to Buy 'timebomb' as five-year anniversary looms
Another week, another ticking timebomb. This week it’s Help to Buy, the government’s scheme to help homebuyers to get on the property ladder by providing five-year interest free loans to help first-time buyers get a mortgage.
The scheme has always been mired in controversy. It’s only available on new-build property which some believe is already overpriced, and cynics believed that it was all about helping the construction industry through a quiet period, rather than helping those who couldn’t buy a home.
The ‘timebomb’, of course, is the interest-free loan itself, which attracts an interest rate of 1.75 per cent after five years, which increases in line with RPI. Think tank The Resolution Foundation - responsible for the explosive metaphor- is worried about the fall out from the fees, but some mortgage advisers are more sanguine.
Ray Boulger, from John Charcol, pointed out that it was still very cheap, and though there were remortgage options for many, it may be better to keep the loan if you don’t think house prices are going to rise.
2) The letter no-one wants to receive
It’s worse than a tax demand, and it could be landing on a doormat near you soon. As many as 43,600 pensioners could have to give back up to £50,000 that they’ve already received from their company pensions after discrepancies in pensions data between employers and the taxman.
The discrepancy, to do with the treatment of those who contracted out of the state pension and received a GMP (guaranteed minimum pension) instead, was discovered in 2016. HM Revenue & Customs claimed at the time that "no pensioners would lose out" as a result of the faulty data, but that will be cold comfort to those who are faced with a mountain of overpaid pension to return.
On the bright side, some people are going to get money back as well, but the message seems to be ‘don’t assume the money you’re receiving is yours until you’ve had it a good long time’.
After October, which is the deadline for faulty data to be reported, pension schemes have a two-year "rectification phase" when they can try to claw the money back. That’s a long time to be dreading the postman’s knock.
3) Countrywide loses out
There have been a slew of results this week, from property group LSL, whose profits fell despite arranging more mortgages, to a 2 per cent uplift in profits for Aviva.
But for sheer ‘kitchen sinking’ of bad news, look no further than Countrywide, whose final results this week were headed A Disappointing Year. The group behind Mortgage Intelligence got it all out at once, a huge loss, a change of management team and several paragraphs rubbishing its former strategy for stifling its managers’ entrepreneurial spirit.
Investors reeling from the group’s woes have got to hope there’s no more bad news to come.
4) A more Equitable share awaits
There’s better news for 300,000 Equitable Life policyholders, who will receive more money from the reserves it has built up since its near collapse in 2000.
The insurer is keen to point out that this isn’t compensation, and won’t cover the capital lost by the clients in the years leading up to the millennium when mismanagement at the firm had almost caused the insurer to collapse.
The payouts are expected to be several thousand pounds per policyholder, and could pave the way for a final restructuring and wind down of the business. It’s been so long since its near collapse that many of us may struggle to believe it is still going at all. Still, better late than never, as they say.
5) Brothers convicted in £17.5m investment fraud
It’s not quite the Kray Twins, but a pair of financial adviser brothers have been terrorising the elderly on the mean streets of Norwich.
Alan and Russell Taylor ran Taylor & Taylor Associates, and conned more than 200 elderly and vulnerable clients, persuading them to invest in a high-risk scheme called the Vantage Trader Fund.
They raked in £17.5m and spent it on between 2008 and 2015 more than £17.2m was invested in the Vantage Fund, Norwich Crown Court heard.
The advisers spent the profits on hiring a private jet (costing more than £150,000), a boat (costing more than £50,000) and an exclusive timeshare (costing £260,000).
Both pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in April.
The moral of this story? Never trust an IFA with a private jet. They’re good, but not that good.
