Popcorn

There was baring of teeth from a battle-ready Chancellor this week, as she pulled the driver out the bag and made it known that this government is going all in on growth. In announcing another go at laying down more tarmac at Heathrow, in order for the UK to become “the world’s best-connected place to do business”, she provoked a typically fiery outburst from Michael O’Leary, he of Ryanair fame. In a rant that would have had most PRs whimpering behind a sofa, he labelled the initiative a “dead cat”, and suggested “Rachel Rubbish” was basically clueless. Hmm. Should a third runway ever get past the newts, no flights will be taking off for at least a decade, suggesting growth in the interim will continue on its inebriated way. She was also out talking up the government’s commitment to wind, solar and hydrogen. Green jobs for a green economy. That Sweden, an early pioneer in renewables abandoned it’s targets last year appears not to have registered. Nor too the ongoing difficulties of the once muscular industrial base in Germany, as budgets get reset in line with an energy mix stripped of cheap Russian gas. And it is a stance that sits in sharp contrast to the mojo of the new US administration where a full throttled growth agenda sees fossil fuels playing the Lothar Matthias role. History will judge which policy will deliver the growth that politicians so clearly crave. History suggests it won’t be the UK. Meanwhile businesses will continue to suck on biros, crimp spend, pause hiring, and hope that energy bills will one day go down. Also of note this week is some murky goings on in the dark corners of the gold bullion market. According to Reuters, there is something of a run on at the London vaults. According to a “couple of sources”, those who are on the hook for delivering gold to whoever it belongs to, are scrabbling around to find it. In normal times it takes two or three days for delivery, a wait explained by ‘paperwork’, but currently it’s four weeks. Four weeks! But you said you had it in the vaults? The suggestion is that all the tariff talk in the US has meant that the vaults have been all but cleaned out of available stock and shipped back to New York or Chicago, or any other approved warehouse. London is just one hub, but it appears others are starting to clench the buttocks. Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, eased the ball past midwicket and trotted through for an easy single when lobbed a question about the situation in a Treasury Select pow-wow this week, suggesting it’s all in hand. Maybe it is, but given whisperings from some analysts, maybe it’s not. Bullion banks are short. And there may not be enough to go round. Popcorn at the ready. Gold, meanwhile, has taken out $2800. A record high.