What caught my eye this week.
Has winter dragged on for you too, or is it just me? I asked ChatGPT if the weather has been unusually cold and it waffled on for a bit with some anecdotes and then said I should check with the BBC.
Which seemed pretty unhelpful, but then I thought it’s also scarily similar to what you’d actually hear if you asked your nearest mate.
Anyway it has been especially chilly for the past few days. January saw the UK’s coldest night since 2015. Meanwhile on renewable energy investor forums I see debates about whether the slowdown in the North Atlantic conveyor has caused the wind to not blow as much as was forecasted. Which could explain why I’ve worn gloves every day since November.
But I also know I’m prone to Seasonally Affected Depression.
Every January I think I’ve dodged it and then it kicks in – well, about now – and I find myself reading articles about emigrating to Australia.
And yet crazed with cold fever I also ran these numbers on living on a canal boat. A definite case of jumping out of the refrigerator and into the icebox.
Chill brains
A big problem with emotions is how they skew judgement.
For instance I just saw this story about the Met police objecting to a new jazz club in Covent Garden on the grounds that drunk patrons might get mugged on the way home. It seemed ridiculous and I despaired at what London has become since I first arrived in the early-1990s.
But actually…safer is one thing it has become. So am I properly weighting that as I read the story against what mostly appears to me to be the enfeebling of London’s citizens and its nightlife?
Politics is where this emotional distortion effect looms largest.
Perhaps you’ve read in my previous Weekend Reading links how someone’s perceptions instantly reverse in the US depending on whether their favoured candidate is in the White House? So far-reaching is Trump’s chaos theory politics that I don’t doubt it’s affecting me too.
Then again there’s enough to be dispirited about closer to home.
Not least that despite demonstrably hobbling the UK economy – to the tune of £1,750 per person, annually – with his economically insensible Brexit, Nigel Farage is back and doling out his sounds-about-right slop to the same credulous faction who fell for it last time.
We’re told his resurgent Reform party could even dethrone the Conservatives.
Who knows? Though nobody could do a better job of unseating the Tory party than the Tory party managed over the past decade.
The Reform party this week said it would tax renewable energy, reflecting the party leadership’s long history of climate denial. Soon British policy could be driven by the motiviations of an angry middle-aged man in a near-empty pub on a Wednesday afternoon shouting at the television in the corner.
Elsewhere The Atlantic is reflecting on how Covid deniers won – politically, not scientifically – and Politico listed the 37 ways the supposedly disavowed ‘Project 2025’ has already shown up in Trump’s executive orders.
It’s depressing.
Cold comfort
But maybe you’re depressed about me bringing politics to your otherwise favourite financial resource?
Well I have some sympathy, believe it or not.
Over the past six months I’ve grown increasingly irritated at how one of my favourite small-cap share pundits has spent years bemoaning British doomsters as unpatriotic while he dismisses the idea that Brexit had any impact on the UK economy – even as he repeatedly sees an economic recovery around the corner and then is mystified when we instead limp along in semi-stagflation.
Stick to shares, I mutter – obviously in large part because I disagree with him.
Perhaps as you did with me above.
Naturally I think I’m even-handed. For example I flagged up the failings I saw in Rachel Reeves’ budget.
But then I would think that, wouldn’t I?
We all believe we’re above-average drivers.
The big political currents underway seem too important to avoid any mention of on my own website, even if only from a narrow financial perspective – which I do mostly try to stick to. It’s a highfalutin thing to say, but it almost feels irresponsible to look the other way when I have a platform.
Yet I really can see the sense in Jaren Dillan’s perspective at We’re Gonna Get Those Bastards, when he argues it’s okay to ignore politics:
Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy?
Let’s say you choose the former. Good luck? Maybe get back to me in four years with a list of what you actually accomplished.
Yes, I am suggesting that we are all impotent. Yes, I am suggesting that one person can’t make a difference. Yes, I am just that cynical.
But deep down—do you disagree with me? Do you think that your rage-posting on social media is going to make a difference? Not only will it not make a difference, it is counterproductive, because, chances are, you’re turning people off in the process.
I know he’s probably right. Who has changed their mind about Brexit, despite its non-existent achievements? The polls have mostly turned against it only because so many of its supporters have died.
Oh well, at least my portfolio is up nicely so far in 2025.
And we’re inching towards spring…surely?
Have a great weekend!
p.s. Moguls: I didn’t get a chance to send out the Monevator merchandise email this week – so don’t worry, you haven’t missed out on the fashion event of the century. The next two to three days for sure!
Thanks for reading! Monevator is a spiffing blog about making, saving, and investing money. Please do sign-up to get our latest posts by email for free. Find us on Twitter and Facebook. Or peruse a few of our best articles.