The Other Hand

Irish house prices are approaching double digit rates of increase. What is going on? Is it supply? Demand? Interest rates? Demography? The robust economy?Of course, it's all of the above. We need to think about all of these things. If you really want house prices to fall you would massively increase supply and aggressively raise interest rates. A good old fashioned recession would really help. So be careful what you wish for.The economy is, thankfully far from recession. But something weird is happening to sectoral trade trends with the UK.

Chris explains why he has deleted his Twitter/X account.Donald Trump is weird, but is it a good attack line for the Democrats?Elon Musk's resemblance to Bond villain Elliot CarverRussia has been invaded: a story that doesn't figure on the front pages.And the latest economic news.

It seems a touch fanciful to us, but some analysts are wondering if Intel could go the way of Nokia. What is true is that at least one big company with a big Irish presence is in a spot of bother. Let's hope its recovery plan works.But it is a reminder that many a once great company has disappeared. Who remembers that Nokia once was as dominant as Apple?The US regulator has declared Google to be a 'monopoly'. That could have profound consequences.Whether or not technological obsolescence and/or the regulator is coming for big parts of the tech sector, one thing is certain: if they can't turn the lights on, they will go elsewhere. Power supply is becoming an urgent issue.All this in more in our weekend edition. Enjoy!

Reminder: stock markets go down as well as up. But wait long enough and they usually go up. Is the return of volatility a sign of a problem or just another wobble that will soon be forgotten?One problem is the story we create around these type of events. Our narratives are often not very good guesses.Chris puts some cash to work and Jim sticks to Bitcoin - this is not investment advice!!!