The British government is woefully incompetent, says Burnbrae Chairman Jim Mellon. But of course that doesn’t mean you can’t buy UK equities. Mellon tells Merryn Somerset Webb on this week’s Merryn Talks Money that fossil fuel giants Shell and BP are good long-term investments, as are British defense stocks and financial services companies.  Sign up to John Stepek's daily newsletter Money Distilled. https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/uk-wealth See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Famed contrarian investor Rob Arnott, co-founder of Research Affiliates, has said since the autumn of 2020 that UK shares are a great bargain—in particular so-called value stocks. In a conversation with Merryn Somerset Webb on this week’s Merryn Talks Money, he contends that’s still the case. The 2020s may be the “the decade for diversifiers,” he says—those prepared to move out of mainstream stocks and bonds and into assets that haven’t been talked about.  Sign up to John Stepek's daily newsletter Money Distilled. https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/uk-wealth See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Inflation will eventually come down, but not rapidly or in the way it would have in previous years. So says Sharon Bell, managing director and senior European equity strategist at Goldman Sachs. She tells Merryn Somerset Webb on this week’s Merryn Talks Money that the reason for this state of affairs is specifically the tight labor market, and more broadly the demographics of the Western world.Sign up to John Stepek's daily newsletter Money Distilled. https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/uk-wealthWanted — your questions. Merryn and John will be doing an AMA (Ask Me/Us Anything) session at 1pm on May 24 — which also happens to be the day the UK’s next monthly inflation data reading comes out — over on the UK Markets Today blog. So what do you want to ask us? Send your questions to [email protected] The earlier you send them, the better the odds you’ll get a sensible answer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are we getting to the point where central banks are starting to break economies?Dario Perkins, Managing Director on the Global Macro team at TS Lombard, asks that question in his conversation this week with Merryn Somerset Webb on Merryn Talks Money. He says central banks are losing control of their own tools, and that policymakers may drive their economies into recession. Sign up to John Stepek's daily newsletter Money Distilled. https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/uk-wealthSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Investment trusts are special, says Simon Elliott, client director at J.P. Morgan Investment Trusts. They have a strong history of outperforming other types of investment vehicles. They provide pools of genuinely permanent long-term capital. They come with boards of directors whose specific job is to look out for investors. And on this week’s Merryn Talks Money, Elliott argues that, right now, an awful lot of them look like bargains.Sign up to John Stepek's daily newsletter Money Distilled. https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/uk-wealthSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.