MoneyWeek 1087

“With central banks and government stressed, this is no time for financial passivity” We’ve been worrying about a sharp rise in inflation for years – now, we finally have something to worry about.UK inflation (using the consumer price index) is now 5.4%, higher than most economists expected (it always is these days) and the highest for nearly 30 years. The retail prices index (RPI) – once the UK’s main measure – is 7.5%. This is nasty news. Living costs are rising fast (see page 10). The purchasing power of your savings (on which you will be getting less than 1% in interest) is falling fast. And thanks to the fear that rates will soon rise a percentage point or two, large parts of the stockmarket are falling. There is a view (still!)…

A group of science-fiction fans who paid €2.66m for the artwork from an unmade Dune film are about to discover the iron law of copyright, says Kotaku. “Buying the book does not give you the rights to what’s in the book.” The SpiceDAO project raised $12m by selling tokens that give shared ownership of a book of concept art from director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s failed attempt to make a version of Dune in the 1970s. There are at least ten copies of this book, one of which sold three years ago for $42,500 – but the copy that SpiceDAO acquired via auction in November fetched 70 times as much, for reasons that remain unclear. The group then said that it will make the book public and use the rest of the…

YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, known to his followers as Mr Beast, was the video platform’s highest-grossing star in 2021, making an estimated $54m, says BBC News. Donaldson’s videos – known for elaborate stunts, pranks and cash prizes – have been viewed more than 10 billion times, helped by people spending more time online in the pandemic. An anonymous detectorist in Devon stumbled on a rare gold coin worth at least £400,000 during his first detecting trip in a decade, says The Telegraph. The Henry III coin, minted in 1257, is one of eight known examples of England’s first gold coinage. The man was entitled to keep the coin because it was not part of a larger find and has put it up for auction on 23 January.…

A Thai hotel guest named Khing who posted a mildly critical review of her stay online is being threatened with a lawsuit by the hotel, says The Times. The Ozone Hotel near the Khao Yai national park has demanded 3m baht (£66,600) in damages plus 50,000 baht per day in compensation for every day the review (now removed) remained on the Agoda website. Thailand’s strict defamation laws are often used by businesses to quash complaints. Jailed pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli (pictured) has been ordered to repay $64.6m of profits made by hiking the price of an anti-parasitic medicine by 4,000% in 2015, says Associated Press. Shkreli, who is serving a seven-year prison sentence for securities fraud, has continued to control Turing Pharmaceuticals (now Vyera) from behind bars, said the judge, who…

Electric vehicles (EVs) “are careering towards a giant pothole”, says Jon Yeomans in The Sunday Times. “There isn’t nearly enough metal around to put in all the batteries we need.” Prices are soaring as carmakers engage in a worldwide race to secure supplies of lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite. “One noted mining investor predicts the coming boom will dwarf the supercycle in commodities unleashed by China’s rapid growth 20 years ago.” Commodities sit “at the crossroads” of some of today’s key investment themes, says Reshma Kapadia in Barron’s. Digital and green trends will require masses of copper wiring, lithium is needed for batteries and aluminium is required “to build solar panels and wind turbines”. Most commodities spent the 2010s in a bear market, but last year the Bloomberg Commodity index soared…

Oil prices have hit a seven-year high amid fresh tensions in the Middle East. Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for a drone attack on an oil storage site in Abu Dhabi that killed three people on Monday. Brent crude topped $88 a barrel on Tuesday and has risen 13% so far this year. “The attack is another reminder of the highly complex missile and drone threat faced by the UAE and the region’s other main oil producers,” says Torbjorn Soltvedt of risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft. “Over the coming weeks, we expect oil’s Middle East risk premium to come more sharply into focus.” Analysts at Goldman Sachs are now predicting that Brent crude will hit $100 a barrel in the third quarter of this year, says Matt Egan for CNN.…