Economy

The core personal consumption expenditures price index increased 5.4% from a year ago, the largest increase in nearly 40 years.
Federal Reserve officials consider the PCE gauge to be the most reliable inflation indicator.
Jobless claims edged higher last week to 202,000, above than the estimate.

The Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation measure showed intensifying price pressures in February, rising to its highest annual level since 1983, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
Excluding food and energy prices, the personal consumption expenditures price index increased 5.4% from the same period in 2021, the biggest jump going back to April 1983.

Including gas and groceries, the headline PCE measure jumped 6.4%, the fastest pace since January 1982.
The core PCE increase actually was a touch lower than the 5.5% Dow Jones estimate. On a monthly basis, the gauge was up 0.4%, in line with estimates.
Surging prices dented consumer spending, which rose just 0.2% for the month, below the 0.5% estimate. Disposable personal income increased 0.4%, a touch below the 0.5% expectation, while real disposable income fell 0.2%. Savings nudged higher to $1.15 trillion, or a rate of 6.3%.
In other economic news Thursday morning, the Labor Department reported that initial jobless claims totaled 202,000 for the week ended March 26. That was an increase of 14,000 from the previous week and ahead of the 195,000 estimate, but still below the level that prevailed prior to the Covid pandemic.
Continuing claims, which run a week behind the headline number and count those who filed for a second week, dropped to just over 1.3 million, the lowest level since Dec. 27, 1969.

While the employment picture has tightened, it is inflation that has captured much of the attention as price increases continue.
The Fed has reacted to rapidly surging inflation by tightening policy, with an interest rate increase in March expected to be followed by hikes at each of the remaining six meetings this year.
Goods prices climbed by 1.1% for the month, the fastest increase since October 2021, pressured by supply chain backups that have bedeviled the economy for much of the pandemic era. Those problems were expected to be “transitory,” a description the Fed had to abandon when it finally capitulated on the loosest monetary policy in its history.
However, the price increases flipped in February from longer-lasting goods to shorter-term purchases. Inflation for durables was flat, while nondurable prices rose 1.8%.
Services inflation was held relatively in check, rising just 0.3%.
However, energy prices jumped 3.7% for the month — before abating in March — while food inflation rose 1.4%.
Correction: The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge rose 5.4% in February. The headline on an earlier version misstated the month. Excluding food and energy prices, the personal consumption expenditures price index increased 5.4% from the same period in 2021. An earlier version misstated the year. Food inflation rose 1.4% for the month. An earlier version misstated the percentage.

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SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia will sign a trade agreement with India on Saturday that will eliminate tariffs on 85% of Australian goods entering India, helping farmers and miners to diversify export markets, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.The Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement will be signed on Saturday in a virtual ceremony by Trade Minister Dan Tehan and India’s Minister of Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal, Australia said in a statement in Friday night. Morrison and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will witness the signing of the interim agreement, and both countries would continue to work towards a full free trade deal.Morrison is expected to call a national election within days, and wanted to secure the trade deal with India, a decade after negotiations between the two countries began, before the election campaign.His government has pushed to diversify export markets to reduce Australia’s reliance on its largest trading partner China, after diplomatic disputes resulted in Beijing sanctioning Australian products including wine, lobster and coal. The deal with India unlocks a market of almost 1.4 billion consumers and would strengthen Australia’s economy, he said.”This agreement opens a big door into the world’s fastest growing major economy for Australian farmers, manufacturers, producers and so many more,” Morrison said in a statement.Tariffs will be eliminated on more than 85% of Australian goods exports to India, worth A$12.6 billion, rising to almost 91% over 10 years.Under the agreement, 96 per cent of Indian goods imports will enter Australia duty-free.Tariffs will be eliminated on fresh Australian rock lobster, sheep meat, wool, copper, coal, alumina, and certain critical minerals and certain non-ferrous metals to India. In a boost for Australia’s wine industry, tariffs will be reduced from 150% to 50% over 10 years for bottles valued over US$5, and reduced to 25% in the same period for bottles valued over US$15. Tariffs of 30% on Australian agricultural produce including avocados, beans, nuts, and berries will be eliminated over seven years. Trade Minister Dan Tehan said the agreement would boost critical minerals trade, professional services, education and tourism, and lay the foundation for a full free trade agreement.The two countries will recognise each other’s professional qualifications and licenses, and Australia will extend visas for STEM students from India who graduate in Australia with first class honours.In 2020, India was Australia’s seventh largest trading partner, with two-way trade valued at A$24.3 billion. “This agreement has been built on our strong security partnership and our joint efforts in the Quad, which has created the opportunity for our economic relationship to advance to a new level,” Morrison said, referring to the security grouping of India, Australia, United States and Japan.Australia exported A$19.3 billion worth of goods to India in 2021, representing 4.2% of Australia’s total exports. More

(Reuters) – Wall Street was set to open higher on Friday, as U.S. jobs grew lesser than expected in March but unemployment rate fell to a new two-year low, underscoring solid momentum in the economy.Futures pared gains but stayed in the positive territory after the Labor Department’s closely watched employment report showed nonfarm payrolls increased by 431,000 jobs last month. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls increasing 490,000.The jobless rate dropped to 3.6%, the lowest since February 2020, while average hourly earnings increased 0.4% after edging up 0.1% in February. “The data suggests that the labor market is still very strong. The underlying indication is that the economy remains very strong,” Paul Nolte, portfolio manager, Kingsview Investment Management.”The Fed should feel comfortable in raising interest rates at this point, at least initially, without fearing that they are going to dump the economy into a recession.”Traders now see a 72.8% chance of a 50-basis point interest rate hike by the Fed at its May policy meeting. The U.S. central bank last month increased it by 25 basis points for the first time since 2018 and policymakers have signaled readiness for aggressive interest rate hikes to combat decades-high inflation. Rate-sensitive banks such as Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM), Citigroup (NYSE:C), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) & Co rose between 0.7% and 1.3% in premarket trading.The closely watched yield curve between two-year and 10-year notes reinverted after the jobs report.At 08:59 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 114 points, or 0.33%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 11.75 points, or 0.26%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 30.25 points, or 0.2%. Megacap stocks including Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Meta Platforms, and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) owner-Alphabet Inc gained between 0.4% and 0.3%.Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) edged lower after JP Morgan removed the stock from its analyst ‘focus list’. [nFWN2VZ0SD] GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME), which was at the center of a social-media fueled trading frenzy last year, jumped 15.2%, after the videogame retailer said it would seek shareholder approval for a stock split. More

(Reuters) – Gold eased on Friday and headed for a weekly decline as a stronger dollar and higher Treasury yields dented the appeal of zero-yield bullion, while investors also awaited a key U.S. jobs report. Spot gold XAU= was down 0.5% at $1,928.06 per ounce by 1102 GMT. U.S. gold futures GCv1 fell 1% to $1,933.70. “It is in particular the developments in the fixed income markets, with yields rising again”, that are pressuring gold, said Quantitative Commodity Research analyst Peter Fertig. Yields on the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury note US10YT=RR rose back above 2.4% on Friday. Higher yields increase the opportunity cost of holding gold, which yields nothing. US/ The U.S. dollar =USD firmed for a second straight session, making greenback-priced gold less appealing. USD/ Gold is on course to end the week about 1.5% lower, having slipped to its weakest since late February earlier this week on signs of progress in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Negotiations aimed at ending the five-week war between the countries were set to resume even as Ukraine braced for further attacks in the south and east. (Full Story) “While geopolitical crises do not last forever, we expect the secondary impacts of the Russia-Ukraine crisis to provide a strong level of support for gold prices this year,” analysts at ANZ said in a note. The broader isolation of Russia will see a structural shift in the energy sector, which will be inflationary, while there is also a higher risk of weaker economic growth, particularly in Europe, it added. U.S. non-farm payroll data due at 1230 GMT, which could position the Federal Reserve to hike interest rate by 50 basis points next month, was also on the market’s radar. (Full Story) Spot silver XAG= shed 0.4% to $24.68 per ounce and was set for a weekly dip. Platinum XPT= rose 0.4% to $987.42, while palladium XPD= gained 1.8% to $2,302.50. Both metals were on course for a fourth consecutive weekly loss. More

COJIMAR, Cuba (Reuters) – Since the days of Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea”, whose main character toiled with oars to catch a marlin, few Cubans have enjoyed the luxury of a motor boat to chase the bounty of fish that lie just offshore of their island home.That appears set to change. For the first time in decades, the island’s communist-run government has granted authority to Cubans to import outboard motors of less than 10 horsepower for use on small boats and has said it will cut red tape to fast-track the process.One fisherman already mulling an upgrade is Maydel Reinaldo Hechevarría, a 41-year old street vendor from the port of Jaimanitas, west of Havana. He said he has fished since he was a boy but that lacking a motor, his options were few.”When we row there are many days we cannot go out,” said Hechevarría, who told Reuters he began the process to import a motor just days after the announcement last week. “I see more possibilities now.”Limits on boat building and imports have long restricted private commercial and recreational fishermen like Hechevarría to vessels that predate Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution, much the same as the island’s candy-colored vintage American cars. But those limits, presumably aimed at reducing attempts at the dangerous crossing north to the United States by sea, also hamper fishermen´s ability to catch fish to feed the island´s 11 million inhabitants.Even before Castro´s revolution, most Cubans, like Hemingway´s Santiago, in “The Old Man and the Sea”, were too poor to afford a motor. Little has changed since.”This is a solution for some but it doesn´t resolve the necessities of all fishermen,” said Fernando de la Rosa, 58, who oversees the Jaimanitas fishing marina, a ragtag collection of boats tucked into a palm and mangrove lined creek.Larger-scale commercial fishermen around Havana told Reuters the measure was a step in the right direction but still fell short of what is needed to modernize the fleet and boost catches.Cojimar fisherman Abilio Alcantara, 53, captains a decades-old 27-foot Japanese-built boat that requires far more power than the 10hp motor authorized by the government, he told Reuters.”The measure is a good one,” he said. “But we need motors of at least 80 or 90 horsepower.”Alcantara said concerns that outboard motors would be used by fishermen to migrate north to the United States were overblown. “I have been on my boat for 30 years,” Alcantara said. “If I haven’t left by now, I’m not going anywhere.”Since October, the U.S. Coast Guard has picked up more than 1,000 Cubans on the way to South Florida in rafts, homemade boats and even on surfboards — the largest number since fiscal year 2017, agency records show.A grinding economic crisis has led to food and medicine shortages and prompted many Cubans to seek to immigrate from the poor Caribbean island. More

TOKYO (Reuters) – Haruhiko Kuroda built a career battling a strong yen and the Bank of Japan governor is unlikely to change course in his final year at the helm, eight sources said, despite political pressure to acknowledge that the weak currency is now a problem.Sources familiar with the bank’s thinking and people close to Kuroda, whose decade in charge ends next April, said he is likely to protect his legacy by avoiding tweaks to a monetary policy that continues to treat a strong yen as enemy No. 1.The BOJ’s dovish signals may give markets a chance to drive down the yen further, as prospects of steady policy tightening by the Federal Reserve widen the Japan-U.S. interest rate gap.”The BOJ looks at inflation, not yen moves, in guiding policy,” one of the sources said.Kuroda’s career as a finance bureaucrat was marked by fighting rises in the yen that threatened Japan’s export-reliant economy.After landing the BOJ top job in 2013, he maintained that stance and engineered a dramatic yen fall by pumping in massive monetary stimulus, a policy that is considered among the key successes of former premier Shinzo Abe’s pro-growth “Abenomics”.Now, Kuroda is increasingly alone in repeating the benefits of a weak currency, as government officials escalate their warnings against excessive yen declines that help push up import costs and consumer prices for energy and food.The weak yen has emerged as a political hot-button as lawmakers demand measures to cushion the blow from rising inflation ahead of upper house elections due in July.The mood among companies is starting to change, too. Kengo Sakurada, head of business lobby Keizai Doyukai, said on Tuesday that current yen levels were hurting retailers and can “hardly be seen as appropriate”.Even former finance ministry colleagues, most of whom like Kuroda struggled to combat a strong yen, are beginning to brand currency weakness as indicative of Japan’s waning economic might.Kuroda appears unfazed, and continues to argue that while a weak yen may hurt households and retailers, the benefits to the economy outweigh the cost.The BOJ is still relentless in defending its 0% cap for long-term interest rates, set under its ultra-easy policy.Undeterred by the yen’s slide to a six-year low against the dollar on Monday, it offered unlimited, fixed-rate purchases of 10-year government bonds through Thursday and ramped up bond-buying for other maturities.”In a sense, the BOJ is driving down the yen with unlimited bond buying,” said former top currency diplomat Naoyuki Shinohara, who was Kuroda’s colleague at the finance ministry. “It probably doesn’t see the yen’s current levels as dangerous.”UNWAVERING AND PRAGMATICSo far, there is little sign of discontent within the BOJ over Kuroda’s stance. Dovish board members, such as Goushi Kataoka, see the weak yen as a key channel through which the bank’s easy policy boosts growth.A summary of opinions of a March meeting made no mention of the pros and cons of a weak yen.Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration meanwhile continues to defend the BOJ’s ultra-easy policy as a necessary support to a still-fragile economic recovery.”It’s hard to tighten monetary policy to deal with cost-push inflation, which means monetary policy must remain loose,” said deputy chief cabinet secretary Seiji Kihara, who is considered among the premier’s closest aides.Pressure to tweak the yield cap could become overwhelming if the yen, now hovering near 122 to the dollar, plunges to around 130, some analysts say.But Eisuke Sakakibara, who is known as “Mr. Yen” for master-minding currency interventions in the 1990s, argues that hiking BOJ interest rates will do little to stop yen declines.For now, Kuroda is expected to ensure the BOJ stays the course on ultra-easy policy. While political pressure may mount for him to budge, current law does not give the government power to fire the central bank governor. Kuroda is unlikely to be reappointed, having already served an unusually long term.Kuroda’s predecessor, Masaaki Shirakawa, voluntarily left the job several weeks before his term ended, after facing a barrage of criticism for doing too little, too late to beat deflation.Stepping down early, or hiking interest rates in the face of political pressure, is not in Kuroda’s nature, say people who have regular interactions with the governor.”He may be under heat but that’s probably not a concern to him,” one of the people said. “He’s extremely pragmatic and unwavering, so I can’t see why he would choose to step down or tweak policy now.” More

Consumer prices in the eurozone rose by a record 7.5 per cent in March from a year ago, piling pressure on the European Central Bank to tighten its ultra-loose monetary policy faster than planned.The biggest factors driving up eurozone inflation were higher energy and food prices, which have surged since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hit supplies of oil, gas and other commodities.The flash estimate for the increase in the harmonised index of consumer prices in March compared with the earlier record of 5.9 per cent set in February and was well above the 6.6 per cent average forecasts of economists polled by Reuters. The rise in eurozone consumer prices by well above the ECB’s 2 per cent target has prompted some of its policymakers to call for it to cool demand by bringing forward the plan to end its net asset purchases and to raise interest rates for the first time in more than a decade.Investors are pricing in 0.63 percentage points of rate rises by the ECB before the end of this year, which would take its main deposit rate back into positive territory for the first time since 2014, up from its current all-time low of minus 0.5 per cent.Several ECB policymakers have said they expect it to raise rates this year and some, such as Klaas Knot of the Netherlands, have said it could do so twice this year.“We think that the ECB will soon conclude that it can’t wait any longer before starting to raise interest rates,” said Jack Allen-Reynolds, senior economist at Capital Economics, predicting the ECB would raise rates three times this year by a total of 0.75 percentage points.But the central bank has so far only announced plans to stop net bond purchases by September, when it will decide if inflation will stay strong enough to justify a rate rise. Some of its policymakers worry the war in Ukraine could plunge Europe into recession this year, while the sharp increase in the cost of living could undermine any rebound in consumer demand generated by the lifting of coronavirus restrictions.“In current conditions, it is especially important to remain data-dependent and for optionality to be two-sided,” said ECB chief economist Philip Lane in a speech on Thursday.Lane signalled the unwinding of its ultra-loose policy could be accelerated if needed, to counter “de-anchored inflation expectations, an intensification in catch-up wage dynamics or a persistent deterioration in supply capacity”. But he added that the “normalisation” of monetary policy could be slowed down if “the energy price shock and the Russia-Ukraine war were to result in a significant deterioration in macroeconomic prospects”.In March, energy prices across the euro area rose by an all-time high of 44.7 per cent from a year earlier, while unprocessed food prices advanced 7.8 per cent, Eurostat said on Friday. Industrial goods prices were 3.4 per cent higher and services prices climbed 2.7 per cent.Even excluding the more volatile energy, food, alcohol and tobacco prices, core inflation increased from 2.7 per cent in February to 3 per cent in March — underlining how price pressures are becoming more broad-based. The highest national annual inflation rate in the eurozone was in Lithuania at 15.6 per cent, while Malta had the lowest at 4.6 per cent. The surge in inflationary pressures was underlined by the 2.5 per cent rise in eurozone consumer prices between February and March, a record month-on-month increase.Inflation is expected to continue rising as the Ukraine war adds to turmoil in energy markets and combines with China’s zero-Covid lockdowns of key industrial areas to intensify the supply chain problems that are leaving companies short of materials.Manufacturers in the eurozone reported the biggest price increases for products leaving their factories since such data started to be collected in the 1990s, according to the latest purchasing managers’ survey published by S&P Global on Friday. More

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.International oil prices fell further on Friday following the historic decision by the Biden administration to release about 180mn barrels of oil from its strategic reserves over the next six months.President Joe Biden said yesterday that the move was designed to lower “painful” petrol prices that were harming the finances of many households in America.“My plan is going to help ease that pain today and safeguard against tomorrow,” Biden said. He suggested the price at the pump could decrease by the “better part” of anything between “10 cents to 35 cents a gallon”.Biden has faced criticism and waning approval ratings over surging fuel prices, which have risen 50 per cent in the past year to hit record levels.The new release of 1mn barrels a day was by far the biggest ever announced and will last six months, draining almost a third of the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The drawdown would take the reserve to its lowest level since 1984.But oil investors were sceptical that the release would have a long-term effect on crude prices. “History shows that SPR releases are not particularly effective at controlling [oil] prices,” said Dan Pickering, founder of Pickering Energy Partners, an investment group. “You’re not fixing a structural problem of supply and demand.”Oil prices are on track for their biggest weekly fall in two years, according to Reuters. The US West Texas Intermediate crude futures contract was down $1.02 at $99.26 a barrel this morning after slumping 7 per cent yesterday. Brent crude futures, the international benchmark, slid 79 cents to $103.92 a barrel, after dropping 5.6 per cent on Thursday.More on Ukraine: Ukraine attacks Russia: Local authorities in the Russian city of Belgorod claimed two Ukrainian military helicopters carried out a cross-border air raid on a fuel depot earlier today in what would be the first strike by Ukraine on Russian soil since the war began.Military briefing: Ukrainian forces have made several territorial gains around the capital and elsewhere in the country in recent days by exploiting the Russian army’s vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, the blame game in Russia is getting worse.Markets: Global dealmaking fell to its lowest level since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in the first three months of the year as surging inflation, tougher regulation and the war in Ukraine led to a slowdown in mergers and acquisitions. The benchmark S&P 500 ended the quarter down nearly 5 per cent.Roman Abramovich: The Antiguan government has established that two yachts moored in the Caribbean island belong to the sanctions-hit oligarch, confirming a Financial Times investigation.Mariupol: Russia’s assault on the besieged Ukrainian port has continued despite the Kremlin’s promises of a ceasefire, according to Kyiv. Meanwhile, more than 2mn refugees have fled to Poland. Here are their stories, in their own words.Opinion: The FT View is that Moscow is struggling to find counter-sanctions that do not harm its own economy. At some point, the west will have to talk to the enemy. That will mean doing a deal with Putin, writes Edward Luce.Twitter Spaces: FT journalists Edward Luce, Gideon Rachman, Henry Foy and Polina Ivanova yesterday discussed the possible outcomes of the war on Twitter.Thanks for reading FirstFT Americas and here’s the rest of today’s news — Gordon.Five more stories in the news1. Toshiba surges after biggest shareholder backs Bain buyout plan Shares in Toshiba rose more than 6 per cent today after Bain Capital secured the backing of the company’s largest shareholder and opened talks with other investors on a potential deal to take the 140-year-old Japanese conglomerate private.2. Amazon workers in Staten Island pull ahead in union vote A grassroots campaign to create the first-ever union at an Amazon facility in the US has taken a significant lead in voting. Workers at a warehouse known as JFK8 in the New York borough of Staten Island had voted in person over a five-day period that ended on Wednesday. The Amazon Labor Union was ahead by a margin of 1,518 votes to 1,154 at the end of counting yesterday.3. Centrist pulls out of Brazil’s polarised presidential race Sérgio Moro, a former judge who led a sweeping anti-graft crackdown in Brazil, has pulled out of the country’s presidential race. His exit means October’s general election is likely to be a two-horse race between incumbent far-right president Jair Bolsonaro and leftwing former leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.4. Shanghai extends Covid lockdown measures China’s financial centre is to extend strict lockdown measures in many parts of the city that were expected to resume normal life today. The city is ramping up efforts to contain an outbreak of largely asymptomatic cases of Covid-19.5. Abu Dhabi state funds were used to buy NSO Mubadala Capital, a state-owned investment company, has been an investor since 2019 in the Israeli cyberweapon maker, whose Pegasus spyware has been traced to the phones of journalists, activists and the estranged wife of Dubai’s ruler.The days aheadUkraine crisis Leaders of the EU and China meet for a “difficult” virtual summit with Russia and Ukraine at the top of the European agenda. The International Energy Agency will hold an emergency meeting of oil consuming countries to discuss a new release of strategic reserves alongside the plan by the US to pump massive supplies starting in May to cool soaring oil prices.Economic data The US is forecast to have recorded another month of robust jobs growth in March. Data, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics later this morning, is expected to confirm employers in the world’s largest economy added 490,000 jobs last month.Fifa World Cup draw The Doha Exhibition and Convention Center plays host to the draw for the group stages of this year’s World Cup which will be held in Qatar in November and December and see France trying to defend its title. Here’s a guide for what to expect. (Guardian)Elections Hungarian president Viktor Orban will seek a fourth successive term on Sunday despite concerns over his ties to Putin. Serbia holds a general election the same day, while Costa Rica has a presidential run-off.What else we’re readingCorporate America’s ‘what if’ mindset American companies are starting to warn against using non-domestic supply chains. So, what does this mean for investors? Judging from recent conversations with C-suite executives, there are at least three practical implications, as Gillian Tett outlines.Why some of the most feared activist investors are no longer so hostile Billionaire activists like Carl Icahn, Bill Ackman, Daniel Loeb and Nelson Peltz have run some of the most hostile proxy battles Wall Street has ever seen in the past decade. Now some are changing tack and taking a more low-key approach. James Fontanella-Khan and Antoine Gara explain why. What Ukraine war means for the age of the autocrat Since 2000, the rise of the strongman leader has become a central feature of global politics. But it is possible that the catastrophe of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will permanently discredit this style of politics, writes Gideon Rachman.Hong Kong’s property tycoons braced for further losses Hong Kong’s property tycoons have amassed billions as a result of their near-monopoly over some of the world’s most valuable real estate. But after pandemic restrictions hit the city’s economy and drove residents out of the territory property prices are expected to drop by as much as 10 per cent this year.AI industrialisation offers great promise and some peril On the peanut butter spectrum, artificial intelligence is moving from smooth to crunchy, as the powerful tool is being used for everything from search engine optimisation to accelerating drug discovery. But private companies are reaping almost all the gains, writes John Thornhill.Crypto vs gold: the search for an investment bolt hole The market in the yellow metal may be a bubble, but at least it’s a 6,000-year-old one. Meanwhile, bitcoin looks like a short-term fad, argues John Plender in this personal finance column. CollectingIt was the 1953 movie Roman Holiday, in which Audrey Hepburn causes traffic chaos on a Vespa in Rome, that introduced scooters to the world. Ahead of auctioneer H&H’s first vintage scooter sale, Iain Macauley documents the history of these two-wheeled machines long loved by Mods and moviegoers alike. More