Saver in the wars
HE IS getting a bit of an old soldier now. I imagine him coming home from the wars, 52 years ago, and like a true patriot invest- ing his gratuity in His Majesty's Govern- ment's stock. He always paid tax on his divi- dends, he never spent them, he always rein- vested them, and of course he endured the effects of inflation. I follow his fortunes year after year in what is now Barclays Cap- ital's Equity-Gilt Study (BZW's that was) and at long last he is better off that he was when he started. Apart from a false dawn in 1946 he had always been behind the game until now, but HMG's stock has come back into favour, in the belief that inflation has receded and deflation might even be on its way from the east. Elsewhere governments are still printing money merrily, as they will always be tempted to do when they have bills to pay. Here, at an inflation rate of 21/2 per cent, which HM's present government now thinks is right for us, money will halve in value every quarter of a century. My poor old soldier may not live to see it, but he should have learned not to put his trust in princes.
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