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The global share market has always been dominated by the US, now we’re seeing a number share of very large tech companies claiming a larger slice of that pie. Even though they are trading with price to earnings ratios well beyond the historic average, these companies won’t fail. They dominate the market, with billions of customers, low production costs, a low number of workers and the spare cash to vest in growth without the expense of extra capital.

Phil asks Steve, what damage are these companies doing – to the share market, to the global economy and to investors. So we need to knock these companies down to size? Steve thinks not, but has another way of tackling the issue.

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Labour has romped to victory in the UK and they need to get cracking on all their election promises. One of those is the creation of Great British Energy. Keir Starmer points to the number of foreign interests owning energy generation in the UK. But, as Phil highlights this week, foreign companies are also heavily invested in energy distribution and retailing. The National Grid is suffering from a lack of investment. Doesn’t that also need to be brought into public hands. And what about all the energy retailers who dd nothing to the picture apart from extra marketing costs, confusing plans and the risk of collapse.

Phil asks Steve whether, if you add all of this together, isn’t there a strong case to put the entire energy delivery chain into public hands, from creation to delivery. But that’s not what Keir Starmer is planning., even though its accepted wisdom in most parts of the world.

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The UK election debate changed tune when Nigel Farage agreed to stand for Reform, promising to cut migration and rid the UK of all the problems these nasty foreigners are responsible for. Elsewhere the recent European Union elections saw a sharp shift to the right, again driven by concerns over migration. If Donald Trump wins again in the US at the end of the year that too will be gained on a ticket spreading fear and loathing over migrants.

It is clearly an issue that can’t be ignored. Yet you have to wonder how many fo the proposals from the likes of Farage are workable, or effective. People in poor countries will always want a better standard of living.  Phil and Steve discuss whether it’s an aspect fo the world we have to live with. More importantly, is it being used to spread division and diverting attention from the real problems, like the underinvestment in public infrastructure. That’s down to fiscal conservatism and governments worried about debt. 

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There’s been a debate brewing post-pandemic about how much inflation has been elevated by companies increasing their margins. The evidence of that is the increased profits, not just in the tech sector, which has helped increase the share prices of these companies, evidenced by record levels across the US share market indices.

This week Steve Keen says its clear that is happening. Even before the pandemic, when inflation was lower, companies were still increasing their margins more than the level of wages, so workers were increasingly worse off. Hence the pre-pandemic stagnation. But companies need to improve their efficiency to fend off competitors and provided the rising returns that investors are demanding. So, isn’t the constant drive for higher margins simply an acceptable and necessary function of capitalism?

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