It’s good to see that my Sycamore Tree Hugging friend Guy Opperman has agreed to have a chat with me next Tuesday at the next Pension PlayPen coffee morning.
Until the end of June, Guy was Minister for Transport and while he tells me he’d much rather be in Westminster, he spent some time with me in the City of London earlier in the month. He is a keen cyclist and a great horseman. His green credentials are perfect.
On equine matters, we met on the day that City of Troy showed his greatness in the Juddmonte at York ; we watched the race together.
“Is City of Troy as good as Gallileo?”
This and other questions remain to be answered by the former amateur jockey – Opperman.
He’s had his fair share of trauma, from personal health scares to the loss of his twins. Recently his wife Flora and he had a second child and I’m keen to ask him how he’s bearing up to renewed fatherhood.
I’m also keen to hear the advice he’d be giving new Pensions Minister Emma Reynolds though he was a tactful politician and I’m sure will be more guarded on the House than the horse.
Never afraid to speak his mind on matters of public moment he is a fine advocate. My presiding memory of his oratory was at the PLSA conference he demanded engagement with TCFD.
Guy Opperman
He is the twenty first century’s longest serving pensions minister who’s period in post spanned the pandemic , ushered in the Pension Schemes Bill and saw in the implementation of the pension freedoms.
But many will worry that many of the promised measures including CDC, the AE reforms and the pension dashboard are still to arrive. The Royal Mail Group has announced that it will launch its collective pension plan on October 7th 2024, nearly 7 years after it was negotiated. What takes the DWP so long? Another question that’s on my list.
Luckily for Opperman, he was not in post for the LDI meltdown , having rightly had nothing to do with Liz Truss’ style of economics. Retrospect is a fine thing, but lately there have been attempts to blame the Bank of England not Truss for what happened, what does Opperman think events will vindicate the former PM?
Liz and the LASH ft.com/content/9e8b…
ignorance of gilt market structure rather than fiscal profligacy was what really brought down Truss/Kwarteng.— Henry Tapper (@henrytapper.bsky.social) Aug 29, 2024 at 6:54
And while we’re embedding BluSky, will Opperman follow fellow Minister Webb onto the BluSky platform and away from the maelstrom of X?
This and many more questions are likely to be answered at 10.30 next Tuesday (details below)
As loyal readers of this blog , you get a free pass but we are of course grateful for subscriptions to Pension PlayPen that keep Steve in coffees.
Your free pass to Tuesday’s session is here
Hopefully the UK can follow the US trends and pursue growth strategies. An extract from our meeting this week
Inflation, after a worrisome rise in the first few months of the year, has resumed a downtrend due to a surge in productivity (2.7% in the last twelve months) as output increased faster than employment, resulting in a fall of 1.5% in unit labour cost (ULC).
Given these developments in the labour market and inflation, Powell, in his speech at Jackson Hole in late Aug, gave the strongest indication of an imminent rate cut in Sep. Markets now expect 50 bps cut in Sep and another 0.5% in the Nov and Dec meetings; the Nov meeting follows immediately after the US election. Accordingly, the stock market is now more concerned about growth than inflation. The pivot has caused a sector rotation from growth stocks (technology) to defensive stocks (utilities, healthcare, staples).