Why did the US’ most relevant to our pension pots shed nearly four and a half percent or $3.2 trillion? The answer is a loss in confidence that the AI dream is quite as good as we thought.

Why are the US stock markets shaking with nervous energy? There is a price to pay for artificial intelligence.

Blimey, are our pension pots dependent on American politics and Americans wish to stop building data centres centers?

I don’t think that the great year that we have had is over. This market is still up over 8% and there is a lot further it has to fall before I weep but my pot will have fallen in value a fair way , maybe as much (at my age) as I have earned in 2026.

Such is the nature of linking your retirement to tech stocks and the Americans tolerance of Donald Trump and his Maga Republicanism. Such the reliance on data centers built for artificial intelligence.

For the first year in many, I wish I had been invested in UK stocks

Our market may be down but not like the S&P 500, our country is not in crisis as other European countries are (can I call us European again?). We are not revolting against our Government and its governance? The answer to all these questions appears to me as “no”.

It is never an easy blog to write, to say that we are in good shape, because you know that it’s not why people find patriotism uncomfortable. Those on the right are cross because there’s nothing to read that confirms their anger at a left leaning Government while there are those who are what Americans call “socialists” who cannot believe it is true.

But the numbers tell a good news story and so does the state of Britain. We do not have extremism threatening to take over our Government with the violence that brings and we do not have the lunacy of Donald Trump that has brought universal poverty to those reliant on the trade of goods (most commonly oil) through the straits of Hormuz.  We do not have the horror of living in the Middle East or Ukraine or large parts of Africa and the Far East and South America. We live in a largely peaceful country that shakes our fist at bad behaviour of a few individuals but not at Northern Ireland, not at Scotland and Wales. We are united.

Which brings me back to my pension plot and my regret that not more of it has been invested with the home bias it ought to have.

I am proud to be British and for Britain to be a place that people want to emigrate to. I am pleased to have a stable Government and an economy that is outperforming its peers. I am proud we are looking after those growing old.