Andy Bruce (Reuters)
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bruceandy.bsky.social
Andy Bruce (Reuters)
@bruceandy.bsky.social
6.8K followers 1.5K following 14K posts
Bit of this, bit of that at Reuters.

UK economy and north of England correspondent.

☀️ Stockport ☀️
💬 Signal: bruce.369
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bruceandy.bsky.social
with alt
“Note, it is impossible to view this move without considering Japan. Takaichi seems to be taking a lead from Trumps play book - fiscal stimulus and to hell with the consequences. The sell off in long JGBs threatens higher yields globally, hellish news for Trump trying to force mortgage rates down and (again) buy votes. A US President with sub 40% approval when equities are at record levels and growth is decent? I think that’s unparalleled.”
January 21, 2026 at 10:57 AM
bruceandy.bsky.social
Interesting note from Nedbank fixed income chief David Roberts, on Japan's influence on the US
January 21, 2026 at 10:57 AM
bruceandy.bsky.social
Had somehow missed the Beckham blowup and came across this on Victoria Derbyshire's Instagram.

I thought it was a statement from her for an embarrassingly long time.

"Victoria Derbyshire's parents... have a PR team?! That's wild! And I don't recall hearing any gossip about her..."
Screenshot of the Brooklyn Beckham statement posted by Victoria Derbyshire.
January 20, 2026 at 6:20 AM
bruceandy.bsky.social
UK consumer sentiment hits a 9-month low in January, according to S&P Global.
Chart showing UK consumer confidence hitting a 9-month low
January 19, 2026 at 9:35 AM
bruceandy.bsky.social
Apt assage from 'The Magician's Nephew' by CS Lewis that I came across today.

"The trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you
really are is that you very often succeed."
"Now the budget trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed."
January 17, 2026 at 10:42 PM
bruceandy.bsky.social
Repeating above image with ALT text
Wilson: "The House will have seen the reports that American planes have today bombed fuel storage areas at the North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi and its main port of Haiphong. At 1.30 p.m. to-day a statement was issued from No. 10 Downing Street about this and I thought that the House would wish to know its terms. It said: Her Majesty's Government have noted with regret that United States aircraft have attacked North Vietnamese targets touching on the populated areas of Hanoi and Haiphong. It is difficult for the British Government, which is not involved in the fighting in Vietnam, to assess the importance of any particular action which the United States Government regards as militarily necessary in this conflict. Nevertheless, we have made it clear on many occasions that we could not support an extension of the bombing to such areas. even though we were confident that the United States forces would take every precaution, as always, to avoid civilian casualties. We believe that the value of each application of force must be judged not merely in terms of the military needs which it is designed to meet, but also in terms of the additional suffering and distress which it inflicts upon innocent people and the effect it can have on the prospects for an early move to a political solution. For these reasons, when President Johnson informed me that the United States Government judged it necessary to attack targets touching on the populated areas of Hanoi and Haiphong, I told him that, while we naturally accepted his assurance that these attacks would be directed specifically against the oil installations and that everything possible would be done to avoid harm to the civilian population, we should, nevertheless, feel bound to reaffirm that we must dissociate ourselves from an action of this kind.
January 17, 2026 at 8:23 PM
bruceandy.bsky.social
January 17, 2026 at 8:11 PM
bruceandy.bsky.social
Really not sure when a British PM was so direct in criticising the US.

Wonder if Starmer has his role model Wilson in mind from 1966?
January 17, 2026 at 7:51 PM
bruceandy.bsky.social
NEW - Starmer says US "completely wrong" in threatening tariffs over Greenland
Starmer: "Our position on Greenland is very clear – it is part of the Kingdom of Denmark and its future is a matter for the Greenlanders and the Danes. "We have also made clear that Arctic Security matters for the whole of NATO and allies should all do more together to address the threat from Russia across different parts of the Arctic. "Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of NATO allies is completely wrong. We will of course be pursuing this directly with the US administration."
January 17, 2026 at 7:37 PM
bruceandy.bsky.social
I deleted my Giles Coren post, it was grumpy and not very clever.

Here is my cat instead.
January 15, 2026 at 9:00 PM
bruceandy.bsky.social
One thing I wonder about is who wrote this bizarrely long description of the music video to 'What Do You Want From Me?' by Monaco, and why.
I ain't reading that
January 15, 2026 at 3:41 PM
bruceandy.bsky.social
Level of GDP touches a new high in latest release.

Economy has grown by 1.7% since Labour took office, about twice as fast as the Coalition government's record from the same starting point, but a lot less than the post-2015 government.
January 15, 2026 at 9:39 AM
bruceandy.bsky.social
Here's the rebound in car production following the JLR hack.

Not quite yet at previous levels seen in 2024-25 but substantially recovered.
January 15, 2026 at 9:24 AM
bruceandy.bsky.social
www.ecb.europa.eu/press/pr/dat...
"We stand in full solidarity with the Federal Reserve System and its Chair Jerome H. Powell. The independence of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interest of the citizens that we serve. It is therefore critical to preserve that independence, with full respect for the rule of law and democratic accountability. Chair Powell has served with integrity, focused on his mandate and an unwavering commitment to the public interest. To us, he is a respected colleague who is held in the highest regard by all who have worked with him."
January 13, 2026 at 10:25 AM
bruceandy.bsky.social
The world's central bankers side with Jay Powell, in a joint statement just released:
January 13, 2026 at 10:16 AM
bruceandy.bsky.social
Come on Macc!
January 10, 2026 at 1:15 PM
bruceandy.bsky.social
Mayor of Minneapolis not mincing his words www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...
January 7, 2026 at 8:30 PM
bruceandy.bsky.social
"Many firms also noted that delayed investment decisions ahead of the Budget in November had weighed on their sales pipelines."

S&P Global points to a "recovery" in business optimism - a 5-month high - but it's still pretty bad.
January 7, 2026 at 2:11 PM
bruceandy.bsky.social
Horrendous housing number on the UK construction PMI for December, out today

"Anecdotal evidence suggested that fragile confidence among
clients and subdued underlying demand had resulted in lower workloads at the end of the year."
January 7, 2026 at 2:07 PM
bruceandy.bsky.social
Stats came from government-commissioned market research data.

Totally at odds with other sources. eg. Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 (UK figures 👇)

And app usage data from people like Similarweb which showed a big fall in 2024
Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025 - shows X in third place as a news source behind Facebook and YouTube
January 7, 2026 at 1:34 PM
bruceandy.bsky.social
January 6, 2026 at 9:07 AM
bruceandy.bsky.social
#caturday
It's Stanley
January 3, 2026 at 10:33 AM
bruceandy.bsky.social
FTSE 100 at a record high 10,000 points today!

Impressive!

Accounting for inflation it's the highest since 2018, ish. And possibly heading levels not seen since the Global Financial Crisis.
FTSE 100 index deflated by UK CPI. It shows the highest readings since 2018, although some caveats apply.
January 2, 2026 at 11:00 AM
bruceandy.bsky.social
See we're at the stage of the AI revolution where garden centres are trying to milk customers out of £90 for pure slop.

So that's nice.
December 28, 2025 at 1:54 PM
bruceandy.bsky.social
Am reminded of a gruesome passage in Gulliver's Travels in which a doctor attempts to cure a dog of colic by inflating the animal with bellows, applied to its backside.

And when the dog dies, he tries again.
Gulliver's Travels: "I was complaining of a small fit of the colic, upon which my conductor led me into a room where a great physician resided, who was famous for curing that disease, by contrary operations from the same instrument. He had a large pair of bellows, with a long slender muzzle of ivory: this he conveyed eight inches up the anus, and drawing in the wind, he affirmed he could make the guts as lank as a dried bladder. But when the disease was more stubborn and violent, he let in the muzzle while the bellows were full of wind, which he discharged into the body of the patient; then withdrew the instrument to replenish it, clapping his thumb strongly against the orifice of then fundament; and this being repeated three or four times, the adventitious wind would rush out, bringing the noxious along with it, (like water put into a pump), and the patient recovered. I saw him try both experiments upon a dog, but could not discern any effect from the former. After the latter the animal was ready to burst, and made so violent a discharge as was very offensive to me and my companion. The dog died on the spot, and we left the doctor endeavouring to recover him, by the same operation."
December 19, 2025 at 8:52 AM