forecast5 April 19, 2021 Johnny Kipps

Reaching for the stars What would be the profits—and costs—of a major development project be for your company? Three of the world’s richest men have made the plunge and remain—mostly—buoyant. Rich and rocketing Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos believe that one of the answers to climate change is to develop resources elsewhere.  Well, that’s a…

forecast5 April 8, 2021 Johnny Kipps

Is Inflation on the way? At the end of March, the Office for National Statistics reported that the proportion of businesses currently trading in the UK has slowly increased from 71% in January to 74% by the end of March 2021

forecast5 March 18, 2021 Johnny Kipps

Last Friday President Joe Biden signed one of the largest economic rescue packages in U.S. history, authorizing a flurry of new federal spending and a temporary yet dramatic increase in anti-poverty programmes to help millions of families still struggling amid the pandemic. Congress had already spent $4 trn fighting the crisis. Now he proposes $1.9 trn more…

forecast5 December 9, 2020 Johnny Kipps

The ‘economic emergency has only just begun’, Rishi Sunak said on November 25 as he announced forecasts that show the UK economy contracting 11.3% this year and the deficit reaching almost £400 billion. Armageddon’ outta here Unusually The Spectator put the knife into its former editor, Boris Johnson in its November 28 issue.  It points…

forecast5 November 2, 2020 Johnny Kipps

Carpe diem indeed. In a world that Covid turned upside down, it is the visionaries, the out-of-the-box thinkers and—yes—the budget watchdogs who are seeing profit graphs climb. Elon Musk is described as having been a cat in a former life: every way the market throws him, he lands on his feet*. His latest touch down…

forecast5 October 26, 2020 Johnny Kipps

Some businesses’ success under Covid was expected—think Zoom and Team View. Others are more surprising: Are you and your company one of the lucky ones who are benefitting from Covid? If so, you know what to do. Quickly download a free, 21 day trial of Forecast 5, the highly rated financial forecasting package and be…

forecast5 October 11, 2020 Johnny Kipps

An Excel-ent solution? Earlier this month, Public Health England admitted that a glitch in its spreadsheets led to 15,841 positive Covid results not being reported. Why? Not only had Public Health England used an Excel spreadsheet, a program not built to be a serious database manager, but they were using a 2007 version. This version…

forecast5 September 30, 2020 Johnny Kipps

Whether you are a climate change embracer or denier, no one can gainsay that COVID has improved the air quality in the world’s major cities. That’s a good thing. It came at the price of the world’s worst recession since the 17 century. That’s a bad thing. This month 30 of Europe’s top companies backed…

forecast5 September 16, 2020 Johnny Kipps

‘The recent 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two prompted this reflection: that generation: ready to risk life to preserve freedom; this generation: ready to risk freedom to preserve life.’ – Tony Abbott. Who would volunteer to be a trade advisor? Pity Tony Abbott, who was prime minister of Australia from 2013 to…

forecast5 August 26, 2020 Johnny Kipps

1929-1930 This is what a depression looks like – and we are not in one in 2020. “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”   Benjamin Franklin Don’t be depressed about recession. While media headlines announce Britain’s worst recession for many years, accountants know that a recession’s graph is only the short, sharp dip…