BT Fries And Gold Buys

Bets in the City / Editor / 14 November 2008 / Leave a comment

LAST month BT's shares fall to their lowest since Buzby was electrocuted by the buzz of privatisation.

BT is no longer the state telecoms operator but it remains by far and away the dominant player in the sector. You want broadband? Well, first you'll need a BT phone line. How's that for free and fair competition?

BT should remain a decent bet, then. Which is why shares in BT yesterday rose by 8.9 per cent.

Group head Ian Livingstone, a friend to Anorak (Ian and his brother once sold me some sunglasses in their Hampstead opticians shop and wished me "well to wear them") plans to kepe BT high by slashing costs.

So he's shedding 10,000 jobs next year, 6,000 of whom are contractors.

So BT is being well run. Tough decisions are being made, and taken. Not good for the workers, but for punters looking fro decent longer term bets. BT is worth considering.

But, then, so too is gold. And did you know that gold has lost 15 per cent of its value in the last month?

In March gold was trading at over $1,000 a ounce. It is now in the $700s.

So where's the money? Answer: In dollars. The dollars rises and rises in value.
The thing with gold is that it won't make you money; it will preserve the money you've got.

At least that's the idea..