Gasolene is taxed not just in Britain but in most European counties. It doesn't stop freedom of movement because people pay the tax, but it did lead to serious protests by the yellow shirts in France who said they could not afford it.

I think the US oil majors are more reluctant than European ones to invest in the new alternative fuels that will power cars in the future, like batteries for electric vehicles.

My favorite idea for that is China's NIO which will sell its electric vehicles with leased batteries, so when they run down the car driver can switch batteries at a service station rather than having to hang around for the recharging.

NIO is NYSE listed and has gained the most year to date and is well ahead of even Tesla. It is funded in part by the local government of the town where it is headquartered. Volkswagen also benefits from the same subsidies so it is not only for Chinese.

as a Manhattanite I do not run a car but my impression is that gasoline sales prices are 1) competitive 2) regulated and 3) taxed. What I like is the European oil companies getting set for lower demand for gasolene as electric vehicles come to market, and their investment in alternative fuels, not typical of their US rivals. They are buying into low-carbon which means for the longer term. Note that in European counties which are trying to meet the Paris standards to cut carbon the oil companies are taking the lead in funding solar, wind, LNG, and other alternatives. This kind of long-term investing smarts cannot be found among US oil giants.

the lady on the phone who blocked my access to the on-line version of The Financial Times was in the USA. the newspaper is British but it is now owned by a Japanese company. All I was saying was the the time she wasted on demanding proof of my sub and not paying attention to my request amounted to fraud as I am a paid subscriber.

I love freebies but what is an Echo Show? vivian

I have no idea what an Echo Show might be but of course I hope to win it

first the acquired fund is now being Templetonized. Secondly the odds of a recovery are higher in a fund judging investments individually and hedging selectively are better than those for a scatter-shot fund. As your own note says the loss of value was not the same

between the two emerging markets bond funds.

That is the point of my writing. I never met Sir John Templeton but I did attend college courses with Mark Mobius who ran EMF and also that it was backed by the private enterprice arm of the World Bank (The IFC) I therefore knew that we wanted to own that fund and not the later feeble copy-cats. When people look for a way to invest in a category of the market they usually do not have these kind of clear statistics and there aren't exactly a lot of advisors, even Morningstar, who analyse their differences.

I have no idea what an Echo Show may be but I would like to enter the contest

we will soon get our site up and running again and if you want to continue to read my daily blog you need to think about subscribing. we will not charge for the blogs until they are locked in to our site and not sent to people by talk-markets like now. Yes the Russians do like to kill anti-Putin people to show them who is in charge. It is a relic of his being a KGB man.

I suspect that like me you can remember the earlier inflationary years. so buy physical gold as a hedge. vivian

please visit www.global-investing.com to view different options for new subscriptions. and we also offer a free daily blog covering non-financial news of general importance like the Jain article you liked

I have owned Nokia for 4 years ad Ericsson for 4 months and written up why in my newsletter, global-investing.com for my paid subscribers to follow me into the shares. NOK, ERIC