Opening Note…

Hi and welcome back to what’s been the craziest news week I’ve seen in a long time… We’ve had everything from the disastrous UK budget, a potential peace plan, the EU fury against the peace plan, the EU unleashing AI agents to track your communications, an accelerated CBDC launch, accompanied by a warning of a banking collapse when the digital Euro launches! And that’s not even all of the main news… There’s much more!

Let's break down the latest...

Table of Contents

• 1. Weekly Spotlight

• 2. Quick Takes

• 3. Black Friday Is Here! (Biggest Sale Ever)

• 4. Chart Of the Week:

• 5. Market Overview

• 6. Faith & Success

1. Weekly Spotlight

Rachel Reeves Budget

I’ve spent the week going through Rachel Reeves’s new Budget, and the more I read, the less I like it. It’s wrapped in warm language about “fairness” and “stability,” whereas the reality of it is a giant tax raid on the very people who already keep the country’s finances afloat, ordinary workers, savers, and small landlords, all to fund a permanent jump in welfare spending and a few headline giveaways. So she chose welfare over workers.

Reeves has chosen the typical stealth route. Instead of openly lifting income-tax rates, she has frozen the thresholds for income tax and national insurance to the end of the decade (this IS in itself a tax rise). As wages creep up with inflation, more of what you earn is quietly dragged into higher tax bands. The OBR says millions more people will end up paying tax for the first time or paying the 40% rate! (+ National Insurance) = Over 50% tax for even relatively average earners.

On top of that, you have the raids. The cash ISA allowance was cut back, so you are taxed more on your savings. Workplace pensions get a new cap on salary-sacrifice relief, which hits people who try to put away a bit more for retirement (not that I think you will get it at this rate). Landlords with small portfolios are hit with extra tax on property income and dividends, too.

Then there’s the new “mansion tax” for homes over £2 million, which sounds like it only hits the ultra-rich, but in parts of London and the South East, that is actually a fairly ordinary family house price now. Critics are calling it a £30 billion assault on the middle classes, and I think that is exactly what it is. Oh, and Kier Starmer, David Lammy & Rachel Reeves ALL avoided the tax rises. WHAT?!

So where does the money actually go? Well, a big chunk goes to permanently higher welfare costs (and as much as 1/3 of this goes to illegal immigration costs). The two-child benefit cap is scrapped, at a cost of around £3 billion, and overall welfare is pushed up by roughly £9 billion. They are quite literally taxing working people to pay for welfare and illegal entry to the Country. You can’t make this stuff up.

Get the Royal Navy to block the channel and use the military for mass deportations of anyone who has committed a crime since arriving. Then cut back on some of this ridiculous foreign aid and you’ve already save over £15 Billion right there! Maybe I should run for chancellor? I can’t do a worse job than Reeves.

I am not saying helping poorer families on welfare is wrong, quite the opposite. I think welfare is important for any civilised society, but it has to be legal and fair on the people paying for it.

What I am saying is Reeves is doing it by squeezing the people who already pay most of the tax bill, in an economy that is shrinking. The OBR itself says growth will be weak for years and that even after this Budget, the public finances are still in a “vulnerable” position. So we get record-high taxes, not much growth, and still fragile finances. None of this is a good deal.

Business groups and people like James Dyson were already warning that this sort of thing “kills entrepreneurship” and pushes investment and jobs elsewhere. When you punish work, saving and investment at the same time, you should not be surprised if people work less, save less, and move their money or themselves out of the country. I’m the prime example of this, I was paying an effective 72% tax rate (between my company to myself personally). I simply gave up working by the Summer every year, I just didn’t see the point in keeping 28% of my hard earned money while taking all the risk.

Then I moved. Not far, only to the Isle Of Man… where my corporation tax rate is 0% and my personal tax rate is 20% + National Insurance. And I’m happy to pay my 20% every year, because I think the IOM Government does a great job. The roads are great, the infrastructure is well-maintained, the outdoor spaces are clean and well kept, there’s no crime, and they don’t allow any form of illegal immigration. And guess what? Everything works perfectly well. No major problems.

So here’s how I think this plays out. You get a pay rise that barely beats inflation, and more of it disappears in tax because of the frozen thresholds. Your ISA and pension give you less benefit, so you feel “what’s the point” in putting extra away. Landlords facing higher taxes either hike the rent or sell up, which squeezes renters and shrinks the rental supply (increasing rent prices). This will in turn, push more people towards welfare, which then puts more pressure on the system, and the extra billions they raised just got spent adding more people to welfare. Oh, and the rich people leave, taking their taxes with them (the stats on this one are crazy), just 1 ultra wealthy person can pay the tax equivalent of 100,000 taxpayers! And hundreds of these people have left!

This might feel good politically in the short term, but it leaves the country more dependent on a narrow group of taxpayers who are already straining under the load.

What worries me most is that Reeves has left herself almost no room for error. The OBR is already warning that the numbers only just add up and could unravel if growth disappoints or rates stay high. Yet in the same breath, Reeves refuses to rule out more tax rises next year. So this might not even be the end of the raid. It could be the start of a new normal where every year the Chancellor comes back to the same group, workers, savers, homeowners, and asks them to pay more.

This reminds me of what happened towards the end of the Roman Empire, where they came for so much tax that eventually the people gave up the land. There's always a tipping point, and I feel that we've already reached it with the wealthy; we've also reached it with the higher paying workers who have degrees and skills. And I think we're very close to tipping point on the average man and woman now, too. Overall, this is a disaster for the UK.

But with the right government in place, this can be turned around fairly quickly.

2. Quick Takes

Here are the other top stories shaping the week:

• Starmer Waters Down Day-One Job Protection Promise

  Keir Starmer has dropped a key Labour pledge to give workers protection from unfair dismissal from their first day in a new job, instead setting a six-month qualifying period, down from the current two years. The change followed heavy lobbying from business groups and talks with unions and ministers. Left-wing MPs, unions and Angela Rayner allies say the move turns the Employment Rights Bill into a gutted version of what was promised and accuse Starmer of selling out workers. Business groups welcome the shift as removing a “cloud of fear” that they say would have frozen hiring, while Conservatives still warn the wider bill will hurt growth even in its watered-down form. Some headline measures, such as day-one rights to sick pay and parental leave and moves against zero hours contracts, are still due to go ahead.

• Satellites To Spy on Homes To Enforce Labour’s New ‘Mansion Tax’

  Labour plans to charge a new council tax surcharge on homes worth £2m or more, using the Valuation Office Agency’s data tools, including aerial and satellite imagery plus other open-source information, to help decide who pays. The levy will range from £2,500 a year on properties in the £2m–£2.5m band up to £7,500 for homes valued above £5m, and is expected to hit around 140,000 properties, mostly in London and the South East. Ministers say this will target less than the top 1% of homes and tackle wealth inequality, while keeping costs down by relying on existing “modern technology” and private-sector data. - The unsettling bit is how all this “free” data and clever modelling can quietly morph into a rolling surveillance-and-tax machine that starts with obvious mansions, then slowly creeps down the ladder until ordinary homeowners realise the satellite in the sky is now part of their annual bill. Always because of “fairness” - and that everyone should pay eventually, not just the mansion owners…

• Britain threatened by gas shortages as North Sea output plummets

  Britain’s grid operator has warned that steep falls in North Sea gas output could leave the country heavily exposed to shortages and over 90% dependent on imports in the 2030s. It links the decline to Labour’s ban on new exploration and high windfall taxes, with UK production forecast to drop from 27bn to 5bn cubic metres by 2035 while winter demand stays high. That would force the UK to lean even more on gas from Norway, the US and Qatar, with any big pipeline or LNG terminal failure risking demand going unmet. Opposition politicians and industry figures are blaming “policy-driven” decline and urging more domestic drilling, while ministers argue this is part of the transition to cleaner energy. - Ministers talk about clean power and less reliance on “petrostates”, but their current path seems to swap our own ageing fields for someone else’s gas and hope nothing critical breaks in winter.

• Donald Trump’s last remaining criminal case dropped

  Prosecutors in Georgia have dropped the 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump. The new prosecutor said the case was so complex it might not reach a jury until 2029–2031 and argued that dragging it on would not benefit Georgians. A judge has now formally dismissed the case in full.

• Trump Threatens To ‘Permanently Pause’ Migration From ‘Third World Countries’

  After the shooting in DC this week, Trump has said he will permanently stop migration to the US from what he calls “third-world countries”, and has also promised to cut off all federal benefits and subsidies for noncitizens. The move comes after an Afghan man, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, (who entered the US under a special programme for Afghans who worked with US forces), was accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington DC, killing one of them. In response, the US has halted processing new immigration requests from Afghans while it reviews security checks, and officials are now re-examining green cards for people from 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia and Venezuela. Trump has blamed refugees for “social dysfunction” and says he wants to remove anyone who is not a “net asset” to the country, building on earlier travel bans he put in place. He has not yet set out clear details on how a full migration pause or the benefit cuts would work in practice.

• Taiwan Boosts Defence Budget To $40BN As President Lai Lashes Out At Beijing

  Taiwan is increasing its defence budget to $40bn over the next eight years, saying it needs to respond to rising Chinese military pressure, propaganda and espionage. President Lai Ching-te called the island’s security “non-negotiable” and rejected Beijing’s framing of Taiwan as “China’s Taiwan” or its “one country, two systems” offer. The move comes as Japan hardens its own stance, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi signalling Japan would likely intervene if China attacked Taiwan and planning a new missile deployment on Yonaguni Island just 70 miles away. China has hit back with economic pressure and angry statements, accusing Japan of renewed “militarism” and hinting that the US and other Western allies are cheering it on. You can feel the regional temperature rising here: Taiwan is arming up, Japan is edging closer to open security guarantees, and Beijing now has to decide how much of this it can tolerate without pushing things into outright crisis.

• Ultra-Wealthy Retreat Into Fortress Communities As Crime And Debt Soar

  Rich Americans are buying into ultra-secure gated communities, where armed guards, radar systems, and constant surveillance keep outsiders away. Celebrities and billionaires are paying tens of millions of dollars for these homes, drawn by privacy and protection as crime and social tension rise. At the same time, ordinary neighbourhoods are seeing violent street “takeovers” in New York and organised burglary rings hitting affluent suburbs in places like Wisconsin. While the wealthy can relocate to fortified enclaves, many households are just trying to keep the lights on, with power shutoffs surging, credit card and auto loan delinquencies jumping, and millions facing repossessions and mounting debt. The gap between those who can buy safety and those who can’t is getting wider, even as the overall situation in the country feels more unstable.

• Democrat-Linked NGOs Accused Of Pushing 'Refuse Illegal Orders' Campaign At US Military

  A group of Democratic lawmakers recently released a video urging US military and intelligence personnel to “refuse illegal orders,” without spelling out what those orders might be. Online investigators like Jennica Pounds (“DataRepublican”) say this came just days after a network of left-leaning NGOs launched a coordinated information campaign with the same message. She links groups such as Win Without War, the National Lawyers Guild, and other nonprofits reportedly backed by George Soros’s Open Society network to billboards and legal guidance aimed at soldiers and veterans. - Whatever you think of Trump, once both sides start talking about “illegal orders” and “sedition” around the military, you’re in territory that can easily spin out of control.

• Big US Banks Announce New UK Investments After the Reeves Budget

  JP Morgan is pouring around £3bn into a giant new HQ in Canary Wharf, a 3m sq ft tower that will house more than half of its 23,000 UK staff and, it says, pump nearly £10bn into the wider economy. Goldman Sachs is doubling its Birmingham headcount by hiring 500 more people as part of its push into tech and AI-related finance. This has been announced just after Rachel Reeves kept bank taxes unchanged in her first budget, and she is using them as evidence that her “growth” plan is working. The banks, though, are stressing these are long-term decisions rather than a reward for avoiding a tax rise.

• Big Banks See Oil Sliding On Supply Glut Before 2027 Rebound

  JP Morgan says Brent crude could sink into the $30s per barrel by 2027 if a big global oversupply keeps building. Brent is already down around 14% this year and trading in the low $60s, with traders watching Ukraine peace talks that could eventually ease some sanctions on Russian oil. Goldman Sachs expects US benchmark WTI to average about $53 in 2026, based on a 2 million barrels-per-day surplus, and is telling clients to short oil in the near term. Both banks see the current supply wave from OPEC+ and producers in the Americas as temporary, with the market likely to rebalance after 2026. - I recently made a post about the oil market going forward and why the apparent surplus may not be what it seems. You can check it out by signing up for my Patreon here LINK

3. Black Friday Is Here! (Biggest Sale Ever)

If there was ever a year to grab any of the discounted programs in this Black Friday’s sale, it’s this one…

If you’ve been following the research this year, you’ll know one thing for certain:
There has never been a more important time to take your financial education and protection seriously…

That’s exactly why, for this Black Friday only, I’ve opened access to all seven flagship programs - the complete toolkit designed to help everyday people learn how to build, protect and grow their wealth in the real world:…

…At a massive 90% discount…

You see, this Black Friday deal is about timing….

Over the last few months, we’ve seen:
- Inflation biting harder…
- Governments printing more (& weakening your savings)…
- Big investors moving capital…
- Cost of living continuing to squeeze households…
- The price of gold and silver shoot upwards…

This is why education matters even more now. If you’ve been meaning to take action…meaning to get your finances in order… meaning to finally get a full wealth plan in place…

This is the moment. This is it.
You don’t need another year of “I’ll get to it soon.”

Click below to access all seven courses at a massive 90% Discount before the Black Friday window closes. There won’t be a second offer.

See The Deals Here! LINK

4. Chart Of the Week:

The AI Market Is expected to exponentially increase through to 2030

The global AI market is expected to jump from about $260bn in 2025 to more than $1.2tn by 2030, a roughly fourfold increase.

Most of that growth is being driven by better algorithms, stronger infrastructure, and constant heavy spending on R&D. Machine learning and natural language processing together make up more than half the market today and are set to stay central, while AI robotics and computer vision are among the fastest-growing areas.

Demand is coming from everywhere, big companies, hospitals and everyday consumer products all baking AI deeper into what they do.

5. Market Overview

In the U.S., the S&P 500 moved higher this week, helped by renewed optimism that the Fed may cut rates in December. That support outweighed ongoing worries about stretched valuations in AI and tech names, as some investors remain cautious about how quickly heavy investment in the sector will translate into earnings.

In the U.K., the FTSE 100 finished slightly firmer, recovering some earlier weakness. Easing gilt yields and a lift from improved global sentiment helped stabilise the index, although domestically focused stocks remained under pressure from continued uncertainty around the economic and fiscal outlook.

In Canada, the S&P/TSX Composite was broadly steady, as gains in energy and resources on firmer commodity prices were balanced by investor caution ahead of upcoming economic data. While sentiment improved alongside global markets, concerns about growth and demand kept the index from moving significantly.

In Australia, the ASX 200 posted a weekly gain after earlier declines, with strength in consumer staples, tech and materials helping to lift the market. The rebound came as global risk appetite improved and expectations for potential U.S. rate cuts supported sentiment, while commodity-linked names contributed to the upside.

🇺🇸 United States – S&P 500

• High: 6,844.07

• Low: 6,638.13

🇬🇧 UK - FTSE 100

• High: 9,739.37

• Low: 9,522.77

🇨🇦 Canada – TSX Composite

• High: 31,373.38

• Low: 30,176.70

🇦🇺 Australia – ASX 200

• High: 8,491.70

• Low: 8,643.90

Cryptocurrency:

• Bitcoin (BTC): 7.0%

• Ethereum (ETH): 10.2%

• Tether (USDT): 0.1%

• XRP (XRP): 14.1%

• BNB (BNB): 8.4%

• Solana (SOL): 9.8%

• USDC (USDC): 0.0%

• TRON (TRX): 1.4%

• Lido Staked Ether (STETH): 10.2%

• Dogecoin (DOGE): 8.2%

Metals Market:

Gold Silver Ratio: 74 The gold-to-silver ratio fell this week because silver outperformed gold as the expectation of rate cuts boosted industrial-metal demand more than safe-haven interest on gold.

Gold & Silver:

• Gold: has been climbing this week steadily in the range of Week High: $4,285.40 to Week Low: $4,041.74

• Silver: has been climbing rapidly again, more so than Gold, moving within the range of Week High: $57.74 to Week Low: $49.87

6. Faith & Success

Something really strange happened to my YouTube channel this week, or more specifically, late last week, just as we were going into this black Friday week. Out of nowhere, the YouTube algorithm started to penalise my channel and not put my videos in front of my audience. In fact, the view count dropped by half or more.

FROM THIS:

TO THIS:

It was really bizarre, especially as this only tends to happen once every two or three YEARS to a channel. So I really couldn't believe my luck that this would occur during Black Friday week, when I always make a video per day and try to help as many people as possible to get enrolled into my programs. I haven’t had a view count this low in years; in fact, my views tend to be fairly consistent throughout the year…

So having your channel get HIT like this, during Black Friday week, is typically a disaster. Fortunately for me, people have bought more courses than ever before this week, and the feedback has already been excellent. But I feel for people who were relying on this Black Friday week to quite literally get them back into the black, who were also hit by this algorithm update. Seriously, what a time to do it???

To share some inside information with you, the reason so many YouTubers make/release a lot of content during Black Friday week is that advertising revenue has dropped so significantly that you can't really make a living just from AdSense alone anymore.

You've got to have a really big channel and post a lot of videos in order to make ad sense worthwhile (this is why some channels now post 3-5 times a day rather than just once). This is also why most people will create their own private community or courses now so that they can replace a typical 9 to 5 Income… but it's tough. Real tough. And only a few ever make it.

For example, I can typically spend anywhere from 6-40 hours creating a single video.

A documentary-style video can be as much as 100 hours and take several weeks (on and off).

6 hours is how long it takes me to research a typical daily livestream.

And the videos this week took between 11-14 hours each per day. Yes that meant that I literally just spent the entire day from waking up to going to sleep making videos for you! And imagine you do that and earn £73.28 in advertising revenue, for 14 hours of work. You’d be better off working at McDonalds!

So this is why you often see me and other people pushing hard for Black Friday, I know it can be a little annoying to get a lot of offers every day, but now you understand why. And besides, I really do wish that everyone would take the courses that I put years of my life into creating. I know these programs will change your life if you give them the chance… hundreds of testimonials and thousands of people can’t be wrong…

So why the verse today, Neil, you didn’t talk about it? “A cheerful heart is good medicine” - well, I must admit that when the algorithm change hit me this week, I was very disappointed! (That’s an understatement.) I spent a good hour every morning from Saturday-Tuesday when I woke up - moping and feeling sorry for myself… but then this verse popped into my head, and I thought, you know what… ‘This is ridiculous! You can’t feel down at every single thing that life throws at you, Neil. Life is a wonderful gift, and everything is great. You have a wonderful life and a wonderful wife, you have your health, you are in a warm place while it’s cold at home, so many people would love to swap places right now and be in the warm!’

And with that, I dropped it and laughed at how ridiculous I was being… and it’s funny, because I teach this stuff! Positive thinking. Affirmations. Visualisations. SUCCESS. Knowing the verses… all the things that I know like the back of my hand. And yet, here I was, in an ‘unconscious’ like state, allowing my mind and emotions to control me and bring down my mood. Ha! We’re given these tests every day, I really believe that that's what they are, they’re small tests…

Yet, despite the low view count, I’ve been able to help hundreds upon hundreds of people this week to get enrolled into their new life-changing programs! Quite the turnaround. And it was all thanks to this wonderful email newsletter. So I wanted to thank you for being here and reading this email, because my email subscribers registered into more programs this week than ever before and made up for the loss of YouTube views.

Thank You!

And if you want to get a course, today’s your last chance - remember, there’s a 30 day money back guarantee if it’s not for you: LINK

Until next time,

God Bless,

Neil,

Enjoying this Newsletter? Share with a Friend…

DISCLAIMER
This newsletter is 100% FREE & is designed to help your thinking, not direct it. These newsletters shall NOT be construed as tax, legal, or financial advice and may be outdated or inaccurate; all decisions made as a result of this information are yours alone.

Trading/Liability: Neil McCoy-Ward operates/trades under a private Ltd company within the Isle of Man.