Argonaut's Norris: 'Fraud' lockdown was the 'biggest policy error since WWI'

Manager critical of Westminster's response

clock • 6 min read

The UK Government's decision to implement a lockdown was one of the "biggest policy errors since 1914", according to Argonaut's Barry Norris, who believes "thoughtful debate" on the Government's response to the pandemic has been "shut down" and that "following expert opinion blindly" is "normally the road to ruin".

The manager, who runs the FP Argonaut Absolute Return, European Alpha and European Income Opportunities funds, believes the UK Government has been "talking to the wrong experts" in terms of how best to deal with the pandemic, and believes a Sweden-style approach would have been more beneficial for the country from both an economic and societal perspective. As such, he has taken out shorts on "essentially all vaccine developers", although he is still cautious on retail and leisure stocks given the potential long-term impact lockdown will have on their revenues and business models.  "Th...

To continue reading this article...

Join Investment Week for free

  • Unlimited access to real-time news, analysis and opinion from the investment industry, including the Sustainable Hub covering fund news from the ESG space
  • Get ahead of regulatory and technological changes affecting fund management
  • Important and breaking news stories selected by the editors delivered straight to your inbox each day
  • Weekly members-only newsletter with exclusive opinion pieces from leading industry experts
  • Be the first to hear about our extensive events schedule and awards programmes

Join now

 

Already an Investment Week
member?

Login

More on Economics

Trustpilot