Be informed

A number of years ago I posted regularly photographs of German billboards where it was still legal to advertise cigarettes. The Germans love all things dangerous and lethal, including driving at suicidal speeds. Those posts were very popular – and still are despite there being no additions to the collection since before Covid. It has been difficult to find a replacement, and hence my posts have focused on book reviews and political comment. I think I have now found a suitable replacement – investment advertising. Equally lethal.

Let me start with JP Morgan. The billboard on the left I snapped at Luton railway station on 11 September 2026. I see two potential messages here. The first is, how sweet, a sleeping child. And I presume that the child may be related to the potential pension investor. The second, of course, is JP Morgan’s expertise in investment that gets a better return than other financial services companies.

Whether that is true or not, I’m not sure. But what I am sure about is that if the investor is the parent of that child then investing with JP Morgan may not be as wise as it may seem. JP Morgan is the biggest investor in fossil fuels globally. Last year JP Morgan invested $58bn in fossil fuel interests. Interests that are totally against the future wellbeing of that child. When the child wakes up the question will be, “why did you finance fossil fuels when you knew that burning them warms the planet to unlivable temperatures in my lifetime?”