December usually has a ring of ‘Silent Night’ in the investment world and, in a year where practically all else has changed, at least this has stayed the same. In the UK, news that millions more would be placed under tougher restrictions over the Christmas period may have felt deflating, but it was hardly unexpected…
December usually has a ring of ‘Silent Night’ in the investment world and, in a year where practically all else has changed, at least this has stayed the same. In the UK, news that millions more would be placed under tougher restrictions over the Christmas period may have felt deflating, but it was hardly unexpected…
This week’s edition was meant to focus on our annual outlook for the coming year, while working under the assumption that the UK and Europe would by now be operating under a ‘skinny’ trade deal that would prevent tariff hurdles to trade while also dealing with the barriers to trade that come with operating under…
For most of the year, Japan has been hailed as something of a COVID success story. Given its densely populated cities, elderly population and proximity to China – the virus source – it had all the ingredients to be one of the worst affected nations. The reality has been anything but, with only limited spread…
The ‘scientific cavalry’, as Boris Johnson likes to put it, has arrived. The UK became the first western country to approve a COVID vaccine for mass use, and authorities are wasting no time rolling it out. 800,000 doses of Pfizer and BioNTech’s celebrated vaccine are expected to be available next week, with Britain’s most vulnerable…
As the world faces up to a not-so-jolly Christmas season, it may be surprising to learn that sentiment across the global economy was reported to be quite strong this week. Admittedly, this is mostly driven by strong manufacturing data and not the services sector, which relies so much more on social proximity. Nevertheless, the current…
The electric car maker Tesla’s stock performance this year has been – in an analogy that will no doubt please Elon Musk – a rocket in flight. At the time of writing, Tesla shares are up nearly eight- fold since the COVID sell-off in March, making it the most valuable car company in the world.…
In the strangest year in recent memory, one news story serves as a timeless constant: “Brexit talks remain deadlocked”, according to the FT’s headline this week (which could have been from any point in the last four and a half years). European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament it was still…
During a week when global stock markets continued their more gradual upwards trend, government policy was in full focus, but offered little in support. For the UK, it looks like ‘out of the frying pan into the fire’ when official lockdown ends next Thursday, with the vast majority of England under tighter restrictions than before…
For Europe, 2020 was supposed to be a fiscal awakening, with the pandemic putting paid to the issues that created the first Euro crisis; the Union’s lack of fiscal integration, its inflexibility on budget rules and inability to handle payment crises. The crisis affected the whole continent, threatening to burden health services and leave swathes…