MoneyWeek

Lawyers are calling for an amnesty on fines issued for breaching Covid lockdown rules, says Paul Brand on ITV News. Almost half of the 124,771 fines issued up to October 2023, totalling £16.7m, have not been paid. Some people, owing in excess of £10,

“I will never understand the permabear mindset... Sometimes the market is overvalued. It does crash. There are corrections... and black swan events... it’s helpful to hear a reasonable bearish argument to keep you grounded... [But] there is a huge di

Annual territorial emissions, million tonnes of CO2 Annual UK carbon emissions have halved from their 1970 peak, making the UK the first G20 country to achieve the feat, says Fraser Nelson in The Spectator. That progress has come even though Britain

Britain faces a “fresh inflation headache” after shipping firm Maersk suspended all trade through the Red Sea due to the threat of attacks by Houthi rebels, say Melissa Lawford and Jonathan Leake in The Telegraph. On Sunday, the US Navy destroyed thr

What’s happened? Compared with expectations widespread in the West two years ago – that sanctions and the draining effects of Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine war could lead to economic collapse – the Russian economy is doing strikingly well. Twelve months a

With its shares up 30% in 2023, the British supermarket has staged a comeback from the wobbles of the past decade. It has solidified its iron grip on the British grocery market, restored profitability and started paying generous dividends again. With

● I had planned to nominate my “business villains of 2023”, but the “list of rogues and cheats and chancers is a rich seam” (see page 27) and space is limited, says Patrick Hosking in The Times. So let’s cheer some heroes instead. The “first shout ou

Welcome to another year of markets obsessing over when central banks will cut interest rates (see right) and mostly imploring/coercing them to do so faster. We have had almost two decades of this game: the focus on the Fed dates back to when central

At 9pm on Sunday 15 August, 1971, Richard Nixon delayed the US viewing public from watching that evening’s repeat of cowboy show Bonanza. Nixon had spent the previous three days at Camp David with a team of advisors, to finalise details of a speech t

“Monetary policy was often the only game in town when it came to determining market outcomes for much of the last 15 years,” says Mohamed El-Erian, the economist who was previously chief executive and co-chief investment officer at bond giant Pimco,

Rarely can the aphorism “pessimists sound smart, optimists make money” have been truer than in 2023. The Eeyores came into the year insisting that rising interest rates would cause a recession in the developed world, corporate profits would be hit, s

Editorial The Economist To Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, robots are “serious business”, says The Economist. In 2023, half of all industrial robot installations were in China and the country produced more than six million “service robot

“For some people, £140 is nothing… do we want the West End to become this huge corporate tanker? I’m not ripping anyone off. The people who are spending £140 to buy a ticket – they can get one for much less or they can go and see another show.” Actre

bloomberg.com/opinion Americans like to jest that there is no French word for “entrepreneur” – but “the joke may be on them”, says Tyler Cowen. The French government knows it has a winner in its highly regarded artificial intelligence firm Mistral A

bbc.com/worklife It’s been condemned by Britain, Germany and France, and banned in Brazil, says Eric Alt. Its “violence and vehicular mayhem” has “drawn the ire” of campaigning organisations. But Rockstar Games’ “wildly successful” Grand Theft Auto

usa.streetsblog.org After years of delays, Elon Musk’s Tesla Cybertruck, which looks like an “apocalypse bunker on wheels”, is finally on sale, says Kea Wilson. It is an exemplar of all the “worst impulses” of the motor industry. “Pretty much everyt

For two years it has been impossible to earn a big enough return on cash savings to outpace inflation. In terms of spending power, then, your savings have been shrinking despite earning interest. For example, at today’s inflation rate of 3.9%, £20,00

● Anyone can give away up to £3,000 a year without becoming liable for inheritance tax (IHT). The gifting allowance means you can hand cash to friends and family, and it is immediately out of your estate when it comes to future inheritance tax calcul

Self-employed workers and small-business owners operating as sole traders have until 31 January to file their self-assessment tax returns for the 2022-2023 financial year, and to pay the remaining income tax they owe for the year. But while that tax

● Thinking about new year resolutions for your business in 2024? If so, making shopping around for a better savings account could be a sensible option, particularly if you hold sizeable amounts of cash in the bank or building society. Research publis

The equity-income landscape has changed materially over the past two decades. Dividends used to be concentrated in certain traditional income-paying sectors – think healthcare, consumer staples, banks, and commodities. Now you can find many dividend-

In the summer of 2021, when a traumatised Britain was enduring a third wave of Covid infections, the Conservative peer Michelle Mone posted a photograph on Instagram of herself and husband Douglas Barrowman in the Mediterranean on board their new lux

In 2018, the CEO of Nikola, an upstart company seeking to make viable electric- and hydrogen-powered lorries, released a promotional video of its prototype Nikola One truck, which appeared to drive under its own power, says Tech Crunch. In reality, i

2023 Oxford Landing Estates, Chardonnay, South Australia £7.49, reduced to £6.49, until 30 January in 265 Waitrose stores It is extremely unlikely that over the next 12 months of this brand-new year I will find another MoneyWeek-worthy wine that dips

Institutional Foundations of English Capitalism Geoffrey M. Hodgson Princeton University Press, £30 One of the biggest debates among economic historians is the reason for the sudden take-off in British economic growth after 1760 during the industria

Editor: Andrew Van Sickle Markets editor: Alexander Rankine Comment editor: Stuart Watkins Politics editor: Emily Hohler Wealth editor: Chris Carter Shares editor: Matthew Partridge Senior digital editor:Kalpana Fitzpatrick Contributors:Bill Bonner,