A group of senior UK economists led by Lord O’Neill of Gatley has proposed scrapping income tax, National Insurance, and capital gains, dividend and inheritance taxes in favor of a single “national contributions” levy, alongside replacing stamp duty with a 1% property valuation charge. The plan claims it could unlock £38bn in fiscal headroom and…
While most headlines about the UK’s leadership transition have focused on the political theatre — Keir Starmer’s resignation, Andy Burnham’s uncontested path to Number 10 — a genuinely radical tax proposal has been sitting in plain sight, and it deserves far more scrutiny than it’s getting. Lord Jim O’Neill of Gatley, the former Goldman Sachs…
There’s a comic book on Nidec’s website — or there was, until recently — called “The Man Hotter Than the Sun.“ It chronicles the rise of Shigenobu Nagamori, who founded the world’s largest precision motor company in a shack in Kyoto in 1973 and built it into a global industrial giant supplying Apple, the automotive…
The phone calls from American buyers haven’t stopped. Neither have the shipments. For many Singapore-based companies with exposure to the United States, the Trump administration’s 10% baseline tariff — widely feared when it landed in April 2025 — has turned out to be, as more than one founder has privately put it, something they can…
Introduction: Why Budget Preparation Matters In February 2026, fiscal debates are raging across capitals worldwide. Pakistan’s FY26 budget set a GDP growth target of 4.2% with a Rs17.57 trillion outlay while simultaneously slashing overall spending to rein in deficits. Meanwhile, the United States Congressional Budget Office warned of a projected $1.9 trillion deficit by year’s…
Singapore’s carbon tax jumps to S$45 in 2026, positioning it among Asia’s highest. Analysis of global pricing gaps, climate vulnerability, and what this means for regional leadership. The elevator ride in Marina Bay’s glittering financial district just became more expensive—not because of rising real estate, but because Singapore is making an unequivocal bet on carbon…
A decade after the SDGs and Paris Agreement peaked, multilateralism confronts financing gaps, climate setbacks, and geopolitical fractures threatening global progress. Introduction: The Promise of 2015 September 2015 felt like the culmination of humanity’s aspirational instincts. In New York, world leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals—17 ambitious targets to end poverty, protect the planet, and…
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court’s, three-judge bench this week delivered a quiet revolution. By upholding the controversial ‘Super Tax’ on the country’s wealthiest entities, the court did more than green-light a potential Rs300 billion (approximately $1.08bn) revenue haul. It etched into constitutional jurisprudence a stark boundary: fiscal policy is the exclusive domain of the…
The death of reputational risk as a regulatory standard has unleashed something unexpected in American banking: not innovation, but a fundamental identity crisis that pits fortress-grade financial institutions against nimble, mission-driven challengers operating on thinner capital cushions. The Debanking Reckoning The numbers tell a stark story. All nine of the nation’s largest banks—JPMorgan Chase, Bank…
Explore how weather stations and early warning systems deliver 9:1 returns on investment, saving thousands of lives annually—yet remain chronically underfunded amid rising climate disasters and political battles. When Cyclone Remal barreled toward Bangladesh on May 26, 2024, meteorologists had already tracked its path across the Bay of Bengal for days. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department,…
