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…
In most economies, a strengthening currency is treated as evidence of underlying strength. In Russia’s case in 2026, the opposite is true — and this counterintuitive dynamic has received surprisingly little mainstream coverage relative to how directly it undermines Moscow’s ability to finance the war in Ukraine. The ruble touched 69.90 against the dollar in…
On June 2, 2026, the Office of the United States Trade Representative made a determination that quietly touches nearly every major global trading relationship at once: all 60 economies investigated for failing to adequately prohibit or enforce bans on forced-labor-produced imports were found to be acting unreasonably and burdening US commerce — with proposed tariffs…
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…
The world’s major central banks are no longer moving in anything resembling lockstep. The Federal Reserve is watching a weakening labor market while weighing energy-driven inflation risk, the Bank of Japan is scaling back bond purchases into a fiscal expansion, the Bank of Russia is cutting rates through sanctions-driven stagnation, and the Bank of England…
The yield on 40-year Japanese government bonds rocketed above 4% in mid-January, the first time any maturity of Japan’s sovereign debt has traded that high in more than three decades, an unprecedented move that is now forcing investors worldwide to reconsider assumptions about sovereign debt that have held for a generation, according to Bloomberg’s coverage…
Malaysia’s economy grew 5.4% in the first quarter of 2026, slightly ahead of the official advance estimate of 5.3%, but the print masked a sharp deceleration from the 6.2% growth recorded in the final quarter of 2025, and economists at Bank Negara Malaysia are warning that the more painful effects of the Middle East energy…
Rich Nations Face Make‑or‑Break Moment at COP31 Preparatory Talks The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has released a sobering assessment: climate finance delivery 2026 remains a staggering $1.1 trillion short of the $2.4 trillion that developing countries need annually to transition to low‑carbon economies and adapt to climate impacts (UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance,…
Why the AI Revolution Is Breaking the Link Between Output and Labor Income Artificial intelligence is transforming the modern workplace at a breathtaking pace. Generative AI tools are drafting legal briefs, diagnosing medical images, writing software code, and managing supply chains with superhuman efficiency. Yet a landmark report from the International Labour Organization, released on…
SpaceX debuted at $1.77 trillion and made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire. But the AI IPO boom of 2026 may be the biggest bubble since 1999. Here’s the full investor analysis. On June 12, 2026, SpaceX became the largest company to debut on a public stock exchange in modern capital markets history. The company,…
