MoneyWeek

Over the past two decades, US consumers have propped up the world economy by buying things they don’t need with money they don’t have. But have they now run out of steam? In the last few weeks they have used up the excess savings stemming from the Co

At this year’s summer Olympics in Paris, 10,500 athletes across 32 sports in 329 medal events are competing for the ultimate prize – the gold medal, says Anthony DeMarco in Forbes. The 2024 gold medal, as won by Britain’s Tom Pidcock (pictured), who

“We have a big currency problem,” Donald Trump tells Bloomberg Businessweek. The US presidential candidate flags the “strong dollar/weak yen, weak yuan” as a barrier to a revival in US manufacturing. Since the 1990s, US Treasury secretaries have gene

The number of overseas visitors to Thailand hit 17.5 million in the first half of 2024, a rise of 33% on a year before and a welcome boost to a country where tourism makes up a fifth of GDP, says Lex in the Financial Times. Meanwhile, Chinese electri

“The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) [will allow] issuers with multiple share classes to list on UK exchanges more easily… [but] when the next IPO lands, investors can no longer be sure that one share will equal one vote… How did we get here? The s

Exceptionally generous state stimulus during Covid allowed US households to accumulate large “excess savings” (the extra amount saved above the “pre-recession trend”). With fewer ways to spend cash during lockdown, by August 2021 American households

Shares in Reckitt Benckiser have slumped by 9% to a ten-year low after a US court ruling that a baby formula produced by rival Abbott Laboratories had caused a little girl to develop fatal necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), a bowel disease, says Jack S

Diageo’s CEO Debra Crew has warned that consumers are facing an “extraordinary environment”, says Madeleine Speed in the Financial Times. The drinks group’s shares lost almost a tenth after it produced its first global drop in sales since 2020. Reven

Shares in oil giant BP bounced this week after it promised to “shower its shareholders with higher dividends and share buybacks”, says Jillian Ambrose in The Guardian. Thanks to unexpectedly high profits of $2.76bn for the three months to 30 June, BP

The Telegraph Kingfisher, owner of Screwfix and B&Q, has seen a fall in profits over the past two years owing to high inflation and the cost-of-living crisis. But improving household sentiment and easing monetary policy bode well for the DIY retailer

Bermuda-based reinsurer RenaissanceRe looks a bargain, says WirtschaftsWoche. The stock is on just six times earnings and a price-to-book value ratio of one. It focuses on property and liability insurance, with each division comprising half the group

US temperature-controlled storage and logistics company Lineage has raised $4.4bn in its initial public offering (IPO), the largest stockmarket debut of the year so far, says Bloomberg. The company is listed on New York’s Nasdaq exchange and sold nea

“Strikingly”, Rachel Reeves’ cuts did not extend to one of Labour’s “favourite schemes”, its new taxpayer-owned company, GB Energy, says The Economist. Last week, energy secretary Ed Miliband unveiled a new partnership with the Crown Estate – which o

Nicolás Maduro’s regime “vowed to crush a burgeoning protest movement against election results that cement his grip on power”, amid growing evidence that he actually lost by a wide margin, say Kejal Vyas and Ryan Dubé in The Wall Street Journal. Offi

With £40.8m matched on Betfair, Donald Trump remains the favourite to take the White House in the US presidential election in November. However, just as the gap in the head-to-head polls has narrowed and in some cases reversed, Trump’s odds have leng

Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, who had been living in Iran, was reportedly killed by Israel on Wednesday morning, just hours after it eliminated a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut, says The Guardian. The two assassinations are “heavy

Tourism in Japan is booming this year thanks to the weaker yen making the country more affordable for foreigners. More than 14.6 million tourists visited Japan between January and May, with a record 3.1 million in March alone, says Lionel Lim in Fort

There was, on the surface, nothing very interesting or exciting about NatWest’s results, published at the end of last week. It reported a 16% decline in pre-tax profits for the first six months of the year, mostly due to more competition in the borro

● “Duncan Wanblad’s job is not getting any easier,” says Karen Kwok on Breakingviews. After fending off a bid by rival BHP, the Anglo American CEO (pictured) delivered “decent” half-year results. But a fire at a key coal mine and problems in diamonds

Branded consumer staples are usually seen as a very defensive sector. They tend to beat the market when investors get nervous about growth. That pattern isn’t playing out as reliably as it normally does in this cycle. While a few staples firms are pe

A carry trade can refer to any strategy that involves borrowing at a low interest rate and lending or investing the proceeds at a higher rate. However, when the term is used without any further clarification, it normally refers to a currency carry tr

“We have had a 40-year bull market, during which there have been only the briefest of conventional bear phases,” says Jonathan Ruffer, the veteran investor whose firm runs the Ruffer Investment Company investment trust. The sell-offs – 1990-1992, 200

Miriam CatesConservative Home The most expensive benefit, the state pension, costs taxpayers £135bn a year (that’s £3,600 per individual), yet sadly this “unconditional generosity” does not extend to children, says Miriam Cates. George Osborne “shatt

“Yes, of course rich people like Adele [pictured] are allowed to be sad. But at a time when so many people are unhappy because of their lack of money, there’s something repulsive about a really, really rich person ceaselessly bleating about the abjec

project-syndicate.org Recent elections in France and Britain, and America’s presidential campaign, “show the dilemmas left-leaning parties confront as they try to fashion new identities and present credible alternatives” to the populist right, says

literaryreview.co.uk When the US government was deliberating in 1967 on Lyndon Johnson’s Rat Bill, which would allocate $40m to dealing with rodents, demonstrators forced their way in, chanting “rats cause riots!”, says Will Wiles. Republican oppone

city-journal.org What happens when you give people free money with no strings attached? A scientific experiment designed to test this widespread proposal for a “universal basic income” has just completed, says Robert VerBruggen. The study included 3

Elliott Investment Management has built a “sizeable” stake in Starbucks, says The Wall Street Journal. The activist investor has been engaging with Starbucks behind the scenes and may reach an agreement soon, but the exact size of its position and sp

■ British investors pay almost three times as much for stocks and funds as Americans, says Ali Hussain in The Times. The gulf is due to the fact that Britons are more likely to buy active funds with higher fees, while US investors tend to use cheaper

● Financial-technology firm Revolut has finally secured a UK banking licence after a three-year wait. The licence means Revolut is now officially a bank, although restrictions mean it can’t start taking deposits just yet. It must build up its systems

When you go on your summer holidays you probably don’t think about what it will do to your mobile phone bill. But if you aren’t careful, you could find your phone adds a hefty amount to the overall cost of your time away. You should be aware that you

Does your business have a website? The answer is “no” at more than one in five small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK, according to a recent report, but two-thirds of those SMEs felt that setting up a website would be good for business.

● The British economy’s skills shortages continue to challenge organisations in many sectors. And smaller businesses often find it particularly difficult to compete for staff, especially when it comes to financial rewards. However, new research sugge

Small businesses last year raised £8.8bn of equity finance from investors such as venture-capital firms and private-equity houses, according to new data. However, the figures, published by the British Business Bank, represent a 48% decline on the pre

My investment strategy is built on diligence, discipline, and patience. We look for good businesses run by competent management teams, available at a price that leaves us with a margin of safety. We therefore tend to avoid thematic investments, start

I’m resting on my bed, taking in my surroundings. My eyes follow the curvature of the room – the vaulted ceiling, the carved-stone walls, the rounded doorways and cubby holes filled with antiques. The fireplace in the centre is the only structure wit

There was a time when you wouldn’t choose to eat in London’s King’s Cross unless you were passing through, says Katie Prescott in The Times. Now it is a “destination in its own right, the heart of Britain’s technology scene, with Meta Platforms, Goog

NV Crémant de Bourgogne Brut, Cave de Bissey, France £15.90, reduced to £14.10 each by the case, hhandc.co.uk I clearly remember, back in the 1970s, my parents could not afford Champagne, but they loved the opportunity to pour keener-priced crémants

Dariusz Wójcik (ed) Yale University Press, £30 “A picture is worth a thousand words,” they say, and in the Atlas of Finance, Dariusz Wójcik of the National University of Singapore has led a team of economists, geographers and illustrators to paint a

How We Get Our Future Back Torsten Bell Bodley Head, £20 The electorate has given its verdict on Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives. Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves now face the challenge of meeting people’s expectations at a time when the fiscal situ

Chip Martel from California, appropriately sitting West, found a nice defence to defeat Four Spades on this week’s deal. West found the best lead of a Diamond to East’s Queen, declarer correctly ducking to make it less likely that West could win an e

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 Writer/editorial assistan