Forbes (October 28)
“Amid a global slowdown in economic growth that has seen central banks lower interest rates near zero or below in an effort to provide stimulus,” a number of “major economies are on high recession alert.” These include Hong Kong, the U.K., Germany, Italy and China. “Other highly stressed economies around the world include Turkey, Argentina, Iran, Mexico and Brazil.”
Tags: Argentina, Brazil, Central banks, China, Economic growth, Germany, Global slowdown, Hong Kong, Interest rates, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Recession, Stimulus, Stressed, Turkey, U.K.
Foreign Policy (June 13)
The Tory party has “bravely put party before country” and their “internal fights” have virtually “wrecked the U.K.” Any achievements the conservative “government might claim—record numbers of people in work, a ‘balancing of the books’—have been completely overshadowed by Brexit, a farce produced as a direct result of internal Tory squabbling and dissension.”
Tags: Achievements, Brexit, Conservative, Farce, Government, Overshadowed, Squabbling, Tory, U.K., Wrecked
Bloomberg (May 28)
“Vietnam was one of the fastest-growing sources of American imports from Asia last quarter.” Imports to the U.S. “jumped 40.2% in the first three months of 2019 from a year earlier…. If Vietnam’s pace of growth can be sustained for a full year—which would be a major feat—it could leapfrog Italy, France, the U.K., and India in the ranks of top exporters to the U.S.”
Bloomberg (March 13)
“Whatever happens on March 29—a no-deal Brexit, a delay to the departure or some kind of agreement—the U.K. faces a slow but steady erosion to its position as the European center of looking after other people’s money….. However Brexit plays out, the U.K. fund management industry will be a long-term loser from the fallout.”
Forbes (November 16)
“The looming prospect of no-deal Brexit is already spooking markets. Sterling tanked today, and the cost of CDS protection on U.K. government debt rose. Shares in Britain’s state-owned bank RBS fell by 9%.”
Tags: Brexit, CDS protection, Debt, Gilts, Looming, Markets, No-deal, Prospect, RBS, Shares, Spooking, Sterling, Tanked, U.K., UK
Forbes (September 20)
“Britain’s non-binding resolution, to leave the EU (aka Brexit) is moving forward because one weak-willed and weak-minded politician, U.K. Prime Minister Teresa May, is treating the 2016 opinion poll as legally binding. It wasn’t and isn’t.” It is time for the Prime Minister to “exit Brexit” and “reverse the U.K.’s mistake.”
Tags: Britain, EU, Exit Brexit, May, Mistake, Non-binding resolution, Reverse, U.K.
Institutional Investors (June 11)
“When the U.K. secedes from the EU, it will abandon 70 years of globalization. It will turn away from a world order that increasingly relies on supranational institutions to check the power of extremely wealthy individuals and corporations like Apple and Facebook, with market capitalizations far bigger than the GDPs of most nations.” The potential consequences of Brexit leave many in the City of London feeling threatened, but there is “a coterie of hard-right, wealthy businessmen” who are delighted about “rolling back globalization to protect their positions of power — all in the name of populism.”
Tags: Brexit, Consequences, EU, GDP, Globalization, London, Market caps, Populism, Power, Supranational institutions, U.K., Wealthy businessmen, World order
Fortune (January 28)
Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea, died at 91. With an estimated net worth of $58.7 billion, he was the world’s eighth-richest person. Renowned for living miserly, he created a revolution in furnishings. In 2005, he was named “the most influential taste-maker in the world” by the U.K. style magazine Icon, which wrote, “‘if it wasn’t for Ikea, most people would have no access to affordable contemporary design. The company has done more to bring about an acceptance of domestic modernity than the rest of the design world combined.’”
Tags: Affordable, Contemporary, Design, Icon, Ikea, Influential, Kamprad, Miserly, Net worth, Rich, Taste-maker, U.K.
Institutional Investor (June 4)
Due to Brexit, “sovereign investors now consider the U.K. less attractive than they did a year ago and are instead favoring investments in Germany and India as part of a broader move to so-called safe haven markets.” The change in sentiment was identified through a survey of “sovereign wealth funds, state-owned pensions, and central banks polled by Invesco.”
Tags: Brexit, Central banks, Germany, India, Invesco, Investors, Pensions, Safe havens, Sentiment, Sovereign, U.K.
Euromoney (March 24)
“The UK economy seems at last to be suffering from the erosion of purchasing power by sterling-induced inflation. All of this smacks of stagflation, a constitutional crisis and rising political risk. UK gilts will suffer.”
Tags: Constitutional crisis, Economy, Erosion, Gilts, Inflation, Political risk, Purchasing power, Stagflation, Sterling, Suffering, U.K.
