Chris DeerinThe New Statesman The last thing the Scottish National Party (SNP) needed, given its electoral travails, was a spending crisis, says Chris Deerin. But that is what it has got. This was predictable and predicted by independent experts as t

In June this year, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) celebrated its 75th anniversary. A pact that was formed in the aftermath of World War II to counter the threat of the Soviet Union has now outlived its adversary by more than three deca

● Nearly 7,000 families paid 40% inheritance tax (IHT) on life insurance policies in the 2021-2022 tax year. But if these policies had been placed into a trust, they would have been free from IHT. “In total, these insurance policies were worth £819m,

Over five days last year, Ryan O’Connor and Joanne Foster from Hampshire stole packs of premium meat and fish worth £842 from Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s – just one example of fresh produce from supermarkets being stolen in record amounts, says L

● Thousands of people not previously thought to have been caught up in the scandal over underpaid state pensions may have been adversely affected after all, according to a leading pensions expert. Former pensions minister Steve Webb, who is now a par

When traders first start using options, they often employ them either as a way to take a directional view on an asset (buying a call if they expect it to rise or a put if they expect it to fall) or as a way to hedge their portfolio against market vol

At a MoneyWeek Roundtable a few years before the credit crunch, our permanently bearish columnist Bill Bonner had a disagreement with the permanently bullish US asset manager Ken Fisher over the apparently indefatigable US consumer. Sceptics had been

A practical guide to stock-screening strategies to help you pick winning sharesAlgy Hall Harriman House (£24.99) There are a huge number of listed companies around the world, with nearly 2,000 shares traded on the London Stock Exchange alone, so it

Indonesia’s first planned independence-day celebrations at its multi-billion-dollar new capital city were a damp squib, say A. Anantha Lakshmi and Diana Mariska in the Financial Times. The government was forced into an “embarrassing climbdown” and ha

Summer is here, and authorities at overcrowded tourist sites worldwide have been imposing restrictions, from tolls and quotas for those climbing Japan’s Mount Fuji to a new €5 pass for day-trippers to Venice. Some cities and their residents have deli

The internet is entering a new phase, known as Web 3.0, which shifts power from centralised technology giants towards individual users by prioritising decentralisation, privacy, and digital ownership. Technologies such as blockchain, decentralised fi

“No one got paid anything to do that movie… I mean, I basically got free sandwiches and I got to keep my [elf] ears, which is something. They fed me… Women don’t get paid as much as you think they do.” Cate Blanchett (pictured) on her pay from The Lo

“Germany’s biggest bank” has become the latest to trumpet the appeal of UK shares, says John-Paul Ford Rojas in This is Money. Deutsche Bank notes that the FTSE 100 has put in a “remarkable performance” of late, with the blue-chip index outperforming

Most of us had probably suspected for years that Alphabet’s Google search-engine unit effectively had a monopoly on the way we navigate the internet. There are other search engines out there, and other web browsers, but hardly anyone ever bothers to

The defence sector has firmly returned to favour since Russia invaded Ukraine and the realities we discuss above became obvious. The Euro Stoxx Aerospace & Defence index has nearly doubled since February 2022, compared with a 26% increase for the Eur

The Uncommon, Clarence, The Crisp White in Cans, Kent, England £48, for eight x 250ml cans, wearetheuncommon.co.uk Cans are now cool. It happened only a couple of years ago, seemingly overnight. One day, they were tawdry, and the next, they were eco

In 2018, Bill Gates gave a video interview to Wired in which he broke down six key moments in his life. They included his meeting as a teenager with Microsoft’s co-founder Paul Allen; the launch of Windows 95; his first trip to Africa with his future

bloomberg.com Marijuana for recreational use is either effectively or actually legal all across the US, but was allowing it really such a good idea? asks Tyler Cowen. A new study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has some important insigh

A-level results are in, and university places have been secured. Now new students need to pick a bank account. As a result, the big banks and building societies are offering freebies ranging from cash to railcards. “Bank customers are notorious for s

With spread betting, you stake an amount of money per “point” on how much an asset’s price will change. With contracts for difference (CFDs) , you buy “contracts” whose value depends on how much the asset’s price changes. So if I bet £1 per point (wo

When, in early August, stockmarkets dropped sharply, the Jeremiahs could hardly contain their excitement. At last, they were being vindicated! Wall Street had risen 50% in two years but they had always argued that this defied economic reality. A bear

MoneyWeek’s wine writer Matthew Jukes was sufficiently moved by the Rye Whisky of England from Fielden to feature it in his “Wine of the week” column in issue 1211. “It has,” says Jukes, “the generosity and silkiness of an elite Armagnac, with hints

Cryptocurrencies have been around since 2009, when the bitcoin network was launched by the still unidentified “Satoshi Nakamoto”. Bitcoin spawned a huge range of speculative crypto coins with over 20,000 “minted” since then. Most of these boomed brie

Staward Station House, Langley-on-Tyne, Hexham, Northumberland. A converted 1860s railway station overlooking Staward Gorge and Hadrian’s Wall with gardens that retain the original platform, a converted waiting room and a summerhouse. 2 beds, 2 baths

A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell something at a pre-arranged price on a pre-arranged date (known as the delivery date). Futures were developed for agricultural goods such as grain, and later for other commodities such as oil, gas and

The Four Seasons Resort Mauritius at Anahita is tucked away in the eastern corner of the island. Port Louis, the capital, is just over an hour away by car and the drive from the airport to the resort – along tight, winding roads – was a wonderful int

“Every long-term investment is a short-term trade that went wrong,” is an old Wall Street wisecrack. Like all good wisecracks, it is not necessarily helpful financial advice, although it sometimes contains a kernel of truth. The distinction between i

compactmag.com US vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance was once the darling of the liberal media, says Batya Ungar-Sargon. His 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy won plaudits for its portrayal of the struggles of white working-class Americans and was rea

honest-broker.com Magazines are businesses much like any other, says Ted Gioia. But with “one big difference” – they almost always get smaller, and not just in terms of the number of pages. The five largest companies in the Fortune 500 in 1960 have

The government is embarking on a charm offensive to persuade Revolut to list in London after securing a UK banking licence, says the Financial Times. Britain’s most valuable financial technology (fintech) firm reportedly favours floating on New York’