The freeport con
Addressing the nation in 1931, the leader of the Liberal Party and former prime minister, David Lloyd George, said: “No human system is perfect, but the system of freeports with all its faults has...
View ArticleWhat the uneven spread of foreign direct investment tells us about the UK...
Thirty years ago, London’s Isle of Dogs was just another residential part of the city. Today, its business district, Canary Wharf, is home to around 105,000 workers (pre Covid-19), many of whom are...
View ArticleThe complicated business of investing in Saudi Arabia
In April 2018, Richard Branson welcomed Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman at his Virgin Galactic headquarters in Mojave, California. The two men shook hands and smiled for the cameras...
View ArticleHow the pandemic has hit the poorest renters the hardest
“We live in a flat with no garden. It’s extremely hard. I don’t get anything from my little zero-hour-contract, part-time job, and all the expenses have doubled due to us being home constantly…...
View ArticleJoe Biden’s “Made in America“ rhetoric is about to meet the ongoing reality...
The last five years has seen the comeback of economic nationalism. Much of this has been rhetorical, with President Trump shouting the loudest. “Bring back our jobs,” he proclaimed in his inaugural...
View ArticleThe UK cannot take foreign investment for granted
Globalisation is in question, for better and for worse, so it is worth reiterating just how much the UK benefits from one of its key pillars: foreign investment. Foreign investors frequently make...
View ArticleHow Hungary’s elite made a fortune from the EU
The tiny countryside village of Felcsút has a knack for producing very wealthy men. In fact, it is connected to two of Hungary’s most powerful individuals, prime minister Viktor Orbán and Lőrinc...
View ArticleHow crisis in Lebanon is fuelling drug dependency
“Do you think I want to be microdosing Ketamine every day?”, asks Nadim Haroush*, a local living in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital city. “I’ve been self-medicating with it for over a year because I’m so...
View ArticleHow R&D can rebalance the economy
Blood clots, vaccine nationalism and a bitter stand-off with the EU. After much work, these were probably not the headlines the Oxford-AstraZeneca team had hoped for. Still, its vaccine remains a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why rapid transit systems in British cities lag behind Europe
Great Britain, pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, is the birthplace of the modern metro system: from the London Underground – a “vapour bath of hurried and discontented humanity”, as the artist and...
View ArticleHow the EU’s budget feud with Hungary is sparking demands for radical reform
Hungary and Poland’s recent veto of the EU’s proposed €1trn budget illustrates a recurring truth about EU institutions: that the consensus-based functioning of the world’s second-largest economy can be...
View ArticleWhy rational investors bankroll dangerous politics
One fact that should worry those celebrating Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election is that the number of people who voted for Donald Trump was much higher than the number who voted for him...
View ArticleWhat the great British washing-up bowl says about our economy
Many facets of British life raise eyebrows abroad – the liberal use of an “x” at the end of almost every text message is a case in point – but few provoke the same panic and despair as the discovery...
View ArticleWhy British coastal communities are being abandoned to the sea
The serenity of a sea-view property depends on how well protected you are from the powers of the ocean. This is the unavoidable caveat of homeownership along north Norfolk’s gentle coastline, a region...
View ArticlePolice report hundreds of crime victims a month to immigration service
Thousands of victims of domestic violence, child abuse and other crimes in the UK were referred for possible deportation after calling the police. In the two years since May 2020, 2,656 crime victims...
View ArticleClik here to view.
China’s surveillance tech spreads in Serbian cities
Eight years ago, when Aleksandar Vučić was just prime minister of Serbia, a criminal was on the loose following a hit-and-run in Belgrade. Weeks later the perpetrator, one Marko Milić, was tracked down...
View ArticleCould mass home-working “level up” the economy?
After living in Brixton for almost a decade, Rohan and Naomi are finally making their great escape from the capital. “Now that we’re working from home, why wouldn’t we buy a house outside of London?”,...
View ArticleThe space race: how Covid-19 is driving renters to the suburbs
For many people, the adjustment to coronavirus-era home-working has not been easy. A quick scroll through social media, and the outpourings over staring at the same four walls are plentiful. “I...
View ArticleTrumponomics was always a lie
Voting data from the 2020 US presidential election shows that among the 35 per cent of American voters for whom the economy was the most pressing issue, 82 per cent voted for Donald Trump. Trump has...
View ArticleThe freeport con
Addressing the nation in 1931, the leader of the Liberal Party and former prime minister, David Lloyd George, said: “No human system is perfect, but the system of freeports with all its faults has...
View Article
