News flash Infrastructure and Commodities

Infrastructure and Commodities

US President Biden has set out the first part of a grand infrastructure and jobs proposal, which will see $2 trillion ploughed into America’s infrastructure and its shift to greener energy. The White House plans to pay for the proposal by raising corporate taxes and eliminating tax breaks for fossil fuels. The massive spending on…

News flash When stimulus is withdrawn…

When stimulus is withdrawn…

Generous central bank and government stimulus programmes have helped to keep the world economy and equity markets afloat since the start of the pandemic. As vaccination drives accelerate across the globe, economists and analysts are speculating about what will happen when these programmes run to an end. Equity markets in China offer us some insight,…

News flash Environmental concerns and human rights under the investment spotlight

Environmental concerns and human rights under the investment spotlight

Fund managers around the world are scrutinising human rights and environmental concerns in their investment decisions. BlackRock—which last year committed to selling stakes in fossil fuel companies—has signalled that it now plans to press companies about their policies related to human rights, as well as biodiversity, deforestation and water. Economists forecast that a failure to…

News flash News Flash – Taxing the Wealthy

News Flash – Taxing the Wealthy

This week’s News Flash does not include much on current affairs, focusing instead on the highly topical and contentious subject of taxing wealthy individuals. As we show in our headline article for the week, a wealth tax is not a new (nor a necessarily good) idea, but it is one that has gained traction in…

News flash News Flash – The Year of the Vaccine

News Flash – The Year of the Vaccine

Whilst 2020 will undoubtedly go down in history as the year of the Covid-19 pandemic, we suggest that 2021 will be the year of the vaccine. This week’s news covers articles on the unprecedented and sheer logistical scale of the global vaccine roll out. Yet poorer emerging markets are likely to lag behind their wealthier…