Headlines
Americas
How to await the apocalypse in style
RON HUBBARD sells high-end fallout shelters, and business is booming. Just $144,999 (fiat currency, not gold), buys a 500-square-foot, sandblasted, tar-coated, modular fallout shelter with a bulletproof hatch, decontamination shower, gas-tight interior doors, L-shaped entry “to attenuate gamma radiation”, kitchen, bathroom, sleeping space for a...
Bolivia’s Evo Morales faces his toughest re-election battle yet
“BOLIVIA IS AN insurrectionary nation,” declares Norma Berno, a tiny woman with piercing eyes at a “rally for democracy” on October 10th in La Paz, the administrative capital. In the early 2000s she demonstrated in favour of nationalising Bolivia’s large gas reserves, a cause whose popularity paved the way for Evo Morales, a coca farmer and...
The cost of Ecuador’s surrender on fuel subsidies
IT IS BECOMING a familiar story. In the aftermath of the South American commodity boom, a centrist president has to repair economic damage caused by a leftist populist and, either because of technical or political mistakes, botches the job. The IMF is blamed for measures that would be even more painful without its money. It has happened in Argentina....
If the Peronists win in Argentina, which Fernández will be in charge?
TRES DE FEBRERO, a grimy industrial suburb of Buenos Aires, is named for the date of a battle that took place nearby in 1852. The victorious general, Justo José de Urquiza, went on to promulgate Argentina’s federalist constitution. Today the district is a battleground in a national election whose result could be nearly as momentous. It pits President...
Home improvement for troglodytes
RON HUBBARD sells high-end fallout shelters, and business is booming. Just $144,999 (fiat currency, not gold), buys a 500-square-foot, sandblasted, tar-coated, modular fallout shelter with a bulletproof hatch, decontamination shower, gas-tight interior doors, L-shaped entry “to attenuate gamma radiation”, kitchen, bathroom, sleeping space for a...
Asia Pacific
SANNE appoints new business development director in Tokyo
Makoto Nagao, has been appointed to the newly created role of Director, Business Development adding further strength to SANNE’s Asia-Pacific business. With more than 35 years of experience, Nagao-san brings a wealth of knowledge, following a lengthy career with Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, SMFG. While he was at SMFG, Nagao-san was General Manager...
Crayfish.io launches UK’s first funded initiative to get businesses China-ready
A ground-breaking initiative with a £500k investment fund dedicated to helping UK businesses get ‘China-ready’ has been launched in Cambridge by global online platform, Crayfish.io. Starting in September, the Crayfish China Accelerator programme - which has secured UK-China Enterprise Ltd (UKCE), a Chinese-capital-backed VC fund, as its...
SANNE opens new office in Mumbai, India
SANNE, a leading global provider of alternative asset and corporate services has further extended its global reach with the opening of a new office in Mumbai, India. With existing offices in 18 leading international finance centres, SANNE now has a local presence in one of the world’s fastest growing alternative markets and is also pleased to announce...
SANNE secures new bookkeeping licence in China
SANNE, a leading global provider of alternative asset and corporate administration services obtains new bookkeeping licence in China boosting its already strong proposition. The new licence expands SANNE’s existing product offering in China, adding bookkeeping, accounting and tax preparation services for Chinese registered entities. Jing Jing...
SANNE appoints Country Head to lead its Singapore business
Adding further expertise and knowledge to its APAC business As a leading global provider of alternative asset and corporate business services, SANNE is pleased to announce the appointment of David Fowler to the role of Country Head − Singapore with immediate effect. Based in SANNE’s Singapore office, David will be taking over the role from Valérie...
Europe
Augusta raises additional $115m for litigation and dispute funding
Investment in response to growing demand from lawyers Augusta, the UK’s largest litigation and disputes funder by case volume announces it has raised a further US $115m from a multi-billion-dollar US-based investment manager. In 2018, Augusta secured £150m from a global investment fund, to finance business growth and investment in funding cases....
An affiliate of Sun European Partners announces that it has completed the sale of Famosa
Sun European Partners, LLP (“Sun European Partners” or “Sun”) today announces that one of its affiliates has completed the sale of Fábricas Agrupadas de Muñecas de Onil, S.A. (“Famosa” or “the Company”), a leading designer, developer, manufacturer and distributer of toys in Spain and throughout the world, to Giochi Preziosi S.p.A.. Famosa,...
Huge Tax Changes for Self-Employed Following Publication of New Legislation
On 11 July 2019, the Government published draft legislation outlining the IR35 changes coming to the private sector, which are expected to affect 250,000 businesses. The reform will impact users and suppliers of personal service company contractors in the private sector. Companies have only nine months to plan for the new off-payroll changes, as they...
Young people pick their banking partners for the future
Battle of the brands Generation Z calls the brands it will bank on in 2030 Britain Banks most trusted for handling payments and safe storage of dataTech brands first choice for creating smart, real-time servicesAs a sector, financial services scores poorly for ethics and positive social impact More than two in five young people (43%) believe that...
Alcentra Closes Significant Capital Raise for its European Direct Lending Strategy
Record €5.5 billion raise reflects strong investor demand, Alcentra’s track record of deployment and returns Alcentra, one of Europe’s largest and longest tenured managers of private debt and part of BNY Mellon Investment Management, has announced the close of its latest European direct lending capital raise. The firm has raised €5.5...
Mena
W.H.O. Continues Emergency Status for Ebola Outbreak in Congo
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is still a public health emergency and will be one for at least the next three months, the World Health Organization said on Friday.At the same time, “We believe we are on what could be a bumpy road to zero” new infections, said Dr. Michael Ryan, the agency’s director of emergency response.Confirmed...
Japan’s Success at World Cup Buoys Hopes for Rugby at Home
TOKYO — When the overlords of rugby a decade ago chose Japan to host this year’s Rugby World Cup, they hoped to spread the gospel of the sport beyond its traditional strongholds in Europe, Australia, South Africa and Argentina. A boost in participation in Asia, and maybe a few new sponsors and heightened interest from television broadcasters, seemed...
Wheels Up on More Flights to the African Continent
Want to plan a trip to Africa but are intimidated by the flight time? Your concern is reasonable. Flights from the United States to the African continent can take 30 or even 40 hours depending on the routing, and many travelers face lengthy layovers in Amsterdam or London, or Dubai or Doha in the Middle East. But that might be changing soon: Airlines...
Morocco’s King Pardons Journalist Sentenced on Abortion Charge
Morocco’s king has pardoned Hajar Raissouni, a journalist sentenced to a year in prison last month for extramarital sex and an abortion she denied having, the Justice Ministry said on Wednesday.The case of Ms. Raissouni, who had denied the charges against her, outraged human rights activists who said she had been targeted for her work for a newspaper...
‘We Looked to Escape Death’: Violence Uproots Nearly 500,000 in Burkina Faso
KOMSILGA COMMUNE, Burkina Faso — A wave of violent attacks and suspected terrorist activity in Burkina Faso has triggered a sudden humanitarian crisis, uprooting hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in what was once one of West Africa’s most tranquil nations.In the space of just three weeks, the number of internally displaced people...
International
Why onions and pigs can give economists a headache
IN FEBRUARY 2017 Verizon, an American mobile-phone carrier, started offering mobile-phone connections that put no limits on data. “Unlimited adventures, unlimited laughter, unlimited connections,” promised an advert. They might have added “unlimited woe for central bankers”. The category of inflation in which mobile-phone plans feature subsequently...
Economists’ models of inflation are letting them down
ONE OF THE economic models named after William Phillips is physical. The Phillips hydraulic computer uses flows of water to simulate flows of money in the economy; its success helped earn Phillips a job at the London School of Economics in 1950. Today economists can bring the full power of modern computing to their calculations. But they still...
Inflation is losing its meaning as an economic indicator
INFLATION USED to be the scourge of the world economy and the bane of American presidents. In 1971 amid an overheating economy Richard Nixon took to television to announce a freeze on “all prices and wages throughout the United States”. A board of bureaucrats ruled on what this meant for everything from golf club memberships to commodity futures....
Most, but not all, emerging markets have overcome high inflation
THIS YEAR marked a quarter of a century since Brazil beat hyperinflation with a conjuring trick. The old currency, the cruzeiro, had been debased, suffering annual price rises reaching 2,500%. Following the advice of a small group of economists, the government required firms to list prices and wages in “units of real value”, a new unit of account...
How to make economic policy fit for a world of low inflation
THE HISTORY of monetary policy is one of intermittent revolution. In the whole of the 19th century, constrained by the gold standard, America’s prices rose only 12%. After the second world war countries pegged their currencies to the dollar, which was in turn redeemable for gold. That system broke down in 1971 when it was abandoned by America. Its...