MoneyWeek

George Santos is at the centre of one of the “more bizarre political scandals in American history”, says Vox. The newly elected Republican Congressman for New York (pictured) touted an impressive CV. Santos, aged 34, claimed that he had graduated fro

Kazuo Ueda is a “surprise choice” to replace Haruhiko Kuroda as governor of the Bank of Japan (BoJ), say Tetsushi Kajimoto and Leika Kihara on Reuters. The post had been expected to go to a career banker from inside the BoJ but the government has nom

Bjørn Gulden has been chief executive of Adidas for just six weeks, but he’s already warning that year one will be a mess, says Bernhard Warner in The New York Times. The giant German sportswear firm saw its share price fall more than 12% at the end

“In a £2.5trn economy driven by billions of private transactions… the interventions of… chancellors… have little bearing on big economic trends… the Tories… claimed credit for the unemployment rate… falling to levels last seen in 1974. This ‘jobs mir

In 2020 and 2021, US investors piled into environmental, social and governance (ESG)-focused funds amid excitement about the Biden administration’s green agenda, says Bloomberg. In 2021 ESG mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) took in a net

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) “came down squarely against Microsoft’s proposed $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard” last week, says Kyle Orland on Ars Technica. The regulator said that the deal risks “weakening the important r

Credit Suisse has warned investors of “further pain to come” after reporting its worst annual loss since the 2008 financial crisis, says Ben Martin in The Times. The bank’s shares dropped by almost 15% after it said that losses in the fourth quarter

The Mail on Sunday More frequent natural disasters and geopolitical turmoil have reminded insurance companies that they also need insurance. That’s driving demand for the speciality reinsurance work done by this firm, which says that premiums are ris

Lower demand for drugs giant Pfizer’s blockbuster Covid vaccine and its Paxlovid antiviral treatment for the same disease has seen the shares fall 30% since a peak of $59.48 in late 2021, says Andrew Bary in Barron’s. Yet management hopes that a comb

Plans by Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu to have judges appointed by the government and to curb the right of courts to rule on constitutional issues have “provoked a storm of protest”, says The Times. At least 70,000 demonstrated against the move outs

The Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution Care Company is a charity that owns 17 care homes in England and Wales. It needs to renovate older properties to suit residents with Alzheimer’s and other conditions better, so it’s aiming to raise £10m throug

It’s been three weeks since the Indian conglomerate Adani Group was accused by a short-seller of “pulling the largest con in corporate history” through alleged “stock manipulation, accounting fraud, and other malfeasance”, says Astha Rajvanshi for Ti

Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation as Scotland’s first minister may have come as a “surprise to just about everyone in Scottish politics”, but her Bute House speech was clearly not “drafted at the last minute”, says Glenn Campbell on the BBC. After more t

When Rishi Sunak announced the decision to raise Britain’s rate of corporation tax from 19% to 25% back when he was still chancellor, it was sold as a necessary step to restore the public finances, and one that would have a negligible impact on busin

● Anwar Pervez built Bestway from a single convenience store into Britain’s largest independent wholesaler, says Andrea Felsted on Bloomberg. Now his decision to invest in Sainsbury looks “equally inspired”. The 4.5% stake that he’s built up in the U

I’m writing this only a few hours after Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon announced her resignation, but already there are several active markets on who her successor will be, writes Matthew Partridge. With £4,268 matched on Smarkets, former

A few years ago, I made small investments in some of the alternative income funds that were listing on the London Stock Exchange. This was partly because yields seemed decent and partly because we were covering them a lot in MoneyWeek at the time and

Vladimir Putin has “lost the energy war” and the worst of the natural gas and electricity shortage in Europe is past, says Pierre Andurand, one of the best-known hedge-fund managers specialising in energy. “Very high natural gas and power prices in E

The capitalisation rate (or cap rate) is used to value real-estate investments. It is calculated as annual net operating income (NOI) produced by a property, divided by the current value of the property. In turn, net operating income is the income th

Heather Long The Washington Post The US is experiencing an “almost ‘too good to be true’ economy”, says Heather Long. Economics textbooks say that lowering inflation (by raising interest rates) should lead to layoffs, yet unemployment is at its lo

“My whole goal in life is to be able to afford my own farm… Even as a teenager, I never really sat down in front of a television. I was always out trying to make the money to be able to accomplish my goals.” Kaleb Cooper (pictured), co-star of Cla

spectator.co.uk A manager recently told me that everyone is primarily interested in one of three things, says Rory Sutherland. “To motivate them, all you need to do is discover which one drives them most.” Those three things are power, money and au

capx.co The commitment to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 was nodded through by MPs without debate and no formal vote, says Ross Clark. “It didn’t take long to discover that MPs had handed the government a very powerful – and deeply perver

bankunderground.co.uk Following the financial crisis of 2007-2008, remuneration regulations were introduced with the aim of discouraging excessive risk-taking and short-termism in banks, say Qun Harris, Ieva Sakalauskaite and Misa Tanaka. One such

The appointment of a new CEO at Kohl’s, the struggling US department-store chain, is the latest victory for activists in the sector, says Barron’s. Tom Kingsbury, who has been interim CEO since December, will now get the job on a permanent basis. Kin

■ Analysts have “derided” the move by the Jupiter-run Chrysalis Investments trust to buy shares in Starling Bank that were being sold by Jupiter open-ended funds, says Investors’ Chronicle. Starling was already Chrysalis’s third-largest investment an

Serious collectors of air miles know that unless you travel a lot, what you earn from flights will be outstripped by maximising sign-up bonuses from credit cards, subscriptions and other deals. At the moment, there are two unusually generous offers f

The main snag with air miles and other loyalty schemes is that the operators can change how they work at any point. For example, one benefit of Avios is that since January 2021, they could be swapped with Nectar points to use in Sainsbury’s, Argos, e

● Tax specialists and solicitors are calling on the government to extend the 12-month window in which people can claim loss relief on share price falls against inheritance tax to as long as two years, says Mary McDougall in the Financial Times. Inher

While a spate of high-profile ransomware attacks on organisations such as Royal Mail have made headlines in recent weeks, the biggest threat of all is to smaller businesses. One recent study found that businesses with fewer than 500 employees account

● The cost of bank loans to small businesses has increased more than five-fold over the past three years, according to new research from UHY Hacker Young, an accountancy firm. The average business loan to small businesses currently carries an interes

Last year was one of the most challenging on record. With the year now behind us, the focus is on the outlook for 2023, which has got off to a promising start despite continuing fears of a recession ahead. While a new year and fresh start is certainl

Copper miner Antofagasta is upbeat about the outlook for 2023 after coping with higher input costs and an ongoing drought in Chile over the past year, says City AM. The company – which is listed in London, but has all its mines in Chile – produced 64

Online wine retailer Naked Wines was a favourite during the pandemic, but has fallen from favour since restrictions ended, says Motley Fool. The firm has now backed away from the “growth at all costs” model that it was previously following and the mo

When Pakistani-American billionaire Shahid Khan took his 13-year-old son to a professional wrestling event in Philadelphia in 1996, he had no idea what he was getting into. The boy became hooked, says Bloomberg Businessweek. He glued himself to TV to

In the 1970s, oil prices surged as the global economic boom of the past two decades shifted the balance of power in favour of the oil producers. The oil market was given a further boost when many of the world’s largest oil-producing countries decided

“The Alpine A110R is billed as the ultimate version of the French sports carmaker’s mid-engine A110, a hardcore range-topper that’s honed for the racetrack, but still usable on the road,” says Ben Barry for Car magazine. “Alpine’s answer to the Porsc

2021 Pouilly-Fumé, Petit F…, Domaine Michel Redde et Fils, Loire, France £20.90, greatgrog.co.uk; £25.50, ampswine merchants.co.uk; £23, oxfordwine.co.uk I adore Michel Redde’s portfolio of stunning sauvignon blancs. They typify the elegance and r

A Moral Reckoning Nigel Biggar William Collins, £25 The big debate about the legacy of the British Empire has got heated in recent years. Many argue that history shows that the story of Britain is “one with nothing but racism”, one for which we mus

Editor: Andrew Van Sickle Markets editor: Alexander Rankine Comment editor: Stuart Watkins Politics editor: Emily Hohler Wealth editor: Chris Carter Shares editor: Matthew Partridge Staff writer: Jasper Spires Senior digital editor: Kalpana Fitzpatri

£2.3bn The fine the government has paid to the European Union, because HMRC had failed to check the impossibly low valuations put on Chinese consignments of clothing and shoes arriving in the UK over six years, while Britain was still an EU member. €