Weekend Reading
In case you missed it…
Our pick of industry shaping news from the past week within the financial space that we think you’ll love too from Rosely Group’s Global Head of Content, Liam Thomson.
Friday 1st September
What we are reading in the UK
In a surprising piece of good news for the embattled UK Conservative Party, it emerged this week that, contrary to previous assertions, the UK economy has actually recovered in line with other G7 nations post-pandemic. The revision from the Office for National Statistics added an impressive two percent growth to UK GDP according to the Financial Times. Expect some stern rebukes to the ONS over the next week.
https://www.ft.com/content/50386cc2-003b-4af1-946b-cf3243da810f
There has been much criticism recently of how the Bank of England has handled the stalling UK economy and ongoing inflation. This article in CapX takes a deeper dive into this question and argues that the BoE needs to ditch Keynesianism, and embrace Monetarism. The piece argues that the BoE’s models don’t account for the impact of money supply.
https://capx.co/the-bank-of-england-needs-to-own-up-to-its-monetary-mismanagement/
As in many Western countries, housing supply has become a perennial issue holding back family formation and eroding the middle class. Calls to ease regulation and build more houses lead to concerns about environmental and other impacts, while the ongoing lack of supply combined with significant population growth leaves the government, not to mention millions of citizens, in a bind. In this article for The Critic, the author argues that regulation should be a guide, not a bind.
What we are reading about it the US
Figures just out from the US show an unexpected jump in the unemployment rate from 3.5% to 3.8%, indicating that the world’s biggest economy might be slowing down. With a Presidential election on the horizon, these figures will be unwelcome at the White House and will likely push the Fed to curtail any further base rate rises.
https://www.ft.com/content/203c925e-3f65-44b1-b3aa-a86caa416d0c
With Republican figures in the dock over alleged involvement in the events of January 6th, President Biden’s team are now preparing for possible moves to impeach the President over allegations of wrong-doing by the Biden family, in particular Hunter Biden. While team Biden sounds bullish about the possibility of impeachment, they’re nevertheless taking it seriously enough to appoint a team of lawyers and allies. With the Presidential election still a long way out, the race is already shaping up to be an acrimonious one.
This article from Politico tells the disturbing and relatively unknown story of Dan Rapoport. Rapoport was a strident critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who fell from an apartment building in DC in circumstances which remain unexplained. US law enforcement will no doubt be considering attacks on Russian citizens in the UK and other countries as they look into this case.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/09/01/putin-critic-death-washington-00113695