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“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 miracle’... was said to be a vindication of [their] fiscal policy and welfare reforms… Yet there were other forces. Between 2007 and 2020, the share of the population using the internet increased by 20 percentage points… Where once jobseekers dug through classified ads… now they peruse multiple platforms online to find appropriate vacancies… blanket internet coverage [lowers] unemployment… Unemployment rates have fallen across most wealthy countries since the 2000s… Just because something happens on a government’s watch, doesn’t mean it caused it.”…

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 rivalry between Xbox and PlayStation gaming consoles”. It is worried about competition in cloud gaming, where Microsoft accounts for 60%-70% of the global market. The decision is not final, but it represents “the largest setback yet for a deal that has faced increasing scrutiny from governments worldwide”. The CMA’s judgement is “likely to set the tone for US and European counterparts”, says Alistair Osborne in The Times. It proposes Microsoft divest some of Activision’s business, such as its Call of Duty franchise – a condition “guaranteed to blow up the deal”. You have to…

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 combined flu/Covid vaccine using mRNA technology will prove a perennial money-spinner. The firm faces a nasty patent cliff between 2025 and 2028, but its non-Covid pipeline is “stronger than it’s given credit for”. Rising spending on research and development, and acquisitions, will also help grow the stable of future drug candidates. On 13 times projected 2023 earnings, the shares are inexpensive, while the 3.7% dividend yield means investors are being paid to wait.…

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 than eight years in the role, to many she had become “the face of Scottish independence”. Recently, however, her reputation has taken “a nosedive” and she had been “losing her once iron grip on the SNP”, says Chris Deerin in The New Statesman. Many of her “travails” were “self-inflicted”, such as her unpopular and “ill-considered gender legislation” which was blocked by Westminster. Public services including health and education remain “steadfastly unreformed”. The SNP has also become “bitterly divided about the most effective path to securing independence”, with many…

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 Scottish National Party deputy leader Angus Robertson is favourite to succeed Sturgeon at 2.28 (43.8%), with cabinet secretary for finance and the economy Kate Forbes in second place at 5.7 (17.5%). Deputy first minister John Swinney is at 7 (14.3%), and cabinet secretary for health and social care Humza Yousaf is at 7.6 (13.2%). Ladbrokes also has Robertson favourite at 1/1 (50%), with Forbes at 5/2 (28.6%), Swinney at 7/1 (12.5%), justice minister Keith Brown at 8/1 (11.1%) and Yousaf at 10/1 (9.1%). If you think Forbes has a chance, then William…

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 business. After all, our rate was significantly lower than France, Germany and even the US, and higher rates there had done little to harm productivity and growth. It didn’t seem fair that firms should pay less than ordinary individual taxpayers, especially when many of the tech giants were paying virtually nothing. It was time big business paid a little more, ran the argument, and most would be perfectly happy to do so. The thinking behind the hike It is not working out as planned. Last week,…

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 that a property generates – which will usually mostly be rent, but may include other recurring income – minus the operating expenses. It does not deduct the costs of financing the investment, such as interest payments on a mortgage. Let’s assume that a property produces NOI of £5,000 per year and is valued at £100,000. Then the cap rate is 5% (£5,000 ÷ £100,000). Conversely, let’s assume that the average cap rate for recent transactions on a series of comparable properties is 7.5% and we have a property with…

“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 Clarkson’s Farm, quoted in Country Living “Learning to skate for Dancing on Ice was incredible and I got £35,000. I’m very aware that my job is not arduous – 20% always goes to my agent, but 80% of something is better than 100% of nothing.” Skier Graham Bell, quoted in The Sunday Times “Big banks dislike me with a passion. We’ve lent more than £30m to thousands of people and businesses across the UK. We’re a tiny little community financial operation.…

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 autonomy. Much is written about the first two, but little thought is devoted to the latter. Yet it is probably the need for autonomy that drives people to become entrepreneurs, much more so than greed. People who value autonomy are happy to be told what needs to be done, but they want leeway to apply imagination, creativity and their own tacit knowledge in deciding how to do it. This is hardly unreasonable as, without this discretion, it is impossible to cultivate skills. “Much of the pleasure and purpose of…

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. Kingsbury was originally appointed to the Kohl’s board in 2021 after being nominated by activist Macellum. Still, “investors may have wished Macellum had gained the upper hand much earlier”. The firm has been pushing Kohl’s to sell itself and in March 2022, there were reports of a $9bn bid. Today, its market value is half that. “It’s hard to see Kohl’s stock nearly doubling to where it traded last spring,” but Macelleum “will at least now have a chance to implement some of the changes it has been…

● 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. Inheritance tax is calculated on what a deceased person’s assets were worth on the day they died. Loss relief can be claimed on shares sold at a lower price within 12 months, but they cannot be sold until probate is granted. Long delays in granting probate – especially with postal applications and cases with complications – mean some executors are losing the chance to claim. “Housing assets benefit from a much longer claims window… loss relief can be claimed if it is sold within four years from date…

● 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 interest rate of 5.84%, up from 0.98% in May 2020. Rates could rise further in the next few months as the Bank of England continues to tighten monetary policy. ● Could helping your staff give money to charity improve employee satisfaction and improve your corporate social responsibility credentials? This February marks the 35th year of the Payroll Giving Month campaign, in which charities try to encourage more companies to set up donation schemes for staff. Companies that set up such schemes enable staff to donate from the pre-tax salaries, which…

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 most recent quarterly update contained “rather upbeat” figures. Trading over the crucial holiday period was said to be solid and operating profits are projected to be £13m-17m, up from previous forecasts of £9m-1£3m. However, management said that “medium-term conditions remain challenging”. The share price is down by 73% over the last 12 months.…

£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. €74,000 The cost of two years’ schooling for Princess Sofía, the youngest daughter of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain, at UWC Atlantic College in Wales. Her older sister, Princess Leonor, will be leaving the school after the summer. $3.8bn The record-high value of cryptocurrency stolen from around the world last year, up from $3.3bn in 2021, according to a report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. North Korean hackers are thought to have stolen the most – $1.7bn in 2022. £4.4bn How much of taxpayers’…

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 from two major New York universities, worked at two top Wall Street firms, was a producer on the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and ran an animal rescue charity. None of these statements turned out to be true. His finances are equally odd. Santos listed millions of dollars in assets, including a $1m flat in Rio de Janeiro, and an annual income of $750,000, and loaned his campaign $700,000. That’s “a major shift in fortune for someone who was evicted twice… for failing to pay rent”, was charged…

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 nominated a 71-year-old academic. However, the “pragmatist” Ueda may be better placed than an insider to draw a line under the easy-money policies that Kuroda spent the past decade deploying in an effort to “shock the public out of a deflationary mindset”. Kuroda’s yield-curve control (YCC) policy – which involves the bank setting targets for government-bond yields – may be on the way out once Ueda takes over in April, given that inflation in Japan is above target and other major economies are raising rates.…

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 were CHF1.39bn (£1.24bn). The weak results are worrying as they come amid a “far-reaching restructuring” by new CEO Ulrich Körner, who took charge last August and is trying to revive the bank’s fortunes after a series of “scandals and mishaps”. The losses weren’t the only “downright horrible” figures, says Patrick Jenkins in the Financial Times. The sense that Credit Suisse is losing the confidence of its customers will be fuelled by the news that the wealth management business has shed CHF93bn (15% of assets under management) in…

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 through a new retail bond, says The Mail on Sunday. The bond, which will be traded on the London Stock Exchange’s Order Book for Retail Bonds (Orb), will pay an annual interest rate of 6.25% and have a maturity of six years. During the initial public offering, which closes on 27 February, it has a minimum purchase of £500 and is available through most major UK brokers. Once admitted to Orb, it will trade in multiples of £100 par value, like other retail bonds.…

● 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 UK’s second-biggest supermarket has little downside. Pervez says he isn’t considering a takeover bid and Sainsbury’s £6.2bn market cap would be a “big stretch” for his group, which also includes a bank and cement business in Pakistan. “But what if the endgame is not an acquisition of Sainsbury, but the supermarket buying Bestway?” Tesco spent £4bn to buy Booker, Bestway’s bigger rival, five years ago. That deal seems to have worked out. Bestway’s wholesale arm generated £2.9bn of sales and £71m pretax profit last year. That might value it at £1.2bn.…

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 Europe were extremely bad for the world economy, but now they have come back to a more reasonable level,” he tells the Financial Times. “If gas prices stay here there will be much less worry about inflation and interest-rates rises. There’s no more fear of an energy crisis.” The decision to use energy as a political weapon and slash supplies to Europe after invading Ukraine was a “massive miscalculation” by Putin. “Russia has lost its biggest customer forever, and it will take at least a decade to bring enough…

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 perverse – incentive.” It is not widely understood that Britain’s net-zero target only refers to what is emitted on its own territory. It excludes aviation, shipping and emissions generated elsewhere in the world to produce food and other goods for British consumers. Total emissions based on what we actually consume are falling much more slowly than the more impressive figure quoted by the government. That latter figure only looks so good due to the decline in UK manufacturing and heavy industry. “When the government asks us…

■ 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 and the £20m of shares that it’s buying will take its stake to 15% of net asset value (NAV) – one of the larger single-stock holdings among investment trusts, say analysts at Winterflood. This presents “a risk which investors should monitor closely, particularly given [Starling’s] youth, single-country exposure and vibrant competitive landscape”. Analysts at Stifel cut their rating on Chrysalis from “hold” to “sell”, saying that “our main concern is the limited cash that Chrysalis has on its balance sheet”. The Starling purchase and other follow-on investments will reduce cash to 4% of NAV, Stifel…

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 for British Airways’ Avios available, plus a third that’s worth a punt. Two of these deals involve credit cards. To give the usual warning, rewards and cashback credit cards are only suitable for those who pay off their full bill every month. They have high interest rates and will cost you far more than you earn if you carry a balance. The most generous of these deals is a sign-up bonus of 70,000 Avios when you take out a British Airways American Express Premium Plus credit card and spend £3,000…

When the owners of St Albans-based noodle shop Ramen Electra decided it needed financing to fulfil its potential, they hadn’t expected a visit from a government minister. But as the recipient of award number 100,000 from the Start Up Loans scheme, the government-backed initiative aimed at new businesses, Ramen Electra got some helpful publicity when small-business minister Kevin Hollinrake turned up to mark the moment. Ramen Electra started up during the pandemic lockdown, serving takeaways through the window of a local pub, The Beehive. Then, in the aftermath of the pandemic, founder and chef James Fraser decided to make a full-time go of the new venture and serve meals six days a week as the pub’s main food offering. Earlier this month, the business received £6,000 from the Start Up…

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 certainly welcomed by investors, we are still facing many of the same challenges. On a positive note, US equities have already priced in a lot of pain and multiples have compressed to average long-term levels. On the other hand, we are just starting to see earnings revise down, and there is probably more to come. Our analyst earnings forecast for 2023 shows a decline of 4% for the S&P 500. Once we get through the post-pandemic normalisation, we expect earnings growth to resume,…

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 watch Monday Night Raw – one of the hit shows aired by Vince McMahon’s all-conquering World Wrestling Entertainment group. Twenty-three years later, when Tony Khan outlined plans to launch a competitor to this towering brand, his father’s reaction was: “Are you nuts”? But Tony talked him into bankrolling the venture, dubbed All Elite Wrestling (AEW), which launched in January 2019. “I thought the odds were very much against us,” Khan senior told the Financial Times. As the owner of sporting franchises, including Britain’s Fulham FC and the American football team…

“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 Porsche Cayman GT4,” this update to the A110 and A110S has made the car lighter (its total weight of 1,082kg is positively miraculous compared with rival brands), tauter to handle, and provides more direct feedback from the road. “The A110R successfully uncorks the base car’s” potential to go faster with a “much more precise, planted feel and nicer steering too. It gives its driver confidence.” The top speed of the A110R is 177mph, and it will launch itself off the start line from 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds – three tenths…

Pandemic Diaries The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle against Covid Matt Hancock and Isabel Oakeshott Biteback Publishing, £25 As health secretary for just under three years from July 2018 to June 2021, Matt Hancock was one of the main figures in the UK government’s response to the Covid pandemic. His legacy, however, will be forever defined by revelations of an affair with an aide at a time when he was still telling the public to socially distance, which led to his resignation. Pandemic Diaries, co-written with political journalist Isabel Oakeshott, is his attempt to make the case for the decisions that he took during the 18 months from the emergence of the virus in China to his departure. The book is nominally based on a diary he kept during this…

The “happy globalisation… of the 1990s [is] well and truly over”, says Marie Charrel in Le Monde. At last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos the globe’s economic elites were “haunted by doubt” and anxiety as the post-Cold War economic model crumbles. “The United States has declared technological war on China by drastically limiting its exports of electronic chips” and the world’s major trading blocs are pushing to “re-regionalise” supply chains. The vision of a world where businesses trade effortlessly across borders is fading. International trade as a percentage of world GDP peaked at 61% in 2008, but it has stagnated over the past decade. Yet “globalisation is changing, rather than dying”, says Martin Wolf in the Financial Times. In recent years governments and businesses have become more aware of…

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 of last week, after it issued its fourth profit warning in six months and said it expected big losses in 2023. The main reason for this is Adidas’ “messy split” last year with musician Ye (formerly known as Kanye West), which came about after his increasingly controversial behaviour culminated in an antisemitic rant. Adidas has now been left with a “mountain of unsold inventory” from the Yeezy line of trainers that it developed with Ye. Shareholders were expecting bad news since Adidas had…

Six to buy Conduit Holdings 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 rising by as much as 60%. The “highly specialised” nature of reinsurance keeps a lid on competition. The firm listed in December 2020 and boasts “well-placed contacts... smart underwriters and plenty of experience”. The shares should yield an attractive 6.5%, making this a good pick for income seekers. 450p Hilton Foods Shares Shares in this global meat- and fish-packing business were shaken by two profit warnings last year, but a recovery may finally be under way. The company, which processes and packages food for major retailers across Europe,…

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 outside Israel’s parliament as president Isaac Herzog warned that political polarisation had brought Israel “to the brink of constitutional and social collapse”. The criticism was echoed by senior bankers, executives in the tech sector, a former head of the Mossad intelligence agency, and the Biden administration. The issue is more complicated than it seems, says The Wall Street Journal. Israel’s Supreme Court has more power than America’s, but without the democratic checks and balances, or even a written constitution. Israel’s court is able to strike down laws that it…

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 I try to have some skin in the game on major themes to help me analyse them. Many of these looked very attractive on the surface, yet my overall results were more or less breakeven and there were a couple of notable flops. I don’t hold any of these anymore, largely because that changed my income strategy. My first step now is to decide whether I am investing in a true asset, or whether I am providing a way for somebody to offload their liabilities.…

America’s miraculous economy 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 lowest since 1969. Rolled-over savings from the pandemic stimulus have played a part, but the “most plausible explanation” is that Covid and the subsequent recovery were “so unusual that the normal rules” don’t apply. Demand surged, prices spiked and people had the cash to pay more. Now there’s a “right-sizing” as demand subsides. Goods inflation is down; services inflation may follow. Can it last? With profit margins falling, executives are calling it the “year of efficiency”, but because it’s a fall from such high levels, it may not…

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 regulation was the bonus-cap rule introduced in the EU and UK in 2014 with the aim of mitigating excessive risk-taking by limiting the reward from risky bets. The rule limited the variable pay of bankers making such trades to no more than 100% of their fixed pay, or 200% with shareholders’ approval – it limits the ratio of variable-to-fixed pay, but does not limit the total pay or bonus amount. The literature examining whether this has worked in practice is not encouraging. A 2018 study found that the risk-adjusted performance of EU banks actually deteriorated after the cap…

Shares in RIT Capital Partners (LSE: RCP), the £4bn trust controlled by the Rothschild family, fell to a 16% discount to net asset value (NAV) following a negative write up in The Telegraph, sourced from a research note by Alan Brierley at Investec. Some are arguing that the shares are now compelling value as investment performance is likely to improve and so the discount will narrow or disappear. But buying trusts primarily because of a wide discount is not justified if the performance is poor and there is no evidence of an improvement. A NAV return of 44% over five years is behind global indices (52%), although a little ahead over three (at 28%). Underperformance may be a price worth paying if it means a smoother ride. This is what…

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, eBay and Caffè Nero. The exchange rate both ways was 250 Avios to 400 Nectar. But in November, the rate when going from Avios to Nectar changed to 300:400. This is not only a devaluation, but means that swapping points back and forth now incurs a loss. Or take recent changes BA made to the way that Avios are redeemed for bookings on long-haul flights. The changes are too complex to summarise here, but they work out okay for users with large Avios balances. Yet…

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 for 70% of all ransomware attacks in the UK – and that half of those targeted end up paying the cybercriminals. However, simple steps will go a long way towards protecting your business. Above all, make sure everyone in your business understands the importance of cybersecurity practices. All employees should know never to click on links in email from unknown senders and never to download software or other files from unknown sites. Impose a ban on the use of unfamiliar USB devices in the business, since these are a common…

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 646,200 tonnes, down 10% from 2022. However, output showed signs of recovery in the last quarter of the year, up 7.6% quarter-on-quarter. Antofagasta is forecasting production of between 670,000 and 710,000 tonnes in 2023. Copper prices have recently rallied, due in part to expectations of stronger demand from China. The shares are up by 28% over the past year.…

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 to work together to push prices upwards, in part to punish the US for its support of Israel. Prices surged more than tenfold from an average of $2.96 per barrel in 1970 to a high of $39 in 1981. This led to an economic boom in the oil-rich Gulf, particularly in relatively small countries such as Kuwait. What was the trade? The influx of wealth led to a stock boom. When it started to collapse in 1976, the Kuwati government stepped in to bail out those…

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 restraint of this oft-tuttifrutti variety. In addition, they sing of the limestone, marl and flint soils uniquely responsible for the poise and precision of these wines. On this page, back in July 2019, I alerted you to a “perfect-score” sauvignon blanc – Redde’s 2017 Barre à Mine. This is the only wine made from this famous grape I have awarded 20/20. The other day, I tasted 2020 Barre à Mine (£44.99, vivino.com), and it is utterly spellbinding. Made in tiny quantities, if you adore this grape, then you must make it your mission to drink this celestial wine…

Colonialism 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 must atone, says Trevor Phillips in the Sunday Times. Indeed, some seem to think that it is wrong to debate the topic at all. Former professor Nigel Biggar thinks that such views are overly simplistic and ignore “the messiness and moral compromises” inherent in history. He has therefore disregarded the “keep out signs” and written Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, with the aim of bringing some nuance to the debate. The book is impressive and “carries the intellectual force of a Javelin antitank missile”. This…

Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell has what must be the most powerful lower mandible in human history: if it moves up and down, and tells the world that the fight against inflation is over, well, in a matter of hours, there will be millions more millionaires. If, on the other hand, it insists that it will take the Fed’s key rate to 9.5% – 3% higher than consumer price inflation – then you would see billion-dollar businesses collapse in a heap and billionaires suddenly homeless, penniless, and friendless. A woman may start up a coffee shop. She borrows money. She does the maths. At 5% interest, the numbers work. The shop prospers. But if the interest rate is forced up, say to 7%, then all of a sudden the expenses…