News and insights

Disseminated at a hyperbolic rate through social media’s ‘telescreens’, the ‘Ministry of Truth’ distributes ‘Newspeak’. Not George Orwell’s 1984, but now. Such truth has no intrinsic value, but it is shaping our world as audiences no longer trust ‘facts’.

The welfare state today is not fit for purpose. Its architects had not conceived it for a world of 90-year longevity, mass migration or a low interest rate environment. The mathematics of ‘Baby Boomers’ retiring plus low birth rates just does not add up.

With its history of hyper-inflation and populist governments, Latin America is frequently overlooked. Corruption, a shrinking economy and a deadly virus might sound like a script for a Hollywood movie, but could the region see democracy returning?

Einstein is said to have defined insanity as doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. In Wriston’s Law of Capital and Sleeper pins, A Ineichen has defined ‘going Venezuela’ as doing the wrong thing repeatedly with great conviction.

It doesn’t matter whether or not Trump wins on 8 November because the populism genie is out of the bottle. It is now clear that peak globalisation lies behind us.

In 2013, Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne estimated that by 2033 some 47% of jobs in the US could be replaced by computers. For many in financial services, this will not come as a surprise as machines are already able to carry out certain trades.