Global Review The government have recently announced a 25% so-called windfall tax on the profits of large energy companies to help with the cost-of-living crisis. It is expected that this levy will raise roughly £5 billion to finance one-off grants of £650 to over 8 million of the poorest households in the country. The announcement was not positively received by big business or Conservative party politicians, who fear such taxes will do little to aid the cost of living but wi

In recent weeks, we’ve seen a lot of movement from central banks on their monetary policy, which is significant for global markets. The Reserve Bank of Australia increased its cash rate for the first time since 2010. A couple of days later, the Federal Reserve announced an extra-large hike of 50 basis points. Finally, the Bank of England returned its base rate to the highest level since 2009. Bond yields followed higher, with ten-year treasuries breaching three percent, while

Global Review In a surprise to the investment world, US GDP unexpectedly declined. According to the Commerce Department’s advance estimates (which will be revised), the US economy contracted at an annualised rate of 1.4% in the first quarter of this year, well below consensus expectations of somewhere near a 1% expansion. Another negative quarter will mean the US is in what’s called a ‘technical recession’ meaning two negative quarters of GDP. There were also positives in the