You may have heard the ‘gig economy’ being thrown around in recent articles and on the news but what does it mean? What do gigs have to do with the economy? Has there been an increase in concerts lately? Have One Direction finally gotten back together?* Although you would be forgiven for assuming so, the gig economy actually has nothing to do with the musical type of gigs. The gig […]

Saudi Arabia – a G20 country which sets the record for having the biggest oil reserves in the world – is increasingly being defined as one of the hottest emerging markets of the moment. What’s behind the Kingdom’s recent popularity are the numerous reforms (both social and economic) that the Saudis aim at introducing in the next decade. Their main objective is to diversify their oil-dependent economy and make it […]

Take your mind back 10 years to the financial crisis. US banks gave out a flurry of subprime mortgages, created collateralized debt obligations, house prices fell and interest rates rose, and then the bubble burst. Subprime borrowers could not meet the higher interest rates, the defaults flooded in and banks were faced with serious liquidity problems. Despite the Feds best efforts, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, Indymac collapsed, Bear Stearns […]

Big Commercial Stories | November 2018 UK Digital Services Tax: The UK has proposed to introduce a 2% digital services tax in April 2020. This would be levied on UK-generated revenues of “specific digital business models”, like search engines, social media platforms and online marketplaces, with global revenues of at least £500m. This tax aims to ensure that large technology companies pay their “fair share” of taxes on the profits […]

Good old Europe is currently facing another internal crisis. This time it sees Italy and the European Commission playing chicken over Rome’s new spending plans. Italy remains defiant over its proposed budget for 2019, whilst Brussels refuses to accept the budget. Both parties are waiting for their ‘opponent’ to blink first and come to a compromise. This escalating standoff has created anxiety within the financial markets, and has caught the […]