Mihir Sharma

Andy Burnham needs to recognize the main reason that he is going to be the UK’s next prime minister: He is not Keir Starmer. The man currently in No. 10 has tied himself to a manifesto that won him a landslide in 2024. Burnham should worry about what might win in 2029.

There is no surer indication that a government is running out of spending money than ministers casting a covetous eye over pension funds.

The rift between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is spilling over from geopolitics into global finance. Global banks — long accustomed to treating the Gulf as a single, large and obliging wallet — are now being forced to make difficult choices, preparing for a time when money, people and assets might not flow as freely across the region as they do now. Together with the impacts of the Iran war, this has upended their notions of how the Gulf works.

Notion that Saudi Arabia and UAE, not to mention Qatar, were basically variations on the same market had a certain seductive appeal, writes journalist Mihir Sharma.

Spain is having a good summer. The economy is forecast to grow 2.6% in 2026, far higher than the euro zone in general, and is expected to keep expanding by more than 2% in each of the next few years. The country has doubled its wind and power capacity since 2019, and is riding out Iran-related energy price turbulence far better than its European peers. And its football team just won the World Cup with a display of teamwork that stifled the world’s best attacking team, France, and then the bellig

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has begun his time at 10 Downing Street, and its new Manchester offshoot No. 10 North, by showering little gifts on his citizens. Bus fares in England will be capped at £2 ($2.70) after his predecessor raised them to £3. Business rates on pubs — “the beating heart of their communities,” according to Burnham — are being lowered. An additional tax on household electricity bills was cut to zero.

Generals lose their current wars by fighting the last one. And regulators in the City of London and on the continent are creating a new crisis because they’re making exactly that mistake.

London is, as Samuel Johnson said, as varied and exciting as life itself. It’s the sort of city nobody really wants to leave. People are, nonetheless, departing — in their tens of thousands. Last year, London’s population fell for only the third time in four decades, driven by an exodus of thirty and fortysomethings, especially those with children.

European stock markets are booming. But that doesn’t mean Europe is. Traditionally, a bet on European equities is actually a bet on growth everywhere else. The companies that make up the Stoxx Europe 600 — which has risen by about 12% this year — get almost half their revenues outside the continent, according to the index’s owners. America’s S&P 500 brings in less than 30% from elsewhere.

European stock markets are booming . But that doesn't mean Europe is. Traditionally, a bet on European equities is actually a bet on growth everywhere else.