Author: Karen Newton

A cyberattack may begin with a software vulnerability, but its financial consequences can extend far beyond the computer system. From Japanese financial services to websites around the world, recent developments are highlighting the growing economic cost of protecting our digital infrastructure. We often think about cybersecurity as a technology problem. Something for the IT department,…

Is the growth of the second-hand market a warning about household finances, or are we witnessing a permanent change in how consumers think about ownership, spending and wealth? The second-hand market is changing. What was once associated with bargain hunting, financial necessity or disposing of unwanted possessions is becoming an increasingly normal part of consumer…

LVMH: When Luxury Becomes an Economic Warning Signal. What changing spending habits among the wealthy reveal about consumer confidence, global markets and the wider economy. When economies struggle, we generally expect consumers to reduce their spending. Rising living costs, economic uncertainty and concerns about employment all influence household budgets. But what happens when wealthy consumers…

The Scarcity Paradox: What Hermes can learn from Ferrari. This morning, a story about Hermès caught my attention. UBS has downgraded Hermès from Neutral to Sell, cutting its 12-month price target from €1,695 to €1,168. But it wasn’t the downgrade itself that interested me. It was the reason behind it. UBS believes that as Hermès…

NIO Geely announcement and what happens when two companies that could compete decide there is more value in connecting their systems instead? This week, Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer NIO announced a significant expansion of its relationship with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. On the surface, it is a deal involving battery swapping and EV charging. Look…

When Financial Markets become programmable, what happens next? The US Securities and Exchange Commission has opened the door to something that could ultimately change the way we think about share trading. On 17 September 2026, the SEC announced a temporary five-year “Innovation Exemption” allowing qualifying Tokenized Securities Venues to facilitate trading in tokenised US National…

UK inflation is back in the headlines. The latest reports put Consumer Price Index inflation at 3.1%, up from 2.9%, once again moving further above the Bank of England’s 2% target. On its own, that is simply another economic statistic. But nothing happens in isolation. Over the past few months, I’ve written about energy, government…

When Government Debt Gets Expensive it’s time to look at the Ripple Effect from Bond Markets to your household living costs. Most people don’t wake up in the morning wondering what is happening in the government bond market. They are more likely to think about the mortgage, household bills, their business, their investments or whether…

Defensive Investing Action doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means Markets rarely send us a single, a clear signal telling us exactly what to do next and decisions are based on studying the headlines, looking behind them and determining a series of actions or sometimes doing nothing. We often see pieces of information appearing across different…

Defensive Investing Strategies from Two Economic Superpowers with One Warning. China and the United States sit at opposite ends of many economic and political debates. One is still heavily influenced by state planning and manufacturing. The other is built around consumption, financial markets and private enterprise. Yet look beneath the headline economic numbers and something…