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Investors are selling stakes in private equity and venture capital funds this year at the fastest pace on record, as the downturn in equities spreads to the private markets that boomed during the era of low interest rates. Pension and sovereign wealth funds were among those that sold $33bn worth of stakes in private funds

Russell Anderson is a man who has learned to live within his humble means. After a chronic illness forced him to retire as a coach driver three years ago, he managed to stretch his benefits to cover his bills, including rent and fuel. Increasingly, he has found that balancing act harder to juggle. Anderson, who

Much has been written about whether Big Tech has peaked. Meta recently announced its first sales drop, amid a fall in online advertising. Amazon, Netflix and others have cut back on hiring. Plenty of platforms have seen their stock prices crushed this year, which is typical as rates go up, and their growth slow. But

Messages from the archive of Rutherford Hall, critical communications strategist From: Rutherford@monkwellstrategy.com To: JamesW@LKandW.co.uk Hi James, No, I really don’t think now is the right moment to give money to Liz Truss. In general, we advise caution on political donations, but in any case you have left it far too late. While her team will

This week offers one of Africa’s most significant votes this year as Kenyans go to the polls on Tuesday to decide a new president. The contest is between the current deputy president William Ruto, 55, and Raila Odinga, a 77-year-old veteran of such campaigns now on his fifth attempt at the top job. Relations with

The UK government’s Covid-19 venture capital fund has been mostly invested in what one director overseeing the portfolio called “zombie businesses”, leaving it with “a significant tail of dormant companies”, according to documents seen by the Financial Times. The Future Fund, a £1.1bn portfolio set up by then-chancellor Rishi Sunak and managed by the state-owned

The US Senate has passed Joe Biden’s flagship economic package after a marathon overnight voting session that handed the president a major political victory just months before the midterm elections. The climate, tax and healthcare bill, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, passed by 51 votes to 50, with voting split along party lines and

Government plans to axe up to 91,000 civil servants over three years will require deep cuts to public services and cost at least £1bn in redundancy payments, according to a Whitehall review. Boris Johnson in May unveiled plans for the near 20 per cent reduction in headcount, and in June said he could “prune” back

British financial regulators have failed to tackle risks outside traditional banking and should now develop a comprehensive UK policy instead of waiting for an international agreement, according to a former Bank of England deputy governor. Paul Tucker accused the BoE of inadequate regulation of the so-called shadow banking sector at a private event last month,

The Chinese military culminated its largest-ever military exercise around Taiwan on Sunday with practice bombing raids and missile attacks on the main island as Beijing said it had met its objective of intimidating “Taiwan independence forces” and deterring US intervention.  The People’s Liberation Army said on Sunday night that multiple groups of aircraft had trained

The UK government is to review a £4.2bn foreign takeover of a key part of the country’s gas infrastructure amid increased concerns about energy security. The sale of a 60 per cent stake in National Grid’s gas transmission business to an international consortium led by Australia’s Macquarie, the world’s largest infrastructure investor, is to be

The Isle of Sheppey on the Thames estuary is ranked among the most deprived areas of Britain and like millions of people living on low incomes, its residents are grappling with the rising cost of food and fuel. All are bracing themselves for even harder times this winter. In a pub car park on the

The peaceful pro-democracy protests that swept through Belarus in August 2020 evoked memories of Solidarity, the mass movement that had arisen in neighbouring Poland 40 years earlier. The focus of discontent was identical: a repressive regime, aligned with Moscow, that mistreated citizens and brought shame on the nation. Even the patriotic colours on display in

Liz Truss has promised an immediate cut to National Insurance rates if she becomes prime minister in September, but faced claims from her Tory leadership rival Rishi Sunak that the change would “not touch the sides” for many poorer households battling a crisis in living costs. Truss, foreign secretary, told the Financial Times on Friday

The writer is chief economic adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine Western sanctions on Russian fossil fuels are a phantom. The revenues flowing into the Kremlin’s coffers from foreign sales of oil, gas and coal are sky-high, having doubled in the first 100 days of the war. The west’s energy sanctions regime is not

Chinese authorities hastily locked down the southern coastal city of Sanya over the weekend, trapping tens of thousands of holidaymakers after a highly infectious Omicron strain of coronavirus was detected in the province known as “China’s Hawaii”. Covid-19 cases in China’s Hainan province rapidly rose over the week to a cumulative 828, forcing authorities to

At the property sector’s annual gathering on the French Riviera in March an unlikely group of delegates were centre stage: warehouse salesmen. In years past at the Cannes Mipim conference, purveyors of “sheds” — as they are known in the industry — have been shunted out to tents at the end of the promenade, away

The European drugs regulator is holding firm with plans to review Covid-19 vaccines designed to tackle the original coronavirus and the Omicron variant, its head said, in contrast with US authorities who plan to approve these jabs before the release of clinical data on their efficacy. It might mean Europe receives vaccines tailored to the

Life has not been easy for reinsurers in the past few years. Claims for natural catastrophes and pandemic-related losses have wiped out a large part of their profits. But the latest set of global problems — war in Ukraine, galloping inflation and the ever-increasing risks of climate change — have jolted them into action. In

When the centrist Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema gave the green light this week to move forward with the much-slimmed-down version of her party’s long-awaited climate and tax bill, her colleagues breathed a sigh of relief. However, Sinema’s assent came with a notable proviso: scrapping the promise to end a notorious tax loophole allowing private equity