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It wasn’t “Guernica”, said the critics, but the potato painting I made about acid rain at Elmwood Junior School circa 1988 had a primitive grace. If the fickle art world shuns it, blame the passing of that ecological horror from public discourse. Blame the Montreal Protocol and the banning of chlorofluorocarbons. So well did global

The customers that walk through the doors of Ramsdens pawnbrokers use the lending service in starkly different ways. “We’ve got a very good customer [with] a platinum Rolex, which is probably worth about £50,000 [or] £60,000,” said Peter Kenyon, the company’s chief executive. “He’s a builder and when his cash flow is short he gives

Staff in Boston Consulting Group’s London office have complained about “nepotism” after the children of dozens of top partners flew in from across the world for an exclusive week-long work experience programme. The US-based consultancy ran the programme, consisting of days of workshops, this month for about 30 children of the firm’s managing directors and

Thousands of British companies are cutting economic ties with China en masse, threatening to heap more pressure on the cost of living, the head of the CBI business group has warned. Tony Danker, the CBI director-general, said chief executives were increasingly switching business links from China to other countries in anticipation of a further deterioration

Marlies Jakob was one of dozens of ordinary Germans who took part in a phone-in show on Deutschlandfunk radio last week about sanctions against Russia. Her intervention should alarm policymakers from Paris and Brussels to Berlin. Jakob said she was prepared to take cold showers and wear three sweaters in winter if that would stop

KPMG has accused the management of collapsed UK outsourcer Carillion of concealing information from its auditors and of doctoring financial documents provided to the firm to make them more “audit friendly”. The Big Four firm denied it was responsible for £1.3bn of losses claimed from it in a negligence action by liquidators for Carillion, which

American holidaymakers lucky enough to make it abroad this summer may find themselves pleasantly surprised by the might of the dollar — up 10 per cent this year against other major currencies. Cheap ice creams on the beach await. But this strength is bad news, and a side-effect of the US having both a serious

Foreign secretary Liz Truss was prepared for former chancellor Rishi Sunak to take her on this week in the television debates about the race to be Britain’s next prime minister, but not with such ferocity. “For the TV debates we prepared for three scenarios: that he went on the attack, that he was Mr Patronising,

The amount of extra debt taken on by UK consumers doubled last month, according to data from the Bank of England on Friday, raising fears that people are resorting to credit cards and other forms of borrowing to fund increases in the cost of living. The BoE data found that UK consumers borrowed a net

Economic data in the US are sending mixed messages, complicating the answer to a seemingly simple question: is the world’s largest economy in a recession? Figures from the commerce department on Thursday showing a second consecutive quarter of decline in gross domestic product intensified what has become a politically charged debate. News of the second

Global stocks were on track to post their best month since late 2020, bouncing back from a savage first half of 2022 as easing rate rise expectations and upbeat earnings from big tech groups fuelled a broad rally. The FTSE All-World index of developed and emerging market shares has jumped 5.8 per cent in July,

Inflation has hit its highest level in decades for many countries, with the Ukraine conflict adding upward pressure on energy prices and squeezing households’ real incomes. Russia’s invasion of its neighbour has pushed up energy and food prices at a time when many countries were already registering near-record rates of consumer price growth, leading some

The head of carmaker Stellantis has warned about growing Chinese government interference in western businesses operating in the country, days after the company ditched its joint venture to manufacture Jeep vehicles there. Carlos Tavares said the “interference of the political agenda has been increasing by the day”, and said that rival carmakers with plants in

The senator who had single-handedly blocked Joe Biden’s climate agenda just a few weeks ago has explained his stunning change of heart this week as a move to protect both US oil and gas and clean energy interests. Backing a historic bill that would set aside $369bn for climate and clean energy programmes, Democratic senator

Losses at Aston Martin ballooned after shortages of key parts left it with hundreds of unfinished models at the end of the first half of the year. The luxury carmaker was also hit by foreign exchange movements and higher debt interest payments, during a tumultuous six months in which it changed chief executive and raised

Good morning. Yesterday I scolded the market for being too enthusiastic about the Fed chair’s comments. Today stocks went up more. It’s almost as if people aren’t listening to me. This is hard on my ego, so email me: robert.armstrong@ft.com. Recession The US economy shrank for the second quarter in a row — on an

It is almost 11pm on an evening in early June and a group of about 60 gay men have taken over the Enchanted Rose, a cocktail bar at Disney’s upscale Grand Floridian Resort. This is the last stop on the Gay Pride Disney Monorail Crawl, an informal annual get-together that serves as a warm-up for

For decades, the Kuwait Investment Authority kept a low profile as it garnered a reputation as one of the oil-rich Gulf’s most powerful and respected sovereign wealth funds. But last week, the KIA abruptly sacked Saleh al-Ateeqi, the head of its London investment arm, the Kuwait Investment Office, dragging the secretive fund into the spotlight.

Investors were desperate for the slightest sliver of good news from Jay Powell, and it shows. Fund managers were pretty sure that the US Federal Reserve would raise interest rates this week at an increment that just a few months ago would have brought us all out in hives. It duly delivered a 0.75 percentage

Apple’s revenues grew slightly on the back of iPhone sales and its services division despite headwinds from supply chain shortages and factory shutdowns in China. The iPhone maker said revenues had risen 2 per cent from a year ago to $83bn, slightly ahead of analysts’ forecasts for $82.8bn, according to Refinitiv. Apple in April had