Markets panicked following the collapse of investment bank, Lehman Brothers, in 2008. Shutterstock.com In this sixth and final episode of Recovery, a series from The Anthill Podcast exploring how the world rebuilt after historic crises, we look at the 2008 global financial crisis. The recovery over the last decade hasContinue Reading
Half full, half empty, or just some water in a glass? Shutterstock/Oriol Domingo Life coaches and motivational speakers often treat positive thinking as the key to happiness. Self-help books tend to promote a similar message, with Norman Vincent Peale’s bestseller The Power of Positive Thinking claiming: When you expect theContinue Reading
Citizens of Saudi Arabia are having to get used to something that has long been an unpleasant fact of life in most parts of the world. On July 1, the kingdom tripled the VAT levied on consumer goods and services from 5% to 15%. There were reports of frantic stockpilingContinue Reading
Strong foundations: Hong Kong's finance industry. Shutterstock.com Following the introduction of a new Chinese national security law, some are questioning the sustainability of Hong Kong’s position as an international financial centre. These doubts are augmented by China’s plans to transform Hainan, another island off the southern coast of the ChineseContinue Reading
Willy Barton/Shutterstock When Britain’s shops sprang into post-lockdown life in the second half of June, the Daily Mirror’s front-page headline commanded readers to “Shop for Britain”. Backed by tiny boutiques and retail magnates alike, this patriotic campaign called on shoppers to add shopping to the fight against the COVID-19 economicContinue Reading
All this costs money. Swiss Stock Photo The macroeconomic shock to the world economy from the COVID-19 pandemic is arguably unprecedented in modern times. The financial response by governments of the major economies has been substantial. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that the G20 had deployed US$7Continue Reading
Serving local needs. Chris Lawrence Travel / Shutterstock.com During the early weeks of coronavirus in the UK, there was an obsessive focus on supermarkets and how they were handling the pandemic. It was as if traditional retail markets and small shops didn’t exist. Many markets and traders, however, continued toContinue Reading
On Bijilo Beach in the Gambia, there are no fruit sellers in sight. gisela gerson lohman-braun, CC BY-SA In the Gambia, teams of young tourism guides in their first holiday season are doing something very different from what they learned in training. They have been redeployed to act as coronavirusContinue Reading
England's Nikita Parris and US's Crystal Dunn at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup Semi Final match in France. Jose Breton- Pics Action/Shutterstock Women’s football has made great strides in recent years. Attendances at the women’s FA Cup final continue to set new records. One survey suggested that one-third ofContinue Reading
Shutterstock The coronavirus pandemic could change the world in ways that were unimaginable only a few short months ago. While the climate crisis has been temporarily knocked off the front pages, there is a silver lining in the unprecedented decline in economic activity that has been a casualty of measuresContinue Reading