FDI Matters: Because foreign direct investment matters...

Brazil: flying up the world order

There are so many indicators that one can consult to determine who is moving up on the global economic stage. In several of them, Brazil is looking increasingly attractive as an investment destination. In any of the developed world economies, a BBB rating from Standard & Poors for a nation’s...

Vauxhall Motors; good for work, bad for prejudice

This week, readers in the UK may have noticed that their regular satirical magazine and at least one of the national papers referred to the Levenson ‘Enquiry’ into press standards as a witch hunt. They must have been preparing those stories at about the time (2nd May 2012) when this news...

A perfect economic opportunity

This week, quite a few commentators have been using one of Winston Churchill’s less used quotes that… “The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.” This, of course, refers to the inconveniently ‘anti-austerity’ flavour of electoral...

Reading the Weather

It's sometimes hard to tell what's going on in the UK economy. Watch the BBC and you might feel a twinge of nostalgia for the Scottish character in an old British TV comedy series 'Dad's Army': not just for his Scottish accent but also for his favourite saying, "We’re all doomed!" It seems that...

Leveson: enquiry, witch-hunt or plain old fashioned political business bashing?

The Leveson witch-hunt trial – the term ‘enquiry’ suggests an impartiality that has seemed wholly absent from these proceedings – is getting out of hand and is in danger of becoming a disincentive to investors seeking UK presence. After all, it’s hard to avoid the question as to whether...