This Sunday marks International Women’s Day. While for most it represents an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the huge advances in gender equality society has made since the day was first observed in 1909, for those in property and finance it shines a much-needed spotlight into how these industries are continuing to lag behind other areas of the economy in driving positive change for women in the workplace.
Most of us lock our doors and close our curtains at night. We are aware of the physical threats to our privacy and security, and take great measures to protect them. If we think of our digital privacy as a house however, we are far less diligent. In many ways, we’ve left the doors unlocked and curtains open.
Over the past few decades, governments have sought to address the housing crisis by focusing on one primary solution – constructing new-build properties. While the construction of residential new-builds will naturally play a pivotal role in rectifying the current imbalance between housing supply and demand, commentators have criticised the targets set by the Government as being simply unattainable.
When Chancellor Sajid Javid goes to the dispatch box to deliver the 2020 Spring Budget on 11thMarch, those of us involved in the UK property market will be watching on with great interest. This is the first budget of new parliament, and the first budget of a new decade. And unlike recent fiscal statements, this looks set to deliver some substantial reforms.
Hong Kong (HK) has often grabbed global headlines, but lately, it has been doing so for the wrong reasons. The island has been gripped by protests over an extradition bill that seemingly would empower mainland China at the expense of HK locals. The Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019 was proposed following a murder case in 2018.
The last decade has brought about monumental change in how employers manage the mental health and wellbeing of their employers. We have seen businesses put increasing emphasis on work/life balance initiatives with the aim of alleviating some of the pressures of modern working and keeping their people engaged and productive.
In the age of hypersonic-weapons, 5G communication, AI (artificial intelligence) competition and weapons programs that produce weapon strikes in under an hour (such as the US military’s Prompt Global Strike, or PGS, which can deliver accurate weapons to any place on earth within 60 minutes), space only seems to be the next frontier.
The acrimony between the United States and China has a technological aspect that could lead to a faceoff. This is the result of the underdog Chinese industries challenging the established American industrial complex. The winner of this standoff will dictate global economic activity for the foreseeable future.
In the decade succeeding the financial crisis, one of the biggest developments in the world of wealth management has been the rise of the family office. But what is a family office, and how has their proliferation already begun to change how ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNW) manage their assets?
Recently, Iran has been experiencing increased tensions with the United States and its allies over the rollback of the Iran nuclear deal. These hostilities will affect decision-making matrices for all of the important players in the world of finance and banking.