Author: Blake Anderson

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldThe writer is an investor, philanthropist and co-founder of the Berggruen InstituteIn the coming decades, European countries, like other developed nations, will become a AI economies as the technology spreads across all enterprises from accounting to grocery stores to factories. Wealth creation and productivity growth will boom, but they will be increasingly divorced from jobs and income. Economic disparities will accelerate with the diminishing value of labour. The inequality gap between those who own the technology directly or through investments…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK employment myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.One can hardly enter a UK bar, café and restaurant these days without a “suggested” tip or service charge of up to 15 per cent appearing on the bill. It feels mean for customers to refuse but we are often confused, even resentful: what is this for, and who gets the money?The Gaucho steakhouse chain made its answer clear this month to staff, if not to diners. A newly-recruited head waiter will keep just 17 per cent of service charges from tables…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Plans to force food delivery groups and other gig economy companies to check if those working for them are doing so illegally will reach the next stage on Wednesday as ministers launch a consultation on new laws.The rules are being introduced after media reports earlier this year highlighted how large numbers of newly arrived migrants appeared to be working on a self-employed basis for food delivery services and other gig economy companies.Companies offering work via online apps have not previously been obliged…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Kemi Badenoch, Conservative leader, has been warned by two former Tory premiers not to follow Reform UK’s Nigel Farage down a populist path and that the party is losing touch with its core moderate vote.Sir John Major and Baroness Theresa May have given separate speeches in which they claim that the Conservatives risk going down a right-wing blind alley, alienating the middle ground.Major, UK prime minister from 1990 to 1997, told a Conservative lunch on Tuesday: “When our party says ‘No’ to…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Near-bankrupt Thames Water paid £20mn to cover the due diligence costs of KKR for its abortive attempt to rescue the UK’s largest water utility.Thames Water selected KKR, the private equity giant, as its preferred bidder for an emergency rescue earlier this year. Thames Water was obliged to pay for the cost to potential buyers of assessing and researching the state of the utility’s infrastructure, operations and finances under the terms of the deal. The cost of that exercise topped £20mn, according to…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK tax myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.A majority of the British public supports reforming council tax, a poll has shown, as chancellor Rachel Reeves considers changes to property taxation at the November Budget.A survey of 2,000 people by YouGov this month found that 56 per cent of respondents were in favour of reforming the tax to make it directly proportionate to the value of a home. The current council tax system is based on the value band a property falls into, which is derived from valuations that have…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Backing on to a public housing estate on a quiet residential street in Brixton, a shabby-looking pub thrums with the droning sound of bass guitar. A group of twenty-somethings huddle under the south London pub’s sign — “The Windmill” — painted in green on chipped wood panelling. Inside, there’s a stage at the far end, backed with silver ribbons dangling from the ceiling and surrounded by a large sound system. Posters lining the walls promote bands with lurid and unfamiliar names such…

Chancellor Rachel Reeves received a rare bit of good news from lower inflation statistics this week, which could reduce government borrowing ahead of the November Budget. But the uphill struggle to improve Labour’s standing in the polls continues after a drubbing in Caerphilly, the embarrassing failure of the one-in-one-out migrant policy and the chaotic start to the grooming gang inquiry. Host George Parker is on hand to dissect the week along with deputy political editor Jim Pickard, UK chief political commentator Robert Shrimsley and the FT’s northern England correspondent Jennifer Williams. Plus, is the King getting poor advice from the…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Pensions myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Have you tried to take a tax-free lump sum out of your pension and has the process been stumped by excessive delays? If so, we’d love to hear from you. With a potential hole of more than £20bn in the public finances, the Treasury is looking closely at where extra revenue could be raised ahead of this year’s Budget on November 26.There is speculation that the government will reduce the size of the tax-free lump sum that retirees can withdraw from their pension after…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Currencies myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The UK has proposed establishing a compensation scheme for victims of a Chinese investment fraud that could allow the Treasury to retain much of a £5bn bitcoin fortune.The crypto haul is at the centre of a battle at the High Court in London between UK authorities and thousands of Chinese investors who were cheated and who contend the British state should not benefit.The court heard on Wednesday that the director of public prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, told victims about the possibility of establishing such…