Author name: Augusta Oakey

In the United States today, corporate CEOs earn hundreds of times more than their workers. In 2024, the average chief executive of an S&P 500 company took home about $18.9 million in total compensation – roughly 285 times the pay of a typical employee. For context, in 1965 top CEOs made only 21 times as much as the average worker. This stark metric, known as the CEO-to-worker pay ratio, has surged over the decades and become a flashpoint in debates about economic fairness.… Read more

Financial markets have their own language, full of cryptic shorthand that can intimidate even seasoned readers of economic news. One such term — 5y5y inflation — often appears in central bank briefings, bond market commentary, and analyst reports. But what exactly does it mean, how is it calculated, and why do economists and investors care about it so much? This article breaks down the 5y5y concept, shows how it reflects market expectations of future inflation, and explains why related terms like 10y10y also matter.… Read more

From narco-colonial profits to energy import dependence, and why the next UK downturn could look more like a balance-of-payments event than a garden-variety recession Britain’s current economic vulnerability stems from a legacy of imperial-era external surpluses—funded by exploitative trade systems like the opium trade and slave compensation—that once underwrote its global dominance, now reversed into a fragile model of import dependence, deindustrialization, and financial fragility. Once a net exporter of capital and goods, the UK now runs persistent current account and fiscal deficits, financed by foreign investment in gilts and sterling assets, while its industrial base has been hollowed out—car brands, steel mills, and manufacturing control now owned by foreign firms—and its energy security has collapsed, with net import dependency rising to 41–44% as North Sea production plummets.… Read more