Karen Newton, Business and Wealth Strategy - Deciphering The Economy

 As we approach the end of the year, many people naturally begin reflecting on their finances. They review what they saved. What they spent. What they meant to do but didn’t quite get around to. And for many, investing sits firmly in that final category. Recent figures show that 61% of savers now find investing confusing , up sharply from a decade ago. Among women, that figure rises to 75% . At the same time, people are saving more than ever yet a large proportion still avoid investing altogether. That combination should give us pause. Because if access to information were the answer, confusion should be falling not rising. The real issue isn’t risk — it’s education Investing is rarely taught in schools. Saving is encouraged. Spending is warned against. Debt is discussed, often fearfully. But investing? It’s treated as something “advanced”, complex, or only suitable for experts. So people grow up believing: They need specialist knowledge They need perfect ...

A quote from Michael Saylor did the rounds recently:  “We sold $1.5B of stock backed by $500M of Bitcoin We bought back $1.5B of Bitcoin, capturing a billion-dollar gain in the arbitrage.” At first glance, it sounds confusing.  At second glance, it sounds impossible.  And at third glance, many assume it must simply be Bitcoin “going up”. It wasn’t. This wasn’t about predicting price. It was about understanding where the market was mispricing value .  Before we go further: two simple definitions Let’s strip the jargon away first. What is a premium ? A premium exists when something is selling for more than the value of what’s underneath it . For example: If an asset is worth £100  But people are willing to pay £150 for access to it That extra £50 is the premium People often pay premiums for: Convenience Familiarity Simplicity Or because something is easier to buy What is arbitrage ? Arbitrage is simply: Buying somethi...

December always feels quiet. Markets slow. People turn their attention to family, food, and a well-earned pause at the end of the year. But economic cycles don’t stop just because the calendar does. They continue to move, often most quietly right before a shift. Those who have lived through more than one cycle know this pattern well. Big changes rarely arrive with sirens. They arrive with subtle signals: tired consumers, shorter holidays, rising costs that feel manageable… until they aren’t. This is where we are now. Not in crisis, but in transition. Why 2026 Is Being Talked About Quietly By the time headlines start shouting “crash,” the real opportunities are already gone. The wealth transfer doesn’t happen during the chaos, it happens because of the preparation done before it. 2026 sits at the convergence of multiple long-running trends: debt cycles, interest rate pressure, demographic shifts, and technological acceleration. None of this is new. What’s different this time is ...

For more than four years, Strategy Inc. — formerly MicroStrategy — has been the most visible corporate symbol of Bitcoin conviction. Under Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, the company built the largest Bitcoin treasury in the world and redefined itself not around software, but around a balance sheet strategy. That move reshaped market expectations around corporate treasury management and challenged the traditional opinion that cash is king. Now, as Strategy faces the possibility of being removed from major stock indices, a larger, more structural conversation is emerging and it stretches far beyond one company or one cryptocurrency. This moment forces us to ask a more provocative question: Are corporations truly free to decide how they preserve their value — or is the era of independent balance-sheet strategy coming to an end? Why Index Threats Matter — Not Just to Strategy, but to Global Markets If index providers decide that a company holding a significant portion of its asset...

Silver is shaping up to be one of the strongest-performing assets of the year, and this week the cracks in the supply chain are becoming impossible to ignore. Prices are rising, demand is accelerating, and both the manufacturing and investment sectors are quietly running into shortages. While the headlines focus on gold, silver is quietly building the far more interesting story. Industrial demand is at record highs. Silver isn’t just a precious metal—it’s a critical industrial material. Solar panels, EV batteries, medical tech, electronics, and emerging AI hardware all depend on it. This demand isn’t cyclical; it’s structural. Governments worldwide are pushing green energy and electrification, and the knock-on effect is a continuous drawdown of global silver reserves. Meanwhile, supply isn’t keeping up. Mine output has been flat for years, and several major producers have warned of tighter supply ahead. Refiners are reporting delays, and investment-grade silver—coins and bars—is ex...

 This week’s UK Budget has created more questions than answers, particularly after the OBR’s latest figures revealed a £4 billion credit rather than the widely discussed fiscal “black hole.” The contrast between the government’s narrative and the underlying numbers has caused understandable confusion. Rather than focusing on the political noise, this commentary looks at what really matters: how financial markets may interpret the situation when they open next week . In moments like this, investors don’t react to headlines — they react to signals. What the OBR Numbers Actually Showed The initial expectation earlier in the autumn was a significant funding shortfall. However, the OBR’s updated pre-Budget forecast showed a small fiscal surplus. This sharp difference between expectations and actual figures has fuelled much of the current uncertainty. For investors, the concern is not about which interpretation is “right,” but that conflicting narratives create instability . When d...

Side hustles used to be a bonus. A way to earn a little extra, pay off a bill, or save for something special. Not anymore. According to the Daily Mail, one in four people now has a side hustle , yet the average income works out to just £6.60 per hour  barely half of the national average wage of £12.21. And that statistic tells us everything we need to know about the state of the economy. People aren’t juggling two or three jobs because they want to.  They’re doing it because the cost of living has climbed faster than wages, inflation has eaten into savings, and financial stability feels further away than ever. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: The problem isn’t the side hustle. It’s the way the side hustle is built. Most people choose side hustles that: rely on trading time for money offer very little scalability depend entirely on personal output create more stress, not freedom Selling second-hand clothing, freelancing, content creation, bas...