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I have worked blissfully alone for 25 years. But this winter, my small tumbledown work flat in Paris — my safe space away from the wife and kids — finally had to be renovated. Since January I’ve been paying €358.80 a month to rent a desk in a WeWork co-working space. It has been a

European stocks edged higher on Thursday while Wall Street futures slipped after a flurry of weaker than expected jobs data heightened investor concerns about a looming US recession. Europe’s region-wide Stoxx 600 added 0.2 per cent in early trading. Germany’s Dax was steady as industrial production in the eurozone’s biggest economy advanced 2 per cent

Advertisers are increasing their spending on TikTok, despite the threat of an imminent US ban of the Chinese-owned viral video app over national security concerns. Advertising on TikTok in the US grew by 11 per cent in March, with companies including Pepsi, DoorDash, Amazon and Apple among the top spenders, according to data from app

A few weeks ago, I went to dinner in Manhattan with friends who work in finance on America’s East and West coasts. Nothing odd about that, you might think. But this gathering was memorable: over wine, my companions traded tales about the tactics they and their colleagues had used the previous day to yank deposits

For most of the past two centuries, if you asked a young adult in the west whether they had a better standard of living than their parents enjoyed at the same age, you would have been drowned out by a unity of yesses. More money, more things to spend it on, longer and healthier lives

Private equity group KKR is nearing a deal to buy a large stake in FGS Global that will value the WPP-backed financial communications company at about $1.4bn, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The deal, which may be announced as soon as next week, will mark the latest big investment by buyout groups

A Hollywood business manager whose clients have included Madonna and Drake has sued Goldman Sachs alleging it tricked him into handing over business secrets as part of an effort to agree a $7bn deal with a private equity firm. Show business impresario Mickey Segal’s lawsuit focuses on the Wall Street bank’s role when Clayton, Dubilier

Regulators have appointed BlackRock’s advisory arm to help sell a $114bn portfolio of securities inherited in the takeovers of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank when the pair collapsed within days of each other in March. The fate of the holdings, which consist of mortgage-backed securities, collateralised mortgage obligations and commercial mortgage-backed securities, have rattled

Kyiv is willing to discuss the future of Crimea with Moscow if its forces reach the border of the Russian-occupied peninsula, a top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the Financial Times. The comments by Andriy Sybiha, deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office, are the most explicit statement of Ukraine’s interest in negotiations since it

Hedge funds made more than $7bn in profits by betting against bank shares during the recent crisis that rocked the sector, their biggest such haul since the 2008 financial crisis. The bumper gains came during a bleak month for banks, with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the emergency sale of Credit Suisse affecting

This was not the start Humza Yousaf wanted. Just a week after taking office as Scotland’s first minister, Yousaf was on Wednesday responding to the arrest of the husband of his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon by police investigating the finances of his governing Scottish National party. For Scotland, the arrest of Peter Murrell, chief executive of

Poland’s president on Wednesday pledged to send 14 MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine after welcoming president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Warsaw for a state visit to strengthen ties between the neighbouring nations. The fresh pledge follows Poland’s delivery of four of its Soviet-built jets after it agreed last month to make the first shipment of combat

The Swiss government has cut bonuses for about 1,000 senior bankers at Credit Suisse, with the executive team losing their outstanding variable pay entirely, after the lender’s rescue by its rival UBS last month. Following a meeting on Wednesday, the federal council, Switzerland’s executive body, called on the finance ministry to cut bonuses at Credit

Inditex, owner of the Zara clothing chain, has received permission from Russia to sell its business in the country that was once its second-biggest market by number of stores. Daher Group of the United Arab Emirates will be acquiring the business from the world’s biggest fashion retailer. Russia’s commission on foreign investments, the approval of

US government debt rallied on Wednesday, pushing Treasury yields to their lowest level in seven months, after the latest sign that the labour market is cooling in the world’s biggest economy. Yields on 10-year Treasuries fell 0.06 percentage points to 3.27 per cent, reflecting rising prices. Two-year notes, which are most sensitive to monetary policy,

Last year, David McCormick, former head of the Bridgewater hedge fund, flew to meet former US president Donald Trump at his Florida base. McCormick was bidding to be the Republican candidate for a vacant Senate seat in Pennsylvania and it seemed like Trump was going to back him, not least because McCormick held a lead

The UK government distanced itself from the CBI on Wednesday as Britain’s leading business lobby group investigates allegations of sexual misconduct at the organisation. The Treasury and the Department for Business and Trade have suspended engagements by ministers and senior officials with the CBI pending the outcome of a probe into claims of rape, sexual

Chamath Palihapitiya has told investors in his company Social Capital that a collapse in share prices put pressure on a stock-backed line of credit that made him question “the purpose of leverage” altogether. “What initially seemed like access to free money became a liability that we managed carefully so we could continue to do business

Rising geopolitical tensions have triggered a reshaping of global investment that threatens to depress growth and raise the risk of financial instability, the IMF has warned. In reports published on Wednesday, the fund noted that foreign direct investment was increasingly flowing between countries that were geopolitical allies rather than those that were geographically close. There

In the west, the job of government is to prop up wobbly banks. In China, the role of government is seemingly to destabilise lenders. US and European bank bosses, at worst, face losing their jobs. In China, they may lose their liberty too. The Chinese authorities escalated their attack on Wednesday with a probe into

Police have arrested the husband of former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon as a suspect in an investigation into the funding and finances of the Scottish National party. Peter Murrell resigned as chief executive of the SNP last month after the party was forced to admit it had 30,000 fewer members than it had claimed.