May 1, 2025

Category: Personal Finance

How a mortgage transforms your investment portfolio
Personal Finance

How a mortgage transforms your investment portfolio

As financial decisions go, borrowing several times your annual earnings to buy a risky asset is a pretty big one. Yet for many people, taking out a mortgage to buy a house is something of a no-brainer. It generally involves less agonising than, say, how much to save for retirement, or how to split your […]

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Trump wants a certain kind of immigrant: the uber-rich
Personal Finance

Trump wants a certain kind of immigrant: the uber-rich

IN HIS LOVE of lucre Donald Trump can be crass. In their pursuit of efficiency, free-marketeers can be, too. Consider the sale of citizenship. Most people dislike the idea of treating national belonging as a commodity. Yet a dozen or so countries hawk passports and more than 60, including America, offer residency in exchange for […]

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What price cool?  a month, according to students
Personal Finance

What price cool? $31 a month, according to students

What is the price of cool? About $31 a month, according to new research by Leonardo Bursztyn of the University of Chicago and co-authors. That is how much college students had to be paid to have their iPhone messages appear to others in a (lame) green rather than a (fashionable) blue bubble for four weeks. […]

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Trump’s sovereign-wealth fund won’t make America richer
Personal Finance

Trump’s sovereign-wealth fund won’t make America richer

With $29trn in debt and a widening fiscal deficit, America hardly seems like a candidate for a sovereign-wealth fund. Such enormous, independently managed but state-directed pots of cash are, after all, normally established as a means of investing surpluses. That has not stopped President Donald Trump, however. By May 3rd his cabinet will have unveiled […]

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Asia has a trade problem of its own making
Personal Finance

Asia has a trade problem of its own making

Although recent months have seen fewer Asian tourists in America, for a certain type of visitor it is peak season. Trade negotiators from India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam have been rushing to Washington in the hope of signing a trade deal that will avert President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs, which are due to […]

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Will China’s shoppers cushion the Trumpian blow?
Personal Finance

Will China’s shoppers cushion the Trumpian blow?

A real Armani polo shirt might cost 1,400 yuan ($190) if bought from the fashion house’s shop on JD.com, one of China’s biggest e-commerce platforms. But search for “Armani manufacturer” on the same app and similar shirts can be found for just 60 yuan. The cheaper offerings seem to have been made by Armani suppliers […]

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