Activity Overview
Episode publication activity over the past year
The $250bn in corporate taxes riding on US election
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chinese authorities are demanding wealthy individuals and companies double-check their taxes for unp...
Swamp Notes: Why the polls aren’t budging
02 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In a campaign full of twists and turns, one thing has stayed surprisingly steady: the polls. On this...
UK Budget spooks bond markets
01 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Apple reported solid revenue growth in the past quarter, and investors are worried about the additio...
UK Labour’s Budget borrows big, taxes more
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Microsoft’s quarterly revenue rose 16% on strong cloud computing demand, the UK’s Labour party r...
Arm enters the AI race
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alphabet’s profit jumped 34 per cent in the third quarter, and Israel’s parliament approved legi...
Boeing races to avoid credit downgrade
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
PwC’s business in Asia contracted sharply in the past year, Boeing announced a $19bn share sale to...
Georgia’s disputed election
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Iran has signalled that it will pursue a measured response to Israel’s latest strikes, and Georgia...
Swamp Notes LIVE: A look back at the economy and the election
26 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With the election just over a week away, Swamp Notes visited the University of Michigan to recap the...
Will Russia lead on an alternative to the dollar?
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tesla shares leapt 22% after Elon Musk predicted an electric vehicle sales rebound, and Russia’s p...
AI that can control your computer
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Boeing’s machinists voted on Wednesday to reject the company’s latest offer and the US has final...
HSBC’s east-west split
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Deloitte has cut about 250 UK employees and HSBC’s chief executive has announced an overhaul of th...
Three big economic ideas that explain the US election
22 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Share buybacks on mainland China’s biggest exchanges have soared to a record high this year, and I...
Uber’s drive for ‘super app’ status
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Trading in the world’s second-largest IPO of 2024 begins on Tuesday, but retail investors have giv...
Swamp Notes: Election denialism is still in style
19 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The 2020 US election was one of the most contested in American history, and it culminated in an unpr...
Chipmakers send tech shares yo-yoing
18 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Israel says it has killed Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader and the architect behind the October 7 2023...
Israel accused of implementing ‘starvation plan’ in Gaza
17 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rights groups say Israel appears to be implementing a controversial plan to force Hamas into submiss...
Private credit’s growing ‘IOU’ habit
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Shares in ASML led a tech rout on Nasdaq on Tuesday after the chipmaker warned of a slower recovery ...
Pressure builds on Beijing to boost economy
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
OpenAI is considering a largely untested company model to protect chief executive Sam Altman from ou...
US banks ride ‘soft landing’ high
14 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Russia has expanded the capacity of its shadow fleet of oil tankers despite western sanctions, and U...
Swamp Notes: Will Republicans take back the Senate?
12 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Both chambers of the US Congress are like the country they represent: narrowly divided. But while De...
Japanese PM’s uphill battle to win back voters
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The French government has proposed a budget for next year with some €60bn worth of spending cuts a...
US considers breaking up Google
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
HSBC’s top-paid bankers to bear the brunt of cost-cutting restructuring, and the UK Conservative p...
India’s belated oil rush
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The head of KPMG US says the industry urgently needs to make it easier to become an accountant, and ...
Strikes threaten Boeing’s bottom line
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Big bank bosses join a growing list of prominent financiers expected to skip COP29 next month, and S...
Israel marks one year after October 7
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A new report forecasts that Donald Trump would raise the US debt by twice as much as Kamala Harris, ...
Swamp Notes: How the Middle East conflict is shaping the election
05 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Biden administration has tried and failed to contain fighting in the Middle East over the past y...
Markets keep calm despite global tensions
04 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A strike that closed US east and Gulf coast ports will be suspended, and market reaction to escalati...
Displacement pushes Lebanon to the brink
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
UK house sales rise at the fastest rate in three years, mass displacement in Lebanon risks overwhelm...
A day of escalation in the Middle East
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Iran fires missiles at Israel, hours after the IDF launches a ground offensive in Lebanon. France’...
AI start-ups generate revenue at record pace
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
SoftBank will invest $500mn into OpenAI as part of a fundraising round that will give the start-up a...
Hizbollah reels after the death of its leader
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the wake of Hassan Nasrallah’s death, Hizbollah looks for a way forward, and French far-right l...
Swamp Notes: Harris and Trump pitch their economic visions
28 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Voters consistently tell pollsters that economic issues are their top electoral concern. Kamala Harr...
How extremist settlers in the West Bank became the law
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
UK chancellor Rachel Reeves may backtrack on a key tax plan, Saudi Arabia is ready to abandon its un...
Banks warm up to nuclear power
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
OpenAI’s chief technology officer is leaving the company, major banks pledge to increase their sup...
China unleashes stimulus blitz
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The US Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa, China has unleashed a swat...
A hostile takeover looms in European banking
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The US proposed effectively banning Chinese cars, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz came out against a U...
Looming US port strikes threaten supply chain
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Olaf Scholz’s SPD narrowly fends off the AfD in Brandenburg’s state election, and chipmaker Qual...
Swamp Notes: Misinformation as a campaign strategy
21 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate senator JD Vance have spent the pa...
Europe’s battery darling runs out of juice
20 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The S&P 500 hit a record high, Europe’s biggest hope for dominance in EV batteries is struggli...
The Fed’s first rate cut in 4 years
19 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Federal Reserve’s interest rate easing began with a half-point cut, and the UK’s financial w...
Solar energy’s moment in the sun
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
BlackRock and Microsoft are launching a $30bn data centre fund to meet the growing demands of artifi...
OpenAI launches its next generation of tools
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The EU is preparing to provide up to €40bn in new loans for Ukraine by the end of the year, and Bo...
China’s start-up winter is here
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Both the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England are set to announce interest rate decisions this we...
Swamp Notes: Harris and Trump meet on the debate stage
14 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On this week’s special episode of Swamp Notes, four FT journalists discuss the historic first deba...
Abu Dhabi bids for Germany’s industrial jewel
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Investors snapped up consumer staples such as Coca-Cola and Colgate-Palmolive amid concerns over a p...
UniCredit eyes a new era in European banking
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Italian lender UniCredit has amassed a 9 per cent stake in Commerzbank, and US inflation fell to...
The EU’s €13bn bite into Apple
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The EU’s top court orders Apple to pay €13bn in back taxes, and the Federal Reserve halves its p...
France’s looming deadline
10 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Apple launches the iPhone 16 with generative AI features, and France’s new PM needs more time to s...
Tesla’s EVs stall in China
09 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Enthusiasm about artificial intelligence masks a recession in the technology sector, and a new excha...
Swamp Notes: How protectionism got trendy
07 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Democrats and Republicans have taken a protectionist turn on trade policy over the past few years. T...
France finally gets a new PM
06 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
President Emmanuel Macron has named the EU’s former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as France’s...
Volkswagen’s dire warning
05 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Volkswagen calls for drastic measures to bolster profits, and President Joe Biden wants to block a J...
The glitch in China’s AI plans
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Big tech groups including Nvidia led a broad US stock market sell-off on Tuesday, and Huawei’s AI ...
Who audits the auditors?
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The UK blocks some arms shipments to Israel, audit firms are fighting against new oversight rules in...
Germany’s far-right AfD makes history
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Germany's far-right makes significant inroads in state elections, and Israel’s largest union calls...
Swamp Notes: Is mainstream media old news for Harris and Trump?
31 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have different approaches to the media: Trump talks a lot, and Harris...
The ABCs of CBDCs
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Turkey’s stock rally hits reverse as juicy interest rates lure savers out of the market, and the F...
Ford loses its grip on the wheel
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nvidia’s record-breaking earnings still somehow disappointed investors, China’s use of the renmi...
The US-China ‘cat and mouse game’
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Japanese operator of 7-Eleven is discussing ways to defend itself against a takeover bid by Cana...
Telegram CEO arrest reignites free speech debate
27 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
French authorities detain Telegram’s chief executive as part of a content moderation investigation...
Money surges into the Harris campaign
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Israel’s military launched a wave of air strikes in southern Lebanon on Sunday, small-dollar donat...
Swamp Notes: Democrats find a feeling at the DNC
24 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Democrats from across the US gathered in Chicago for their presidential convention this week, promis...
A soft landing at Jackson Hole
23 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kamala Harris made a bid for national unity at a rapturous Democratic National Convention. Plus, all...
Japan opens for (foreign) business
22 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
PwC faces a six-month business ban in China, and Mexico’s Supreme Court judges go on strike. Plus,...
Saudi Arabia is keeping it in the kingdom
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
China’s flagship fund to buy up unsold housing is off to a limp start, and Saudi Arabia’s Public...
Kamalanomics goes on defence
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The US dollar sinks to its lowest level since the start of the year and Democrats are rushing to def...
The Democratic convention kicks off in Chicago
19 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Start-ups, legacy groups and policymakers are working out how to operate in areas of rising weather ...
Swamp Notes: Why more Latinos are voting Republican
17 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Latino voters were once considered a reliable bet for Democrats. But with each passing election, Rep...
Bonds are back, baby!
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A huge US-based oilfield services company is expanding its Russian business, investors are piling in...
US inflation hits lowest rate in 3 years
15 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Peace talks aimed at ending the war in Gaza start up again today, US inflation fell to 2.9 per cent ...
Are companies bailing on fossil fuels or doubling down?
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
US stocks and Treasuries rallied as traders assessed lower than expected wholesale inflation data, a...
Delays hit Biden’s signature manufacturing laws
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Russia has trained its navy to hit European targets with nuclear-capable missiles, and 40 per cent o...
Western companies hit by Muslim country boycotts
12 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
More Americans trust Kamala Harris to handle the US economy than Donald Trump, European traders this...
Swamp Notes: Another brick in the (blue) Walz
10 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kamala Harris has supercharged Democratic party voters’ enthusiasm in the weeks since President Jo...
US consumers start pinching pennies
09 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The stock market sell-off earlier this week may have been a bit of an overreaction, and overall cons...
Google and Meta’s secret deal
08 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Google and Meta struck a secret ads deal to target teenagers, and the FT reports that the UK’s big...
Can athletics vault into profitability?
07 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wall Street stocks rebounded yesterday as the markets stabilised from a global rout, Disney is raisi...
Stock indices get a case of the Mondays
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Major stock indices were significantly down around the world yesterday. Plus, the FT’s Lucy Fisher...
UK leaders court US investors
05 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
UK chancellor Rachel Reeves begins a three-day visit to New York and Toronto on Monday in an attempt...
Swamp Notes: The Three Party Problem
03 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Only two political parties — the Republicans and the Democrats — have controlled the White House...
An historic prisoner swap
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Investors were not happy with Amazon’s earnings report and Russia agreed to a historic prisoner sw...
Tensions escalate between Iran and Israel
01 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An interest rate cut could be on the table for the Federal Reserve’s next meeting, conflict in the...
Miami: a rare bright spot in US office real estate
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Microsoft’s AI-fuelled cloud growth fell slightly short of investors’ expectations, the cost of ...
The EU’s trade plan for a potential second Trump term
30 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Britain’s new finance minister blamed the previous Conservative government for a £22bn fiscal hol...
Big Tech’s Big Stumble
29 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Losses in big tech stocks as investors punish companies over earning reports. The Bank of England ma...
Swamp Notes: Should Kamala Harris embrace identity politics?
27 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If Kamala Harris wins the Democratic nomination next month, she would be only the second woman or pe...
How the Olympics could reshape Paris
26 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Elon Musk is looking to inject $5bn into an AI start-up, and Venezuela’s election on Sunday will d...
Are Indian investors sitting on a bubble?
25 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Biden says it’s time to ‘pass on the torch’, China and the Philippines struck a deal to reduce...
Investors roll the dice on prediction markets
24 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tesla’s net income fell by 45 per cent, investors think Donald Trump will be back in the White Hou...
Kamala Harris takes the stage
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The US Congress interrogated its Secret Service chief yesterday, and Kamala Harris is gearing up her...
Joe Biden drops out of US presidential race
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
US President Joe Biden has abandoned his re-election bid following overwhelming pressure from fellow...
Swamp Notes: Trump pushes unity at Republican National Convention
20 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Republicans gathered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for their convention this week, just days after their ...
Trump accepts the Republican nomination
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican party nomination for president. HSBC’s new chief exe...
Viktor Orbán’s world tour irks the EU
18 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Chip stocks dipped yesterday after Trump’s comments rattled investors, the EU spoke up against Vik...
Nigeria gambles with economic shock therapy
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The UK Labour government will present its plans for the upcoming year in the King’s Speech, and Mo...
Trump’s JD Vance strategy
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Donald Trump announced Ohio senator JD Vance as his vice-presidential nominee yesterday, and a US ju...
What’s next after Trump assassination attempt
15 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The US Congress launches a probe into ‘inexcusable’ security failings following the Pennsylvania...
Swamp Notes: Conservatives have big plans for the judicial branch
13 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As president, Donald Trump appointed three conservative justices to the Supreme Court and hundreds o...
Double-edged sword of deregulation
12 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
US inflation fell to 3 per cent, and China’s Communist party leaders will meet next week to discus...
Investors serve, can women’s tennis volley?
11 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Archegos founder Bill Hwang found guilty of fraud, investors are selling off risky US junk bonds, an...