Against a backdrop of Icelandic mountains shaped like tents and mushrooms and capped with snow, Jim Ratcliffe is standing in a freezing river. He flicks his fly-fishing rod a few times and gazes around at the scenery. “There are some things money can’t buy,” he says with a sigh. In fact, he has bought it….

You could be £1 million better off at retirement if you pick the right company to work for, a Money investigation has shown. The Sunday Times contacted every firm in the FTSE 100, the index of the biggest companies listed on the UK stock market, and compared the pension schemes for UK-based staff. While under…

The first thing that strikes me about Richard Thompson as he ducks through the restaurant door is his frame: 6ft 6in and slim, the perfect build for a fast bowler. “On my day on the right wicket, I could be a handful,” he says with a smile. Thompson has only ever played club cricket, but…

They have been among the heroes of America’s recent economic performance, branded “unstoppable” for their resilience in the face of higher borrowing costs and inflation since the pandemic. Yet the power of consumers in the United States may not be all that it seems. Alarm bells are ringing on Wall Street. Recent earnings reports published…

A month after becoming Britain’s first female chancellor, Rachel Reeves set off on a three-day tour of North America. This week’s Plan A was to sell the country as a “safe haven” for international investors and financiers; in the event, the start of her charm offensive with Wall Street bosses, Canadian pension funds and clean…

As journalists at the Financial Times in the late 1990s, Robert Peston and Roland Rudd were dubbed “the Pest” and “the Rat”. The Pest went on to become a household name as the BBC’s business editor and ITV’s political editor, known for his quirky delivery as much as his scoops. The Rat, named after the…

British Airways’ decision last week to scale back flights to Beijing was surprising and not surprising in equal measure. On one hand, China, the world’s second-largest economy, is a vital market for the UK flag carrier. On the other, the withdrawal was down to simple maths: economically, the numbers simply did not stack up. Like…

At a recent gathering of minds, the chief financial planning director at Evelyn Partners mentioned to me that summer is increasingly a really busy time for advisers. Once clients have some time off work, they want to review their Isas and pensions, she said. I’ve been guilty of keeping professionals busy over the holidays. On…

When global stock markets plunge, I sit back and try not to worry. About 80 per cent of my investment portfolio is in a single tracker fund. On what was dubbed Meltdown Monday, the FTSE 100 index of Britain’s biggest businesses dropped 2 per cent at the start of the week and Japan’s Nikkei 225…