Notes
The questions that keep coming back.
Explainers we keep current rather than republish. Rates, inflation, wages, the consumer, and how the numbers behind them are actually built.
73 notes, 25 topics
Most recentPage 1 of 7
UK unemployment rate in 2026: what the labour market showsThe UK unemployment rate is 4.9% for April to June 2026. Payrolled employment is also lower than a year ago. Here is how to read the labour market without relying on one noisy series.UK gilt yields explained: what 2-year and 10-year yields tell youA gilt yield is the market return implied by the price and cash flows of UK government debt. Short and long gilt yields move for different reasons and feed into mortgages, corporate borrowing and equity valuations.UK real wages in 2026: is pay actually beating inflation?UK regular pay grew 0.5% in real terms on the CPIH measure in April to June 2026. Real wages are rising again, but only modestly, and the distinction between nominal and inflation-adjusted pay matters for households and markets.UK GDP per capita in 2026: is the economy growing per person?UK real GDP per head rose 0.4% in the second quarter of 2026 and was 1.0% higher than a year earlier. GDP per capita helps explain why headline economic growth can feel different from household living standards.UK fiscal headroom in 2026: what it is and how much the Chancellor hasThe latest formal OBR fiscal-rule assessment gave the current-budget rule £22 billion of headroom in November 2025. The March 2026 forecast did not reassess the rules, so the next official test is at the 28 October 2026 Budget.Sterling outlook in 2026: what moves the pound against the dollar and euro?A useful sterling outlook is not a GBP/USD target. It is a framework for relative interest rates, UK growth, inflation, fiscal credibility and external financing. Bank Rate is 3.75% ahead of the 17 September MPC decision.The PSC register: what it captures and what it missesThe UK persons with significant control register is one of the most transparent beneficial ownership regimes in the world. It is also self-reported, stops at the first layer, and records ownership in bands. What those three facts mean in practice.KYB fails at the second layer. Here is why that matters.Know your business checks are a regulatory requirement. Most of them stop at the first PSC record. When that record is a company rather than a person, the check has not found the beneficial owner. It has found the beginning of the question.What the Economic Crime Acts changed about beneficial ownership in the UKTwo pieces of legislation in 2022 and 2023 significantly changed the UK beneficial ownership landscape. A register for overseas entities, identity verification at Companies House, and stronger PSC enforcement. What each change did and what it left unresolved.The Companies House API is free. Building on it is not.The Companies House API gives you open access to the UK register. It does not give you entity resolution, chain resolution, historical state, or production-grade reliability. The gap between the raw data and a usable pipeline is where teams underestimate the work.Why beneficial ownership chains are harder to resolve than they lookIdentifying the ultimate beneficial owner of a company is a legal requirement for most regulated firms. The register shows the first layer. The chain beyond it can be any depth, cross multiple jurisdictions, and look complete long before it is.Finimize alternatives: what UK readers move to nextFinimize made markets readable for a generation of retail investors. People go looking for an alternative when their job changes, not when the product does. Here is what to move to, depending on what you now need a morning read to do.