Leadership, generosity and precision puts your future in your own hands
Last year I got myself into a pickle. Managing my money, and business poorly meant I suddenly became stranded in Zanzibar.
A client pulled out of a lucrative book deal at the last possible moment. Until then I believed he was serious, as it was his idea, about commissioning me for ghostwriting.
I’d run up debt on my credit card in the previous year, overusing it stupidly after being abruptly put out of work. HMRC — the UK equivalent of the IRS — had also unexpectedly sent over bills for income tax, and business VAT bill. …
Denial is the hallmark of addiction
I grew up around alcoholism, personality disorders, and low-level emotional abuse in my family. None of us had our needs met — we were neither happy nor healthy. Holidays, birthdays and memories ruined by confusion, embarrassment and distress.
I’ve since sought out role models I can look up to. Reliable, disciplined, skilled people with strength, courage, and integrity. Sometimes I still feel lost, but I know I have to be the person I wanted to have around when I was young.
I’ve been a codependent child in an alcoholic and narcissistic home for a…
Denial is the hallmark of addiction.
I grew up around alcoholism, personality disorders, and low-level emotional abuse in my family. None of us had our needs met — we were neither happy nor healthy. In January I staged an intervention on my father, asking my family to tell him how his alcoholism had affected them and made them feel. Holidays, birthdays and memories ruined by confusion, embarrassment and distress.
I’ve since sought out role models I can look up to. Reliable, disciplined, skilled men with strength, courage, and integrity. …
Because skills pay the bills.
COVID-19 has influenced businesses all over the world, forcing them to adopt work-from-home environments. And, as you may already know, this has tremendously impacted the recruitment of talent, and job market trends.
We have witnessed a major and potentially permanent shift in how businesses operate and how people work.
The pandemic is accelerating the transition to a digital economy. New ways of working and shopping mean certain roles in data analysis and consumer behavior, for example, will become more common.
And the new decade will require more higher-skilled roles.
LinkedIn and Microsoft have teamed up to offer online training for…
President Biden offers the British Prime Minister a New Year reboot opportunity.
The Profundity of the Punditry
The fallout from this year’s presidential election represents yet another failure for the political pundits and their predictions this side of the pond.
In the week following election day, the discussion slowly turned from who had won the Electoral College, to which foreign leaders would speak to the newly crowned President.
Large swathes of the British commentariat talked up the prospect that because Joe Biden was anti-Brexit, with proud links to Ireland, he was going to “snub” Britain and its Prime Minister — relegating Britain to irrelevance on the world stage.
UK Government figures won’t admit this publicly, but the British Conservative Party are not rooting for the President’s re-election
President Trump closed the Republican convention on the White House saying the American voters had never faced a clearer choice between two parties, two visions, two philosophies, or two agendas.
Even his greatest detractors would endorse this statement.
Lazy commentators in the Anglosphere frequently draw non-existent similarities between Donald Trump and Boris Johnson. Outside of Brexit itself, there is virtually no ideological agreement between this ostensibly Republican White House and Conservative Government.
It is clear Number 10 privately hope the incumbent loses the presidency in November. Joe Biden is a better bet for Boris Johnson and his agenda for political…
Major economies are assessing whether the biggest monetary policy experiment in modern times can stave off a financial crisis
188 countries have been touched by the coronavirus. COVID-19 has toppled the Dow Jones and London Stock Exchange by double digits, and pushed up unemployment in all major economies.
Some countries are now considering the prospect of negative, that is less than zero, interest rates. They hope the biggest monetary policy experiment in modern times can stimulate borrowing, spending, and stave off a deflationary spiral into a financial crisis.
What are negative interest rates?
Negative interest rates mean commercial banks pay to store money at the central bank rather than earn interest on it. Some countries and companies have also been paid to borrow. Most…
The enigmatic investment vehicle that plays an influential role in the world economy.
To help the global economy recover from the devastation brought by the coronavirus pandemic, governments around the globe have pledged over $9 trillion of spending and lending to prevent another Great Depression.
Further measures are on the way, and finance ministry officials are getting creative in the ideas they are tossing around to support industry and employment, and to build back better from the biggest disruption to trade and commerce since the 1930s.
The result is the largest economic policy experiment outside of a world war.
And for some countries, this means thinking the previously unthinkable, by exploring the establishment…
The forthcoming crisis could be the catalyst for compromise and resolution.
The United Kingdom will leave the European Union’s legal order, including the Single Market and Customs Union, at the end of December this year.
The EU has accepted the UK’s confirmation that there will be no extension to the Brexit transition period.
In June British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke with his continental counterparts via videoconference to take stock of progress with the aim of agreeing on actions to move forward in negotiations on the future relationship.
The summit produced a commitment by both sides to intensify efforts to reach a deal, but there was no substantive breakthrough.
Although significant…
Four years ago on polling day of the EU referendum, Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) became flooded. A surreal ending to a pugnacious battle.
Cue the obvious jokes about foreshadowing the party and country’s fortunes for the coming years — being submerged, paddling furiously to stay afloat. I was one of the few members of the Tory press team who stayed behind at Central Office during the referendum campaign while other colleagues were seconded to Vote Leave in Westminster Tower and Stronger In at Cannon Street.
It was amusing to tell people the Conservatives were officially neutral during the campaign, given…
Stephen Lynch
Published online in The Times, Daily Telegraph, and the Indepdendent. Former Conservative adviser. Eject the Autopilot: Choosing Self-Mastery over Safety.
