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The latest Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index shows how companies are succeeding in influencing governments to ensure taxes remain flat or stubbornly low No comment yet.
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MP asks for explanation from Southern Water amid concerns the spill could have dire impact on rare sea life
Graham Watson's insight:
A classic negative externality - marine pollution - in this case with plastic beads washing up on Camber Sands, but presumably not Waikiki, with the potential to kill marine life.
Southern Water is in the frame for permitting the spill.
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The talks focus on ITV's Media and Entertainment division, which include its TV channels as well as its streaming service, ITV X.
Graham Watson's insight:
Another demerger is on the cards, with ITV thinking of selling its Media and Entertainment division to Sky's parent company, Comcast. I can see further consolidation in the sector, with the number of firms competing for advertising revenues and struggling to fund new content, particularly the established broadcasters, such as BBC and ITV.
However, you wonder what selling this part of the business will leave ITV; the advertising business, perhaps?
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Pascal Soriot calls for cost-effectiveness thresholds to undergo ‘substantial adjustment based on inflation’
Graham Watson's insight:
Another article highlighting the ongoing debate about drug prices in the UK, and noting that "the National Institute for Healthcare and Clinical Excellence (Nice) cost-effectiveness thresholds for new drugs had not changed for two decades" and that the UK only spends 0.3% of its GDP on medicines, compared to around 0.6% elsewhere.
The corollary is that higher prices for medicines may also encourage investment into the UK from big pharma and the life sciences sector.
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Decision is bitter blow to Brazil ahead of fund’s launch at Cop30 – and an embarrassment to Prince William
Graham Watson's insight:
Just a fantastic article with lots of great Economics: is the UK's position on this issue economically rational? What tools would you use to judge this?
Lots to consider here - the negative externalities of deforestation, the difficulties of co-ordinating international decision-making, game theory and so on.
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Regulator also considers forcing companies to report pay received from parent firms after Guardian investigation
Graham Watson's insight:
It seems that the regulator has some power to limit the bonuses of water company executives but it's far from perfect. As a result, they are trying to regulate payments from parent companies to CEOs too, such as that which has been rumoured to be made to Yorkshire Water boss, Nicola Shaw.
Quite what motivates firms, or the CEOs themselves, to think that this is a good idea is beyond me. Sometimes the line between legality and ethics is blurred...
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Elon Musk’s $1tn Tesla pay deal to be rejected by huge Norway wealth fund | Elon Musk | The Guardian
Carmaker’s seventh biggest single investor will vote against package at annual shareholder meeting
Graham Watson's insight:
Executive pay at its finest. Is Elon Musk worth a $1 trillion dollar pay package? Can you argue both why he might be and why he might not be? It seems that key institutional investors are divided upon the issue.
Naturally, Musk himself is shy and retiring...
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The deal will unite two giants in the over-the-counter health business, bringing together brands like Kleenex and Benadryl.
Graham Watson's insight:
There's been a massive US merger between Kimberly-Clark, the manufacturer of "Kleenex, Huggies nappies and some of the biggest toilet paper brands in the US" and Kenvue, best-known as the manufacturer of Tylenol.
Both firms have been under-pressure from cheaper own-brand and generic alternatives as consumers look for better value. However, the deal values the latter at around $48bn and looks set to create a company with a large share of the market for bathroom and medicine cabinet items.
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US biotech viewed as lucrative target partly because of its promising pipeline of weight-loss drugs
Graham Watson's insight:
Two big pharma giants have a smaller obesity drug manufacturer in their sights - with Pfizer and Novo Nordisk having both bid for Metsera in the past few weeks, the latter in response to the former's earlier bid.
Both are hoping to takeover the company's pipeline of obesity drugs - however, the latter is controversial with there being concerns about the implications for competition in the sector.
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Reduction comes from energy generated from windfarms and lower cost of gas owing to lower demand
Graham Watson's insight:
Good news for the renewable energy sector, with a University College London study suggesting that it's cut energy costs by around £8bn per year since 2010, both directly, in providing cheaper power and indirectly, by lowering the demand for and price of gas.
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The bosses of the UK's largest supermarkets warn the chancellor against imposing higher taxes on the industry.
Graham Watson's insight:
The UK's largest supermarkets have called upon the government not to consider corporate tax increases in the forthcoming Budget, otherwise they suggest that food prices are going to increase as a result. The issue seems to be that a reform of business rates is going to fall most heavily on supermarkets with large stores and large distribution centres.
The article balances existing price rises for butter, milk, coffee and chocolate but also notes that many supermarkets have also made substantial profits in the past year. However, this shouldn't be seen in isolation, because UK supermarkets don't have massive profit margins and the return on capital employed doesn't suggest that these are supernormal profits either.
All in all, it's a tough balancing act - and one that you could consider using cost and revenue diagrams.
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Plastic recycling plants in Europe are being shut as they struggle to find a business model
Graham Watson's insight:
This excellent clip highlights a dilemma that's damaging the European plastic recycling industry, and has seen a number of recycling plants shut or proposals for new plants abandoned.
The problem is that, as you should know, Economics is all about incentives, so if virgin plastic from Asia is cheap, and higher energy and labour costs make recycled plastic expensive, then firms are going to act rationally.
The shame is that as marketeers know, whilst consumers say they want recycled plastics, they vote with their feet and in most cases prioritise price over sustainability. So the problem stands, unless we want to produce ever more plastic, and, by definition, plastic waste, how are we going to find a viable business model for the sector?
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Competition watchdog takes similar stance as EU, saying both tech firms require stricter regulatory oversight
Graham Watson's insight:
It seems as though the Competition and Markets Authority is going to establish guidelines as to the market conduct of Apple and Google in relation to their dominant position in the mobile phone market.
The competition authorities want to encourage greater competition not least in the market for app, and app stores purchases, because they think that both Apple and Google users face a limited choice and that this could be contrary to consumer interests. Strange to relate, the companies themselves aren't best pleased. |
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Watchdog’s flagship report says rise in low-carbon electricity will make transition ‘inevitable’, despite Trump’s calls to carry on drilling
Graham Watson's insight:
This could easily be an International story, but if the International Energy Agency is forecasting that the rise in renewable energy signals the death knell for nuclear power, then it seems to a highly likely. The report also notes that, despite demand for energy rising by 40% in the next decade, it will be cheaper renewables and nuclear energy that are likely to take up the slack, rather than fossil fuels.
And, disappointing to relate, it appears that the grubby little man that leads the free world has failed in trying to pressurise the organisation into incorporating a brighter future for fossil fuels in the report. How much simpler it would be to live in a world that bent to his cretinous whim.
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Chinese manufacturers are using the electric transition to seize market share, with the UK as their gateway
Graham Watson's insight:
This today's must-read article, with Jasper Jolly looking at the rise of Chinese electric vehicles, noting that 5 years ago China lagged behind the established manufacturers in terms of its share of global exports. Today, it is streets ahead, with Chinese owned companies selling far more vehicles that anyone else - and more than Germany, South Korea and the US combined.
In particular, the UK has seen Chinese brands start to dominate - and it's an interesting thought experiment to see how many Chinese-owned brands you can name. Did you know, for example, that Volvo, Polestar and MG are all Chinese-owned.
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The richest man in the world will get hundreds of millions of new shares if he hits his targets.
Graham Watson's insight:
I leave this her without comment. It defies explanation.
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Report to be discussed at Cop30 says global agreements should target carbon intensive activities and ‘ultra high net worth individuals’
Graham Watson's insight:
A week or two of COP30, ultimately, I fear leading to words rather than actions, but the intentions are good. This suggests that there's a willingness to target carbon intensive industries, with a particular focus on encouraging developed economies to support developing economies in their attempts to tackle climate change.
As with my previous 'scoop', this is easier to promise than deliver on, for obvious reasons.
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Lawyers challenge €4bn Project One development, saying emissions and health impacts vastly underestimated
Graham Watson's insight:
Wowsers! This is quite the claim, however, lawyers in Belgium are challenging a decision to allow Ineos to develop Europe's largest plastic plant, arguing that it will generate negative externalities such that more people will die from the associated pollution than will have jobs created.
The intention of the scheme is to increase Europe's capacity to produce plastics, given that "Plastic production has increased more than 200-fold since 1950 and is expected to almost triple again to more than a billion tonnes a year by 2060". Ineos are arguing that their plant is going significantly cleaner with "carbon emissions less than half those of the most efficient European installations".
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As freshwater reserves decline at unprecedented rates, the report, Continental Drying: A Threat to our Common Future sheds light on a growing global challenge and the path forward. Drawing on two decades of satellite data, the report identifies where and why water is disappearing and outlines solutions to manage demand, augment supply, and improve allocation. With stronger institutions, smarter investments, and innovative technologies, countries can turn the tide and build a more water-secure future.
Graham Watson's insight:
This World Bank highlights the importance of water security to development, and the fact that water resources are being depleted to the extent that we are losing 4 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water every second.
This video clip highlights the different water sources and how land use affects the availability of water, notably the extent to which groundwater is lost. The World Bank report highlights three key areas for development: demand management, augmenting supply and improve water allocation, by pricing water appropriately and so increasing the efficiency of water management.
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Parent company announces drop in sales and profits as its sugar and agriculture arms face higher costs
Graham Watson's insight:
It seems that demerger is on the cards, with the poor performance of the sugar and agricultural arm of Associated British Foods, the owner of Primark - I kid you not - contemplating separating the businesses. This implies that the current structure of the firm might generate diseconomies of scale, and demerger would allow for greater focus going forward.
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Tim Richards spoke to Will Bain on the BBC's Big Boss Interview podcast.
Graham Watson's insight:
This might get you thinking about cross price elasticity of demand with the head of the Vue cinema chain suggesting that a trip to the cinema and streaming aren't substitutes but might actually be complements. This has implications for the pricing policy of both, and the ability of the firms involved to make profit.
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UK Steel said while the increased support was welcomed, the government could have gone further.
Graham Watson's insight:
The government has announced that it is going to increase its support for energy intensive industry, with about 500 business going to benefit from an increased reduction of 90% on part of their energy bills.
It is hoped that this will increase the competitiveness of the glass, steel and cement industries, given that the International Energy Agency reckons that UK firms face industrial energy costs that are twice those of their rivals. However, this intervention will reduce network access costs, and represents around an 18% cut in energy costs.
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Proposed £1.2bn takeover of Tesco, M&S, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Asda supplier is being examined by CMA
Graham Watson's insight:
A merger between sandwich and salad manufacturers, Bakkavor and Greencore is coming under Competition and Market Authority (CMA) scrutiny over fears that it will reduce competition in the sector. That said, it seems as though most of the merger isn't problematic, and that the only concern is that market for chilled sauces which represents around 1% of the combined business.
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Trump is under fire from ranchers, who say his ideas to lower prices address "symptoms not the problems".
Graham Watson's insight:
Microeconomics and International Economics in the same article - D&S, because the drop in US supply has clearly driven prices higher, although there's been a substantial decline in the number of cattle ranches since the 1980s. That said, it's also interesting to see the concentrated market structure of the sector, with four firms controlling 80% of the slaughtering and packaging markets - so this might also play a role.
However, tariffs on imports of Brazilian beef has given producers a chance to regain market share although the prospect of increased Argentinian beef imports might offset this.
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But bills are still due to rise to fund improvements to water infrastructure.
Graham Watson's insight:
Well, I never! The water companies have been told to refund a collective £260m to their customers because of a sustained period of under-performance in 2024/25. Some of the fines have come off this year's bills, and the remainder will come off next year. Despite that, bills are still going to rise.
The worst peforming? Thames Water, unsurprisingly, which has been fined £75m and given a one-star rating by the Environment Agency. It could spell trouble for the beleaguered company. Only Severn Trent and United Utilities are in a position to charge customers more because of their good performance. |
Tobacco taxes are perhaps the sacred cow of libertarian economists: this report suggests that the environment in which they're set isn't one that fully reflects the available scientific data, and is, instead swayed by the power of global tobacco companies.
The article posits that the negative externalities associated with tobacco are extensive: "estimated at about $1.7tn (£1.3tn) in excess healthcare expenses and productivity losses in 2021 – the equivalent of 1.7% of global gross domestic product. That does not include the costs of tobacco-related environmental harm" and notes that there's now a Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index to monitor the influence of the tobacco industry on government policy.
Is it right that governments should be effectively subsidising a business where the top four companies made $125bn in revenues in 2024, at the expense of public health.