The Big Picture Vincent Boland: Welcome to the new chief executive of HSBC... and good luck The banking giant suffers constant distractions from outside events and protagonists even as it concentrates on its day job
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: This bull market is phenomenal but exceptionally vulnerableThe departure of JP Morgan’s chief strategist after a series of mistimed calls shows few can predict the current market, but that does not mean it will last
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: Iran has a chance to increase freedom, but changing its stance on terror is unlikely The victory of reformist Masoud Pezeshkian over the hardline conservatives’ nominee has been seen as a sign of moderation in the extremely clerical state
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: Banning non-compete clauses would mean open season for poaching specialised staff A US ruling sounds good in principle but would be unhelpful in practice and remove the right of companies and their employees to forge their own deals
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: Far right advance is not a crisis for EU democracy, it’s a crisis for capitalismThe resurgent right wing across Europe and the US have one thing in common — hostility to free markets and open economies
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: Julian Assange is free but free speech has been damagedProper journalism cannot survive without leaks, and leakers
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: High time Europe embraces and prioritises its defence industryIf Europe is to protect its sovereignty and way of life, it must build a defence industry with the capacity to offer security in all its dimensions
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: US plays catch up with EU on AI; London stock exchange’s latest cry for helpAI has come to dominate investor sentiment towards the stock market to the extent that the movement of interest rates no longer does
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: Thirty years on, South Africa has failed to deliver on Mandela’s promise of a better landA takeover bid for the country’s one-time mining giant is a sign of how the optimism of three decades ago has disintegrated
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: If AI does advance to outsmart us humans, we need to be readyWith the possible exception of inflation, AI is the number one factor driving investor sentiment in the stock market but regulatory demands are growing
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: Fed’s hasty revision of interest rates is most dramatic shift in expectations in yearsDemand for interest cuts in election year likely to see economy take centre stage in UK and US races
The Big Picture Netanyahu’s barbaric army is out of control and is alienating all his allies Israel is quickly losing any international sympathy and support it had after the Hamas terror attack on October 7
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: Brakes go on the move to the brave new electric car worldThe revolution might not be going to plan, with a drop in EV sales worldwide raising questions about the shift to greener travel
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: If RTÉ and the BBC are to stay the same, then they have to changePublic service broadcasting is in financial crisis. Now is the time to consider what it is actually for
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: Why is the US using an 134-year-old law to bring Apple to heel?New regulatory probes have raised the prospect that the best of times may be over for Big Tech
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: Bankers need to stop having hissy fits over regulationBankers are fighting back against the latest efforts to regulate them, but their special pleadings are becoming tiresome
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: Yes the value of stock markets are soaring, yet IPOs are in steep decline The market shrinkage is mostly a western, mainly European phenomenon, while markets in Asia continue to grow
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: A US ban of TikTok raises issues of principle and practicality and is antithetical to free speechThe US and the UK have over-reacted with these displays of performative pandering to political lobbies and snubbing of allies
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: Bitcoin rises from the dead ... and it stinks to high heavenCrypto universe is shrouded in mystification, boosterism and investor credulousness
The Big Picture Vincent Boland: China’s journey to prosperity is stuck – and something has to giveIts economy recently kept the world ticking over but it has faced a series of downturns that mean a new path must be found