CITY 49
9 April 2022 THE WEEKCommentators
The British Museum has become the latest major cultural
institution “to remove the name of the Sackler family from its
walls”, in a bid to cut ties with the family’s company, Purdue
Pharma (producer of the OxyContin painkiller) and its historical
role in “the opioid crisis”, says Alex Marshall. The museum is
rather late to the protest – the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York removed the Sackler name from several exhibition
spaces almost four months ago. And the ban isn’t comprehensive.
The Sacklers will remain on the list of donors in its Great Court,
in recognition of some 30 years’ of support. Still, this move will
put pressure on other UK institutions to follow suit: the National
Gallery still has a Sackler Room; the V&A boasts a “glittering”
Sackler Courtyard. The real impact of the decision, however, could
be its ripple effect. The British Museum has “never before taken
an ethical stance on who it will take money from”, says one
climate activist. This “sets a new precedent”. Expect renewed
pressure for the museum to cut its ties with BP.For much of the global pandemic, Shanghai “won plaudits” for
its “targeted” response to the virus, which ensured that business
disruptions were limited “to just one milk tea shop”, says Yawen
Chen. The result was that the city’s “allure” as a local finance
centre grew: “financial executives exiting Hong Kong headed
there en masse”. Omicron’s contagiousness has changed all that.
Now the city’s 26 million residents are in strict lockdown and a
draconian new testing regime. Before the latest wave, investors
had been encouraged by China’s “rosier-than-expected economic
data” for the first two months of the year. But a recent Chinese
University of Hong Kong study suggests that Shanghai’s strict
lockdown alone could reduce China’s real GDP by 3.1%. Indeed,
if every Chinese city adopted the same measures for just a month,
“national GDP would shrink by 53%”. Because of inflation
constraints, “there’s unlikely to be a big stimulus package to
provide cushion” from the Covid hit. Nomura reckons that “the
space for monetary easing this year could be limited to just one
ten-basis-point cut to market interest rates. China’s “precious
economic green shoots” are in danger of wilting quickly.No. 10 has “excitedly announced” that Australian companies are
committed to making £28.5bn of new investments in the UK, says
Ben Wright. “It seems having foreigners snap up British assets is
back in vogue.” But while the PM dresses up this development as
“Global Britain in action”, no amount of rhetoric can gloss over
the Treasury’s “empty toolbox” when it comes to business invest-
ment – a vacuum that’s now putting growth at risk. Even the one
concrete move the Chancellor has made (the “super-deduction”
policy introduced last year, which allows companies to cut their
tax bills if they invest in plant and machinery) has fallen flat. The
Office for Budget Responsibility had predicted it would result in
a 10% rise in the amount of investment brought forward in the
2022-23 financial year. “It has now slashed that forecast in half.”
The Government needs to come up with something “sharpish”:
new figures show UK manufacturing expanded at its weakest pace
in 13 months in March. “Targeted support to help with spiralling
industrial energy prices would be the best place to start.”“The British will use anything as an excuse to drink,” says
Richard Godwin. “Crash, plague, war, depression – we’re not
fussy.” All of which probably explains the explosion in popularity
of the cocktail during the pandemic. At-home sales of alcohol rose
by 24.4% at its height, and cocktails are apparently still “selling in
record numbers” now that bars have re-opened. There is, in fact, a
specific correlation between cocktails and economics. Their first
golden age, between 1910 and 1930, was the era of “the robber
barons, rampant deregulation and boom and bust”. Their low
point coincided with postwar settlement of 1945-1979 – “Les
Trente Glorieuses” – when average incomes in the West rose in
line with economic growth, and “egalitarian beer and aspir ational
wine” were the drinks. As incomes “yawned apart”, cocktails
embarked on a second golden age. Will they endure this time?
Some luxuries, such as lipstick and martinis, are “bombproof”
– “relatively affordable ways of escaping reality for a moment”.
For that reason, “I suspect we’ll be sinking them for a while yet”.Nelson Peltz
Veteran US financier Nelson
Peltz has been sniffing
around some of the world’s
biggest asset managers, said
Tom Richardson in the
Australian Financial Review.
Last October, his activist
investor group, Trian, bought
signifi cant stakes in both
Invesco and Janus
Henderson – prompting
speculation he would push
for a mighty merger. That
hasn’t occurred yet. But
meanwhile, Peltz, 79, has
been grappling with “a real
mega-merger”. This
weekend, his actress
daughter Nicola is marrying
Brooklyn Beckham, son of
David and Victoria, and there
are reports of an “epic”
prenuptial agreement.
Despite allying with British
celeb royalty, the father of
the bride looks to be taking
no chances. Quite right. His
fortune, estimated at $1.7bn
by Forbes, makes the
Beckhams’ estimated $450m
“look rather pathetic”.A native “Brooklynite”, Peltz
dropped out of business
school in 1963 to focus on
the family food delivery
business, said Charlie
Gowans-Eglinton in The
Times. Starting out as a
driver, he eventually made a
fortune in packaging – using
the proceeds to co-found
Trian in 2005. Current big
investments include BNY
Mellon, Heinz and Tiffany &
Co. “The Beckhams will be
bringing most of the star
wattage” to the wedding, but
Peltz – who keeps “a flock of
albino peacocks and a
collection Old Masters” at
his Westchester country
estate – is used to spending
big on family events. In 2016,
he’s thought to have shelled
out in excess of $1m on the
bar mitzvah of his 13-year-
old twin sons. Even so, the
rumoured $3.9m budget “for
a wedding spanning three
days is... frankly, optimistic”.British business
is badly in need
of a boost
Ben Wright
The Daily Telegraph
China’s green
shoots are
turning brown
Yawen ChenReuters BreakingviewsAn ethical
departure at
the museum
Alex Marshall
The New York Times
Cocktails and
the economics
of inequality
Richard GodwinThe GuardianCity profile