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A UK couple is currently living the fantasy of many families up and down the country by being able to save hundreds a month, living mortgage-free.While most of us are living paycheck-to-paycheck, Amy Smerdon, 35, and her husband, Jerry, 53, have taken the leap to get away from the ever-expensive Britain.The couple - who share two sons, eight and six, and twin boys, five - spotted a £7,000 property on the market in Bulgaria and decided to cash in, do it up, and rent it out as a holiday home.However,...

The US dollar's position as the world's primary reserve currency has endured for over eight decades, weathering numerous economic crises, geopolitical shifts, and challenges from emerging economies. Despite periodic predictions of its decline, the greenback continues to dominate international finance, trade, and central bank reserves. Understanding why this supremacy persists requires examining the complex interplay of historical, economic, and institutional factors that reinforce America's monetary hegemony.Historical foundation and the Bretton Woods LegacyThe dollar's reserve currency status originated from the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement, which established a new international monetary system...

President Donald Trump’s mission to radically restructure the world economy is catnip to dollar doomsters, but raises few doubts for staunch believers in the currency’s primacy in global finance. All conversations about threats to the greenback’s role as the world’s reserve currency tend toward either imagining a collapse of American financial dominance, or stubborn shouts of TINA — There Is No Alternative. Far more likely is a slow grinding evolution into a world where different countries and currencies hold spheres of influence, a shift from the recent unipolar era. There...

Yesterday ECB President Christine Lagarde gave a speech in Berlin. It was about how the euro could possibly replace the dollar as the dominant global currency in the future. The speech is worth reading, Commerzbank's Head of FX and Commodity Research Ulrich Leuchtmann notes. Euro may struggle to become the next reserve currency"Lagarde is right, in my opinion, when she says: 'A currency's exposure to trade is especially important, as it provides the initial pathway to wider international use.' Reserves are held so that, in the worst case scenario of...

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on dozens of foreign trading partners have unleashed a rapid response abroad, as Europeans leaders urged negotiations while pondering retaliatory measures Thursday. Trump spoke of such negotiation requests in his Wednesday speech as he previewed the tariffs, saying, “To all of the foreign presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens, ambassadors, and everyone else who will soon be calling to ask for exemptions from these tariffs I say: Terminate your own tariffs, drop your barriers, don’t manipulate your currencies.” Donald Trump's message to Keir Starmer,"To all of...

Submerged houses after floods on August 25, 2024 in Feni, Bangladesh. (Photo by Parvez Ahmad ... Rony/Drik/Getty Images)Getty Images The latest major United Nations report on climate change is out, and the results are just as grim as all the previous ones, with climate change-related extreme weather events causing ever more people to flee their homes, as well as destroying critical infrastructure. The report, while playing into some of the misunderstandings over climate-related migration, also highlights the need for a large amount of funds to go towards helping vulnerable communities...

The Mexican peso slumped after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed new import tariffs against the country, though other developing-nation currencies held their own amid concerns about the impact of the escalating trade war on growth in the world’s largest economy. The peso fell as much as 1% against the dollar, extending its decline to a fourth day and hitting the weakest level in a month after the 25% duties came into effect, together with levies on Canada and China. Investors are awaiting Mexico’s response, with President Claudia Sheinbaum expected to...

(Bloomberg) -- From China’s artificial-intelligence successes to Dubai’s immigrant-led boom and rising prospects of debt restructuring in Venezuela and Lebanon, the winning emerging-market trades of 2025 all help investors withstand President Donald Trump’s trade agenda. Such selective trades are protecting investors from the unpredictability of Trump’s second term because they aren’t reliant on exports to the US, interest-rate cuts or a weak dollar. While benchmark indexes across stocks, bonds and currencies in developing markets have had the best start in years, the end of February brought a selloff, triggered by yet another...