Barack Obama famously said “don’t do stupid stuff”. (Actually, he said something even stronger.) This is always good advice. It is particularly good advice for today’s UK. It would be wonderful if it could start doing sensible stuff. But one must keep one’s hopes in check. It should, however, surely be possible to stop doing really stupid stuff.

Brexit itself was stupid stuff. Few people with a serious knowledge of the matter doubt it. It has raised barriers against the country’s closest neighbors and most important trade partners. As the Office for Budget Responsibility noted this month, “The latest evidence suggests that Brexit has had a significant adverse impact on UK trade.” It has reduced overall trade volumes and the number of trading relationships between UK and EU firms. The OBR assumes, quite rationally, that “Brexit will result in the UK’s trade intensity being 15 per cent lower in

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The Financial Planning Association of Australian (FPA) has wrapped up its first in-person Professionals Congress in three years, with over 1,200 delegates attending the two day event in Sydney last week (22 and 23 November).

Under the theme, ‘Reunite, Reset’, the FPA Professionals Congress hosted a range of sessions designed to help members better understand the issues facing the profession as well as provide practical tools and information enabling them to work more closely with clients and understand their changing needs.  It also celebrated the FPA’s 30th anniversary.

Sarah Abood, CEO of the FPA, said the most common feedback from members was that they were delighted to be back together after so long.

“At my first Congress as CEO, it was wonderful to feel the energy from having so many members in one room, and experience first-hand the enthusiasm and passion for the

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Dancing at a nightclub

Hisham Ibrahim/Getty Images

  • Miami club owners told the Financial Times business is slumping as the crypto industry takes a blow.

  • Crypto, tech, and hedge fund leaders came to the city en masse during the pandemic.

  • But in the wake of the FTX implosion, some of the city’s top spenders have vanished.

Crypto leaders aren’t the only ones who feel the blow of the cratering market and the downfall of FTX — so too are the Miami club owners who profit from regularly hosting some of the industry’s top spenders.

Requests for $50,000 tables and bottle service for top-shelf liquor at the city’s hottest venues are drying up, according to a new report from the Financial Times. The scene has become so bleak that Andrea Vimercati, director of food and beverage at Moxy Hotel group, told the outlet that high-rolling crypto regulars have “completely disappeared.”

Miami became a hotbed for

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Stocks finished mixed during an uneventful, shortened day of trading on Black Friday.

When the closing bell rang on Friday, the S&P 500 was down 0.03%, the Dow was up 0.45%, and the Nasdaq fell 0.52%.

The US stock market closes at 1:00 p.m. ET on Friday; financial markets in the US were closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving.

Stocks finished with gains on Wednesday, the week’s final full trading session, after the minutes from the Fed’s latest meeting signaled a likely slowdown in the pace of rate hikes at the central bank’s December meeting.

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell attends a press conference in Washington, DC, the United States, on Nov.  2, 2022. The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday implemented the fourth consecutive three-quarter point interest rate hike, amid the worst inflation in four decades.  (Photo by Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty Images)

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell attends a press conference in Washington, DC, the United States, on Nov. 2, 2022. The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday implemented the fourth consecutive three-quarter point interest rate hike, amid the worst inflation in four decades. (Photo by Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty Images)

No major economic data or earnings reports

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