There are moments in a government’s lifetime that symbolise a change of ideological direction. Last week UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to raise taxes to pay for social care and bail out the National Health Service (NHS) was one of them. However worthy the objectives, the result will leave the country with the highest tax burden since 1945. Crucially ...

Poor man’s private equity or private equity’s poor cousin? Blank-check companies, which will soon be arriving in Singapore, could easily fall in one or the other group, depending on the quality of their early sponsors. Celebrities need not apply. Serena Williams or A-Rod won’t be luring Indonesian travel booking website Traveloka or Vietnamese gaming firm VNG Corp to Singapore. And ...

Think used cars are expensive? Take a look at totaled cars. Copart Inc is a $34 billion company that specialises in auctioning off wrecked cars that insurers deem too damaged to justify the cost of repairs. The insurance companies and other sellers — which include banks, charities and, increasingly, used-car dealers — get what’s recovered in the auction, but they ...