Crypto has had no shortage of turning points, but the one now unfolding has a different character. It lacks the drama of the boom-and-bust cycles that tend to dominate the headlines, and that quietness is precisely why it matters. Stablecoins have travelled from the margins of digital finance to the heart of global payment flows, and they have arrived well ahead of the rules meant to govern them.

Every June, professional services firms publish their commitments to inclusion. The language is warm, the intentions are genuine, and the programmes are often impressive - mentoring schemes, employee networks, unconscious bias training, diversity targets with board-level accountability. Large firms have the infrastructure to do this well, and many do. Inclusion means different things in different contexts. June is the month when that conversation is most alive - and when it

The EU’s steel trade regime has changed substantially. The EU Council formally approved a new Regulation (Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council addressing the negative trade-related effects of global overcapacity on the Union steel market) addressing the negative trade-related effects of global overcapacity on the Union steel market on 8 June 2026. It replaces the temporary safeguard measures expiring on 30 June 2026, with a permanent framework taking effec

The crypto industry has moved past the stage where legal uncertainty was an excuse for inaction. Courts are treating crypto assets as property. Regulators in major jurisdictions are writing rules. Institutional money is involved. The question for businesses operating in this space is no longer whether regulation will come, but what the economic consequences of fragmented and competing regulatory frameworks will be, and where the disputes will follow.

Returning from maternity leave is, for most professionals, framed primarily as a process of catching up: re-engaging with clients, re-establishing presence, closing the gap that absence creates. That framing is understandable, and the practical reality of re-entry is real. But it captures only part of the picture. This piece reflects on a different dimension of the return: the capabilities that the experience of parenthood can sharpen, and what those capabilities mean in a

The CAA is about to acquire powers it has never had. Businesses in regulated sectors need to understand what changes when a regulator stops asking courts for help and starts acting itself. For most of its existence, the Civil Aviation Authority has been a regulator that could advise, cajole, refer and complain - but not directly punish. When airlines fell short of their obligations to passengers, the CAA's route to enforcement ran through the courts. It was slow, uncertain, a

Insights The EU Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) is a Commission proposal published in March 2026, establishing a framework to accelerate industrial capacity and decarbonisation in strategic sectors. Its headline ambition is to restore manufacturing's share of EU GDP to 20% by 2035. The Act integrates industrial policy, climate ambition and economic-security tools into a single regulatory package - the most comprehensive intervention in EU industrial policy since the Single

After seven years as a member of the Civil Aviation Authority's Consumer Panel, my appointment came to an end in March 2026. The Consumer Panel is an independent body that acts as a critical friend to the CAA, advising on matters affecting aviation consumers. Its work spans airline insolvency and passenger rights, airport economic regulation, accessibility, and the development of price control frameworks for Heathrow and NATS. The breadth is wider than it might sound - over s

My appointment as a specialist panel member at the Competition and Markets Authority came to an end this month with the publication of the PR24 water redeterminations. I joined the panel in October 2017. My eight-year term expired in October 2025, but was extended to allow me to complete the PR24 process - something I was glad to do. The CMA panel is an unusual institution. It sits at arm's length from the CMA's executive, convened case by case to make final decisions in Phas

The Government's consultation on changes to the UK competition regime closed on 31 March 2026. The centrepiece of the proposal - the replacement of the CMA's independent panel with a Board sub-committee - would, if implemented, represent the most significant structural reform of the CMA since its establishment. Having left the panel last month after eight years as a specialist member, I want to say something about what is actually at stake. The current system keeps a structur

Small nation regulators face a distinctive set of pressures that rarely feature in mainstream regulatory economics literature. The frameworks developed by Ofcom, the FCA or the European Commission assume deep specialist capacity, stable long-term funding and a regulator that can afford, when necessary, to go to court. For the national regulatory authorities (NRAs) of small nations such as Jersey, the Cayman Islands, Mauritius or Trinidad and Tobago, none of those assumptions

DT Economics has written a report detailing the economic contribution of cloud computing to Australia. The report was funded by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and published by the Australia Information Industry Association (AIIA). Cloud adoption enables organisations to unlock the benefits of digital transformation. These benefits include better market access opportunities, enhanced capabilities, cost savings, improved operational resilience, reduced cyber security risk, reduced e

2022 has been an important year in the 'fair share' debate At the beginning of 2022, the European Commission (EC) committed to developing a so-called ‘fair share’ regulatory framework, looking to make market players benefitting from the digital transformation contribute towards the cost of connectivity. Shortly after that, leading European telecoms operators Telefonica, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Orange co-authored a letter supporting the EC’s commitment and urgently call

Change comes to communications markets in waves. These waves can relate to technology, competitive forces, consumer needs, regulatory frameworks, investment and ownership. Some take place globally over a short period, others much more gradually across the world. Today we are seeing the ownership of digital infrastructure becoming an increasingly important but fragmented driver of change. A brief revisit of old ownership practices Most of the history of communications networks

A new sort of digital divide will require ‘Internet of Things (IoT), ‘Machine-to-Machine’ (M2M) and ‘Over the Top’ (OTT) operators on both sides of the English Channel to be especially vigilant in a post-Brexit world. Even days before the end of the Brexit implementation period and the UK’s effective exit from the EU, digital policy differences had already taken effect with the UK’s execution of statutory instruments amending the Communications Act 2003, Ofcom’s General Condi