time

High time for a higher education revolution

By Linda J. Dodson 7 days ago

Unsurprisingly, I suppose, no other chapter in the book aroused so much ire among readers as this one on education. But then no other sector of the economy is as conservative as education. Educational methods are essentially unaltered since the time of Aristotle in the 4th century BC. 

All this was before the coronavirus. After it, the pressures on higher education are immense. A collapse in the number of overseas students, who are particularly lucrative for our universities, has brought a major financial crisis. They are now engaged in a scramble to secure more British students through the clearing process,

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Number of people paying inheritance tax falls for first time since 2009

By Linda J. Dodson 1 week ago

It is the first time official figures have been published since the “residence nil rate band”, or “family home allowance”, was introduced in 2017.

The relief extends extra protections to families passing on their main residence to children or grandchildren, although it starts to taper away once an estate exceeds £2m in size.

It was gradually phased in over the past three years, reaching its full amount of £175,000 this year. When combined with the £325,000 IHT allowance, it allows spouses and civil partners who can combine their tax breaks to pass on up to £1m tax free. 

Without the

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Why now is the time to invest in Germany

By Linda J. Dodson 2 weeks ago

Zoom in a bit further and the Dax is actually starting to pull away. It has risen 13pc since the beginning of June – around twice the S&P’s gain over the same period. 

The UK and Japanese markets have, by the way, both moved sideways over those two months. In part, this simply reflects the differing pandemic experiences in Germany and the US.

Germany has faced exactly the same challenge as other countries. Its 183,000 infections by the beginning of June ranked it ninth in the world. But its death rate, at around 100 per million of population, has been

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Boom Time for Death Planning

By Linda J. Dodson 3 weeks ago

“I just lost it,” she recalled. “It was confusing to me, because I loved my job. I was happy in the most obvious ways, but there was part of me …” She wasn’t sure how to describe the upswell of emotion.

Around this time, Ms. Chen was advising health care companies in commercial strategy. While interviewing last-line cancer physicians, she would constantly run a calculation in the back of her head: “If this treatment extends life by three months, how much money is it worth?” And yet she’d wonder: But at what quality of life? The system of prolonging life

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