By: Christian May

Editor-in-Chief Christian May is the Editor-in-Chief of City AM. He served in the role from 2015 to 2020 and returned in 2024. He writes the daily Editor's Letter for print and online and releases The Week in Business roundup video each Thursday. He is particularly interested in the health of London's capital markets, economic policy, politics, regulation and business activity in the City of London. He regularly appears in the broadcast media and presents a daily Business News slot on LBC at 0730, Monday to Friday. Find Christian on X and LinkedIn.

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Editor’s Notes: Bitcoin is starting to resemble tulip bulbs in a 17th century Dutch market, entrepreneurs are getting on with Brexit and the LSEG’s breakdown of trust

December 1, 2017

Gordon Gekko, the legendary character played by Michael Douglas in Wall Street, delivers a lesson on speculation in the film’s sequel with the help of some framed tulip bulbs. “Tulip mania,” he declared, “is the greatest bubble story of all time.” Gekko references the 17th century trend for tulips – a trend that soon generated [...]
Editor’s Notes: The Russians swung the Brexit vote? Pull the other one, Legatum Institute experts on the theory of change and City A.M.’s 3,000th edition is coming soon

November 3, 2017

We have a problem with the Russian state. Senior spooks say the Kremlin’s agents are more active in this country now than at any point since the height of the Cold War. Out of the shadows, Putin’s interference is brazen – including the Kremlin-funded ‘news’ outlets RT and Sputnik – home of conspiracy theorists, pro-Russia [...]
Editor’s Notes: Work on a trade deal has begun, even if the EU hasn’t noticed, Labour turns against the City of London Corporation and Art 4 Grenfell

October 20, 2017

Another week, another round of the Brexit dance in Brussels. The Europeans are inching towards the next phase of talks, though with “sufficient progress” not yet being confirmed they’re talking about commencing internal discussions about preparing for the next round. While this slow pace is infuriating, it’s always worth looking behind the public statements to [...]
Editor’s Notes: If politicians want to win back trust they should start by ditching the lies, plus: Downing Street’s new BBC hire, measuring GDP and innovative Estonia

July 7, 2017

This afternoon I’m hosting a discussion on the theme of experts and how to earn trust in a post-truth world. On the panel will be Andy Haldane of the Bank of England, Hetan Shah of the Royal Statistical Society and Julia Grant of Pro Bono Economics. Our host is the consultancy giant FTI, which has [...]
Editor’s Notes: Tory immigration policy will harm the City and our economy, Corbyn’s deleted Chavez past and City AM founders included in Change Makers series

May 26, 2017

Back when George Osborne was chancellor and Theresa May was home secretary, the pair would argue over the wisdom of seeking dramatic reductions in net migration. May was obsessed with the idea, and clearly still is, whereas Osborne was instinctively more comfortable with the view that immigration was nothing to worry about and the benefits [...]
Worrying mood music on global free trade from the G20’s summit in Baden-Baden

March 20, 2017

The way in which the world’s most advanced economies understand and attempt to order global trade policy underwent a quiet revolution over the weekend. The German spa town of Baden-Baden hosted the annual meeting of the G20 at a critical and sensitive time. China has started to talk the talk on free trade, even if [...]
Editor’s Notes: Only a lack of ambition can hold Britain back, says the Legatum Institute’s researcher tasked with finding the upside of the Brexit vote

March 17, 2017

Britain faces an enormous challenge in the wake of Brexit, but the prize is more than worth the fight. That’s according to one experienced former trade negotiator who now finds himself at the heart of the UK’s trade debate. Shanker Singham is director of economic policy and prosperity studies at the Legatum Institute in London. He’s [...]
Time to dust down the case against the Scottish National Party

March 14, 2017

The pursuit of independence is all that matters to the Scottish Nationalists. It is the glue that holds together everything they say and do. Having lost the referendum on independence they wasted no time in predicting the circumstances in which another one could follow. On the day after the EU vote, Sturgeon said that a second [...]
Editor’s notes: Hammond falls down the cracks between politics and policy, the bigger threats to the media than Rupert Murdoch and why the UK needs a new army of trade negotiators

March 10, 2017

There are plenty of people willing to defend the chancellor’s controversial raid on the self-employed, not least the chancellor himself who was out and about yesterday claiming that the government faced “some new challenges” and that it has “to pay for these things somehow”. As opposition to the move grows on his own backbenches, he [...]
Chancellor Philip Hammond’s tax hikes in yesterday’s Spring Budget spell political trouble

March 9, 2017

Philip Hammond was beaten up pretty badly at last night’s meeting of Tory MPs. Colleagues rounded on him for hiking a tax on the self-employed (for which one can read, entrepreneurs) and for another raid on dividend payment tax relief. How exactly are Tory MPs meant to sell this to their voters? And how does [...]

Motor finance: What’s next for banks and consumers in 2026?

Why Snap thinks 2026 will be Sport’s most connected and branded year yet

The Italy holiday taking in amazing skiing and a lesser-visited city

By: Christian May

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