Thames Water returns to profit on the back of higher bills
Struggling utility benefits from decision by regulators to allow it to charge customers more
South Korea raises foreign bond cap to prepare for $350bn US investment
Parliament approves record ceiling of $5bn amid concerns about impact on won from trade deal with Washington
Letter: Engineering talent can give UK an edge in quantum computing
From Rob Jesudason, Chief Executive, Serendipity Capital, Singapore
Letter: Ukraine reparations loan would help end the war
From Hugo Dixon, Journalist and Campaigner, London W10, UK and Lee Buchheit, Honorary Professor of Law, University of Edinburgh, UK
Airbus cuts delivery target after issues with A320 aircraft
World’s largest planemaker lowered goal to ‘around 790’ jets from 820, days after addressing technical problems
Letter: My financial literacy course might include betting odds
From Penny Boydell, Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK
Letter: Those reforms may work in Singapore, not Argentina
From Danny Leipziger, Professor of International Business, George Washington University; Former Vice President, World Bank, Washington, DC, US
Letter: Analysis that Brexit was a disaster fails the smell test
From Julian Jessop, Economics Fellow, Institute of Economic Affairs, East Molesey, Surrey, UK
Letter: The one saving grace of Accenture’s reinvention
From Harmen Rockler, Velp, The Netherlands
Letter: Critical thinking, not AI, is needed to read the FT too
From Phyl Terry, New York, NY, US
Correction: Katie Prejean McGrady
Catholic radio talk-show host Katie Prejean McGrady is 36, not 26 as wrongly stated in an article on November 30. The surname of Eliza Monts was also misspelt in the same article. We apologise for the errors
More on crypto winter
And our readers on the essence of economics
FTAV’s further reading
Repo; LLMs; immigration; private credit; Google; poop; living the dream
Transcript: The Wolf-Krugman Exchange — Maga man and Mamdani
Martin Wolf talks to Paul Krugman
EU to propose tapping €210bn in Russian assets for Ukraine loan
Also in this newsletter: the EU’s drone lab, and Italian premier Giorgia Meloni heads to the Gulf
RIP QT; long live ‘reserve management purchases’
Just please don’t call it quantitative easing, for Fed’s sake
FirstFT: Reform UK donors say Farage expects deal with Tories
Also in today’s newsletter: ‘Made in Europe’ targets and Anthropic taps IPO lawyers
Who killed Europe’s single market dream?
How the EU’s flagship economic project lost momentum at a critical moment for the continent
AI in Practice
In the first AI in Practice report: Complete rethink of business models needed to realise benefits; Robots promise to take the grunt work out of lab experiments; Professional services firms in search of competitive edge and military chiefs aim to reshape the battlefield
Start-ups promise to help vibe coders catch the AI bugs
Trading firm Jane Street leads $105mn investment in testing group Antithesis as AI-generated software proliferates
UK banks fear the fintech revolution
Plus, the German AI start-up angling to disrupt Hollywood and the lawyers who made London the divorce capital of the world
Record pay for RSM partners reaches levels earned at Big Four
Mid-tier accounting firm’s average profit per equity partner of £821,000 better than that at EY
Eurosceptic Slovak leader targets whistleblowers in latest crackdown
Opponents argue move by Prime Minister Robert Fico is further step towards dismantling rule of law
Most UK adults have not told partners about spending in past year
Secret purchases on beauty products, cryptocurrencies and gifts can signal deeper differences on financial attitudes