#policy-uncertainty

#policy-uncertainty

Policy uncertainty in Westminster is weighing heavily on Britain's small business sector, according to one of the City's most influential bankers. Kunal Shah, co-head of Goldman Sachs International, warned that a lack of clarity over taxation and employment laws is creating an "overhang" that is discouraging entrepreneurs from investing and hiring. Speaking to The Times ahead of a House of Commons reception marking 15 years of Goldman's 10,000 Small Businesses programme, Shah said founders were increasingly nervous about the government's shifting regulatory agenda.

Meanwhile, the most widely cited concern by billionaires was tariffs, with 66% saying it will most likely harm market conditions over the coming year. Close behind was "major geopolitical conflict" at 63% and policy uncertainty at 59%. And while Wall Street is worried about soaring U.S. debt, other sovereign borrowers, and AI hyperscalers issuing more bonds, a comparatively low 34% of billionaires flagged a debt crisis as the biggest thing keeping them up at night.

Soon after Donald Trump returned to the White House, his administration gutted the federal government's central education data collection and research funding agency, the Institute of Education Sciences. Researchers say the move jeopardized the nation's ability to figure out how to improve K-12 and higher education and its capacity to hold publicly funded schools, colleges and universities accountable. But the president didn't fully erase IES-which Congress created, and continues to require to exist, through the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002.