Natasha Voase

Natasha Voase is a finance reporter at React News. Before going into journalism, she worked as an investment banker at Rothschild

Wednesday

Natasha Voase

The revenge of the blue collar workers

From our UK edition

Last year was the year the scales tipped in the global job market. Layoffs in consulting and investment banking that started in early 2023 have continued to mount, and yet the wider jobs market has remained relatively resilient. Demand for engineers and healthcare professionals is reportedly increasing. Blue collar workers in industries such as mining, construction and manufacturing, whose skills graduates have often turned their noses up at, are also in demand. The country is coming to terms with the fact that, for years, it has been reliant on workers trained in other countries.

Sunday

Natasha Voase

Why an Indian Ocean island has become a battleground in French politics

From our UK edition

A tiny island in the Indian Ocean is the latest battleground in France’s immigration debate. High immigration into Mayotte, a French territory where around 80 per cent of people live below the poverty line, is leading to a debate over what it means to be a French citizen. The row may cause France to upend its constitution. Mayotte, a tiny archipelago measuring 374 square kilometres, has seen its population almost quadruple to around 260,000 since 1991. Around half of the population now comes from the neighbouring Comoros, which voted for independence from France in 1975. Many are attracted by the prospect of their offspring becoming French citizens. But the numbers are now so high that France's government is considering changing the law for the island.

Monday

Natasha Voase

Paris doesn’t want the 2024 Olympics

From our UK edition

As hundreds of boats float elegantly down the Seine at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics this summer, one well-known and loved landmark will be absent. The bouquinistes, antique booksellers who have lined the banks for centuries, will have decamped for the duration of the games. For many Parisians who face the prospect of their city being swamped by almost a million incomers, this is the final nail in the coffin. Though much of the French population support the Games or are indifferent, Parisians have been quick to complain about the Games’ arrival. Nearly 44 per cent of Parisians thought the Olympics were a ‘bad thing’, according to one survey, while 52 per cent are considering leaving Paris for the duration of the Games.

Thursday

Natasha Voase

The decline and fall of banking’s barrow boys

From our UK edition

Before the 'Big Bang', which led to the deregulation of financial markets in London in the 1980s, the city was dominated by two types of person: the often Oxbridge-educated spreadsheet warriors who ran merchant banks; and the 'barrow boys', students of the school of life who worked as traders. While the former are still thriving in London, the latter are now something of a rare breed. It's a pity. What the barrow boys lacked in formal education, they made up for in exuberance. Often the children of market traders who put their quick maths to use on the trading floors of the City, the barrow boys came to epitomise the excess of the 1980s.

Sunday

Natasha Voase

Where did all the boomer bankers go?

From our UK edition

There aren’t many Alex types in banking anymore. The popular middle-aged cartoon banker, greyer and greyer since the 1980s, is regularly depicted in the Daily Telegraph gazing sagely over the heads of panicked young traders, safe in the knowledge he’s seen it all before. Older traders like him are few and far between now. Instead, Britain's banks and investment firms have been left largely in the hands of the youngsters, a generation too used to working in an era of free money. It's a troubling thought. Since the 2008 financial crisis, expensive and experienced senior bankers have been cast out, replaced by younger, cheaper rivals. Credit Suisse was forced into a desperate rehiring scramble in 2021 after it was criticised for 'juniorisation' in the risk department.