Nick Hubble

Earthquakes are especially disconcerting when you’re sitting on the toilet. Perhaps that’s why they make them so comfortable here in Japan. Before I’d emerged from the bathroom, the various family members across the country had already checked in with each…

The World Cup has begun. You’ll find yourself utterly mystified by my coverage over the next few weeks. As a German by birth, Brit by citizenship, Australian by choice and Japanese by something called a “family register”, I have decent…

I’m having a tough time trying to persuade the Japanese future in-laws to let their first-born move to London. Relations between Japan and our capital city have been strained since former mayor Boris Johnson flattened a ten-year-old Japanese child trying…

Can you imagine if Barack Obama had delivered the Korean peace talks that Donald Trump just did? The world would be swamped with a flood of praise from around the globe. But Trump only gets derision. For his methods and…

In the end, the Italians gave it away themselves. Not the World Cup, their capital flight. Deposits are fleeing the country. The European Central Bank (ECB) might not be releasing its Target2 balances for another few weeks. But the Bank…

It’s always fun to see the government fail the very people who stir it into action. Prohibitionists who fall victim to organised crime gangs. Warmongers who get called up in the draft. Rent control advocates who live in dilapidated buildings….

In 2016 I joined the Free Market Road Show. We travelled around Europe giving speeches about things like the EU and the sharing economy. The troupe mostly visited eastern European countries, where the battle of ideologies is still distinct. In…

Which currency would you hold over the next year? You only get three choices: the euro, the Italian lira or bitcoin. Which do you choose? You’ll find out my pick below. Trying to stay more than one step ahead of…