ARTICLE · 07 MAY 2015

Enterprise - Spring 2015

Smith & Williamson

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Guy Rigby looks at how the world has changed in the past seven years, reflecting on the path to recovery from the economic crisis and the rise of an entrepreneurial revolution.

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Peter Treadgold

FOREWORD - THE SEVEN-YEAR ITCH

Guy Rigby looks at how the world has changed in the past seven years, reflecting on the path to recovery from the economic crisis and the rise of an entrepreneurial revolution.

I was recently reminded that I joined Smith & Williamson seven years ago, in the spring of 2008, when the world was very different to today. We were then in an economic bubble with investors seeking to invest, banks eager to lend, and strong merger and acquisition activity, fuelled by liquidity and a very favourable tax environment for exiting entrepreneurs.

And then it went wrong

We all know what happened next. A flood of unsustainable debt washed away every semblance of normality, creating huge uncertainty and stopping the global economy in its tracks.

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