Written and edited in London.
London·United Kingdom·Published every Sunday morning
One desk, one deadline.
The Brief is put together in London and closed before Sunday morning.
UK, European and US markets, the Bank of England, the ECB and the Federal Reserve, geopolitics and defence, and the companies whose results move the week.
How an issue is made.
Five stages, in order, every week.
Research
Each week starts at source: central bank statements and minutes, statistical releases, company filings and market data, read in full rather than second-hand.
Analysis
Most of what happens in a week does not matter. The work is deciding which part does, and what it implies for rates, markets and policy.
Drafting
Every issue is written to the same shape, so a reader knows where to find the part they came for. The shape is fixed; the length is whatever the week earns.
Verification
Market levels are checked against licensed price data, dates against the calendar, and claims of fact against a primary source. Anything that cannot be stood up does not appear. From Issue No. XXX, the sources are listed at the end of every issue.
Editing
The finished issue is edited end to end for accuracy, clarity and length before it is published.
The principles behind every issue are set out on the editorial standards page.
Three principles, plainly stated.
If you want to know what to expect when you subscribe — read these.
A reasoned conclusion, and the case against it.
Each week the Brief takes one clear position on the most important development — specific enough that a reader could disagree with it — and shows the reasoning behind it, starting from one question: what’s the actual mechanism here? Then it gives the strongest argument against its own view. You get a conclusion to test, not one to memorise.
Concision is a moral discipline.
Every paragraph that doesn’t earn its place costs the reader something. The Brief aims to be readable in ten minutes because that is the highest form of respect it can offer an intelligent audience with somewhere else to be.
Accuracy before speed.
Every figure and date is checked against independent sources before publication. Getting it right matters more than getting it first: an error costs the reader’s trust for far longer than a late issue costs their patience.
Where to find us.
Every email is read. Most get a reply.