THE fall of the pound, pension funds under threat, mortgage costs soaring, spiralling inflation.
The world of markets and finance comes crashing in via front page and television headlines.
Many people have become more familiar than they expected to with government gilts - bonds issued to fund public spending - but it is now helpful for homeowners to know how these impact their monthly mortgage repayments.
The business of Brexit brought unprecedented pressures on Scottish companies, the war waged on Ukraine by Russia has forced other financial hardships and impacted supplies of commodities ranging from gas to wheat.
Business journalists are often tasked with translating the machinations and jargon of financial services and the markets, global trade and local manufacturing, importing and exporting, and part of the role is to create the kind of easily digestible critical analysis on a wide range of subjects that is a staple of the modern audience.
People turn to reporters and outlets with a track record of dissecting complex information to see their interpretation of breaking business news.
Regular features, like my twice-daily Herald Business Briefings and newsletters, help to bring live updates and insight that keep readers informed and across the issues of the day.
On my beat I seek to follow the journey of new companies, from the country’s first female outdoor sports gear store, in Fort William, or the former miner from Fife who invented a dissolving fabric, to the fortunes of Scotland’s first commercial gold mine.
As well as supporting new businesses it is also incumbent on me to scrutinise the giants of commerce, from transport operators to North Sea energy firms, with politics an increasingly significant influencing factor.
Giving our own viewpoint can also help shine a light on wrongdoing or injustice in the business world, and in my Business Week column on Saturday I aim to bring to the fore a single key issue.
A seventh-generation Scottish iron foundry that had seen its monthly energy bill soar from £13,000 to £120,000 had reason to say the latest UK Government business energy plan was no help is an example, and I have been regularly updating on the family's position when politicians were saying otherwise.
Defence is now also of sharp public interest, and exclusives on HMS Glasgow, the Type 26 frigate being built in Govan, and the Type 31 programme at Rosyth, which are being developed under a major Ministry of Defence programme, have also been well read.
So, for a financial journalist, it’s the whole gamut. After all, everything’s a business.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
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