US tech firms ask Trump for Chinese tariff exemptions in ongoing trade war September 7, 2018 US tech giants have asked President Donald Trump’s administration for an exemption from new tariffs against China. With President Donald Trump set to reveal a fresh tranche of tariffs targeting $200bn (£154.6bn) of Chinese exports, Cisco, Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Juniper Networks urged the White House to whitelist components behind some of their products. [...]
Greene King gets a World Cup boost as it presses ahead with pub sales September 7, 2018 Pub group Greene King sold 3.7m pints of beer during the World Cup, helping it to post solid growth figures ahead of its AGM today. But the company is to press ahead with cost-saving measures and making its estate smaller through the disposal of around 100 pubs this year. The figures In the 18 weeks to 3 [...]
From Elon Musk to Elizabeth Holmes, beware maverick disrupters promising to save the world September 7, 2018 It has not been a good week for celebrity entrepreneurs. The world’s favourite failed healthtech unicorn folded for good. A maverick space technologist mired himself further in a pointless libel battle. And we also heard that Gwyneth Paltrow’s “wellness” brand Goop had agreed to pay $145,000 for making “unsubstantiated claims” about the healing properties [...]
The anonymous Trump letter isn’t treason, but such public provocation is unproductive September 7, 2018 Treason? Question mark or not, the US President’s response to the anonymous opinion article in the New York Times, supposedly from someone working in his administration, has dramatically overstepped the mark. Any reasonable person recognises that the accusations against Donald Trump in the piece do not amount to “the crime of betraying one’s country” – [...]
A Brexit deal without services threatens the whole of Europe September 7, 2018 London and the UK have been at the heart of global shipping for over 300 years. During that time, the sector has seen empires built and dismantled, world wars fought, global power shift, and periodic financial crises. What has remained constant through the ages has been trade between nations, and the role of the maritime [...]
Is there any justification for keeping Help to Buy? September 7, 2018 Is there any justification for keeping Help to Buy? David Campbell, group sales and marketing director at Telford Homes, says YES. Help to Buy is a wonderful policy that has enabled around 246,000 people to get onto the property ladder – 81 per cent of whom were first-time buyers. Many of these buyers would not have [...]
Editor’s notes: Jeff Bezos should look closer to home for ideas on where to spend his fortune, new peer Bethell is a Lord to applaud, and the Economist shows how to stand up to social media bullies September 7, 2018 Amazon has joined Apple in the ranks of $1 trillion companies based on market capitalisation. Shortly before his company hit this massive (but meaningless) valuation, founder Jeff Bezos was pondering how to spend his vast wealth. Bezos is estimated to be sitting on a $130bn (£100bn) fortune – and earlier this summer he was asked [...]
The clock’s ticking for Smiths Group to shape its destiny, Big Four accountancy firms’ flaws and Paul Pester’s parting mistake September 7, 2018 The clock is ticking for Andy Reynolds Smith, chief executive of the industrial conglomerate Smiths Group. Talks about a combination of Smiths Medical, which manufactures devices ranging from tracheostomy tubes to chest drainage catheters, with US-listed ICU Medical have been ongoing for the best part of four months. When Reynolds Smith presents the company’s annual [...]
Hammond rows back on pledge to ease tax burden for self-employed workers September 6, 2018 Chancellor Philip Hammond has abandoned plans to give 3.4m self-employed people a tax break, it emerged earlier today. In a move to free up £350m for potential extra NHS funding, the Treasury is scrapping a tax cut that would have saved the UK’s self-employed workers an average £134. The relief had first been revealed in [...]
Why is Boris Johnson taking his punishment beating from Downing Street rather than trumpeting an alternative Brexit plan? September 6, 2018 At the start of this week Boris Johnson was slapped down by Number 10 for failing to come up with an alternative Brexit plan, with officials saying his anti-Chequers newspaper column “offered no new ideas to respond to”. Just as he did during the fallout from a previous column about the burqa, he has taken [...]