Amazon, Confused.com and Just Eat help TV advertising market grow February 23, 2017 Online companies like Amazon, Just Eat and Moneysupermarket are spending more and more on TV advertising. In total, TV adspend crept up 0.2 per cent in 2016 to £5.3bn, the seventh successive year of growth. Read more: News Corp posts second loss in a row amid print advertising headwinds A Thinkbox analysis of Nielsen figures shows [...]
Experts are vital, but so is scepticism and debate – take it from the Bank of England’s Minouche Shafik February 23, 2017 Experts have come in for plenty of stick over the past 12 months. Michael Gove’s infamous assertion during the referendum campaign that “people have had enough” of them has entered political legend. His actual quote is overlooked: he was specifically criticising experts who worked at “organisations with acronyms” and who were “consistently getting it wrong”. So, [...]
Unilateral free trade: The selfless Brexit policy that is best for everyone February 23, 2017 There is a clear ethical choice at the heart of trade policy, with direct implications for Brexit. The choice is between selfish, self-interested or selfless policies. And the counter-intuitive truth is that it is selfless policies that maximise prosperity in the long term. So what is meant by selfish, self-interested and selfless? Selfish policies are [...]
Scrap the utopian net migration target (among other things) to reconcile traditionalists and liberals on immigration February 23, 2017 Across the West, we are experiencing a growing cultural clash between liberals and traditionalists. It was encapsulated by Clinton versus Trump, and now by Macron against Le Pen in France. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair recognised this 10 years ago, saying: “The real dividing line to think of in modern politics has less to do with [...]
Spiking business rates will lead to an East London tech exodus February 23, 2017 Much has been written about the upcoming business rates revaluation and the significant additional burden that this will place on businesses, large and small. Comparatively little, however, has been said about the impact that this in turn will have on our town centres and business districts. Ultimately, business rates are a property tax rather than [...]
As Lloyds posts its highest profit in a decade, have British banks got over the financial crisis? February 23, 2017 Fahad Kamal, senior market strategist at Kleinwort Hambros, says Yes. In the latest stress tests conducted by the European Banking Authority, only two of the 51 banks tested – neither British – would fall below the minimum capital level required in an “adverse” scenario. Admittedly, some UK banks still have a hangover from the pre-crisis [...]
British exporters are confident ahead of Brexit as Article 50 trigger looms February 23, 2017 Confidence among British exporters has jumped ahead of the official start of the Brexit process, a new poll shows, as revised figures reveal a 4.1 per cent increase in exports boosting UK growth at the end of 2016. A balance of 43 per cent of manufacturing firms expect turnover to increase over the next year, as Britain begins [...]
Government isn’t doing enough to mitigate the environmental hit from Heathrow expansion, warn MPs February 23, 2017 The government looks set to flout recommendations made by its own climate change advisers regarding the environmental impact of Heathrow expansion, MPs warned today. The Environmental Audit Committee has found the government is not doing enough to show it can mitigate the environmental hit the new runway is expected to have, and looks set to [...]
Tesla says its new mass-market car remains on track as it reports narrowing losses February 22, 2017 Tesla posted a smaller loss for the quarter to 31 December, as it declared that its new mass-market saloon was on track to enter production by September. Elon Musk's electric car maker reported net loss attributable to common shareholders of $121.3m (£97m) for the three months period, down from $320m in the same quarter of [...]
Google owner Alphabet has just been upgraded to AA+, S&P’s second highest rating level February 22, 2017 Google parent Alphabet has been upgraded by Standard and Poor's, with analysts citing strong operating performance and conservative financial policy. Alphabet now holds a rating of “AA+”, one notch below the rating agency's top level of AAA, which is held only by Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson. S&P said the rating was a function of [...]