Adam Smith’s ambassador: Meet Sam Bowman, the free-market evangelist December 18, 2017 Rising to prominence as one of the key intellectual driving forces behind Thatcher’s sweeping privatisation of state industries in the eighties. The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) was – alongside others – a harbinger for a newfound symbiosis between the think tank movement, public policy and government institutions. Today it is one of London’s most well-known [...]
IG Group, CMC, Plus500 share prices plummet on “disproportionate” European sector clampdown | City A.M. December 18, 2017 Investors in Britain’s biggest spreadbetting firms scurried for cover today after European regulators revealed tighter than expected clampdown on the sector. Almost £400m was wiped off the combined valuations of the three largest listed spreadbetters. Shares in IG Group and Plus500 fell 10 per cent, while CMC Markets fell by over 11 per cent. On [...]
Bitcoin price has fallen back below $19,000 as CME futures dropped December 18, 2017 Bitcoin fell back below $19,000 in the early hours of this morning after it came tantalisingly close to $20,000 yesterday – as the CME Group’s new bitcoin futures contracts dropped. The cryptocurrency rose as high as $19,694 yesterday, according to Coindesk, which takes into account prices at several exchanges. However, this morning it opened at [...]
Bitcoin will be niche asset for tech nerds in long term says ING bank analyst Teunis Brosens December 18, 2017 Bitcoin will retreat from its boom to become a niche asset, according to an analyst at a leading bank. As bitcoin closed in on $20,000 with the launch of bitcoin futures pushing the cryptocurrency higher, principle economist at ING Teunis Brosens warned that the current high valuations are “based on shaky foundations” in a research [...]
British consumers drink more sparkling wine for sixth year in a row as cava, prosecco and English wine take over December 18, 2017 Fans of prosecco, cava, and English sparkling wine have pushed up the national consumption of bubbly to the equivalent of 162 Olympic swimming pools. Sparkling wine consumption in the UK increased five per cent oveer the past year, to a total of 1.62m hectolitres, according to UHY Hacker Young. This marked the sixth successive year [...]
Eric Ries Q&A: The Startup Way author on why we should see entrepreneurship as a corporate capability December 18, 2017 Blogger and author Eric Ries is a celebrity in the startup world for his first book, The Lean Startup, which was published in 2011. Now Ries is applying the principles of entrepreneurship and his “lean” movement to traditional companies and civic institutions in his new book, The Startup Way. Advocating for a shift in the [...]
Insurance startup InsurePal to launch £15m initial coin offering December 18, 2017 Millennial-focused insurance startup InsurePal has announced it is raising £15m in an initial coin offering (ICO) to fund its UK motor launch in the first half of 2018. ICOs are a type of crowdfunding using cryptocurrencies, but they have been criticised by the Financial Conduct Authority as “very high-risk, speculative investments”. InsurePal uses the ethereum [...]
Black Friday, inflation, and leisure spending threaten retailers in make or break week before Christmas December 18, 2017 Retailers are facing a make or break week in the run-up to Christmas, as City analysts warn that a last-minute dash may not be enough to rescue a disappointing December. Dismal footfall figures seen by City A.M. reveal that visits to high streets fell year-on-year by almost 11 per cent between Sunday and Friday last [...]
Lord Adonis writes to Ofcom boss urging action plan to tackle mobile service disparity across the country December 18, 2017 The chair of the National Infrastructure Commission has written to the head of Ofcom for “urgent and radical action” to tackle the disparity in mobile services across the country. Lord Adonis said legal and regulatory changes should be considered, after figures revealed large parts of the country may not be getting the most basic services [...]
Bitcoin price (BTC) is heading for $20k as CME Group futures trading begins December 17, 2017 Bitcoin is heading towards the $20,000 mark as bitcoin futures trading is set to begin on another exchange. Futures contracts on the cryptocurrency with CME Group will begin later on Sunday which is expected to bring a greater volume of trades of a bigger size than those on the Cboe market, on which the futures [...]