AT&T quashes rumours of Vodafone takeover January 27, 2014 The telecommunications giant AT&T has confirmed that it will not be making an offer for FTSE 100-listed company Vodafone. Rumours that the second-largest mobile provider in the US was considering a takeover of the UK company had been mounting in the wake of Vodafone's agreed disposal of its stake in Verizon Wireless. Speculation was heightened [...]
What you need to know before the open – 27/01 January 27, 2014 After Friday’s falls, European stocks are expected much lower this morning, bracing themselves for another day of volatility. US markets posted their worst daily declines since 2011, as emerging markets felt the full force of economic instability in Argentina, Ukraine and Turkey. Selloffs picked up apace, dragging down Europe and the US. Investors have been [...]
Government pledges personal support to help boost exports January 27, 2014 THE GOVERNMENT has pledged personal support to help UK medium-sized businesses trade with emerging markets. The trade minister Lord Livingston announced yesterday that he will write to all of the UK’s 8,900 mid-sized businesses, those with a turnover between £25m and £250m a year, to offer them support from UK Trade and Investment in a [...]
Labour calls for change to rules to create a statutory code to govern pub companies January 26, 2014 LABOUR’S shadow minister for pubs has called a debate in the House of Commons today in a bid to create a new statutory code for pub companies. In a move supported by Labour leader Ed Miliband and shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna, Toby Perkins will call for a pubs bill to introduce rent reviews, a [...]
UK’s energy industry says shale gas will need 10 years to take off January 25, 2014 THE MAJORITY of the UK’s oil and gas industry think it will be at least 10 years before shale gas becomes a significant part of the domestic energy mix, according to a new survey by law firm Pinsent Masons. Sixteen of the 100 industry players questioned think it will be a successful extraction method within [...]
Online dating tips from the world of economics January 25, 2014 HAVE you ever turned to the neoclassical synthesis or the efficient markets hypothesis to help you to find love? We’d wager not, but having spent some time on Match.com, Stanford professor Paul Oyer has written a book: Everything I Ever Needed To Know About Economics I Learned From Online Dating. Whether you believe Keynesianism can [...]
Free-marketeers were right on jobs – and the left got it wrong January 25, 2014 THIS is how the conversation kept going, until about six months ago. Pundit: Aren’t you worried that unemployment will rocket if we cut public spending? Free market economist: Not if the economy recovers, and in any case employment has been the one bright spot of this economy. Pundit: But how can employment and the economy [...]
Carney: We won’t hike rates (yet) January 25, 2014 GOVERNOR Mark Carney fought off suggestions that the Bank of England should hike interest rates yesterday, as his flagship scheme for monetary policy came under threat after only six months. There is “no immediate need to increase interest rates,” Carney said last night, speaking on the BBC’s Newsnight programme. The Bank governor also tried to [...]
Ignore the pessimists, equities are going up. Here’s why January 24, 2014 Peter Garnry of Saxo Bank is very optimistic when it comes to the future. Innovation is making things better for humanity, and Garnry thinks it's also makes things better for investors, because it pushes up the equity-risk premium "significantly". The chart below shows the S&P 500 performance (excluding dividends) since 1927. Performance is on a [...]
After you watch this, you’ll see big government everywhere January 24, 2014 Adam Smith wrote that "people of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public" – and that's exactly what me mean when we talk about corporatism. When big business and government get in bed they can make rules to favour big companies, [...]