The 10 biggest challenges facing small businesses in 2014 January 20, 2014 Business confidence blossomed at the end of 2013, and things have got off to a good start for firms this year too. Figures from the British Chambers of Commerce showed that confidence in a broad-based UK recovery is growing, and net optimism flew to 71 per cent at the end of the year. When it [...]
The world’s best charity is now accepting Bitcoin January 20, 2014 The charity that provides a wealth service to the poorest in Kenya and Uganda is now accepting Bitcoin. Give Directly is a pretty unique specimen when it comes to charities. It gives a cash transfer to a recipient, expecting to put 93 per cent of a donation into their hands. At the end of 2012, [...]
UK banks risk financial meltdown if the long-term IT crisis remains unresolved | City A.M. January 19, 2014 ON THE busiest online shopping day of 2013, Cyber Monday, RBS faced an embarrassing IT system outage that left more than 1m customers unable to access their accounts for three hours. This wasn’t the first time. In 2012, an IT meltdown at RBS and its subsidiaries locked 17m customers out of their accounts for days, [...]
Carney: House price boom set to end in 2016 January 18, 2014 BANK of England governor Mark Carney expects the recent surge in the property market to cool by 2016, as figures today confirm that house sales have returned to levels last seen in early 2008. The governor said that he is projecting “a continuation of the current momentum into 2014, before decelerating around the middle of [...]
The world’s best charity is now accepting Bitcoin January 17, 2014 The charity that provides a wealth service to the poorest in Kenya and Uganda is now accepting Bitcoin. Give Directly is a pretty unique specimen when it comes to charities. It gives a cash transfer to a recipient, expecting to put 93 per cent of a donation into their hands. At the end of 2012, [...]
How Bank of England heavyweights criticised their own policy, 20 years early January 17, 2014 It's taken the Bank of England four years to get inflation back to target – but many think the Monetary Policy Committee is looking in the wrong place entirely. In fact, the committee's own members seem to have agreed. A comment at the market monetarist blog Britmouse documents how members of the Bank of England's [...]
Slipping US consumer confidence misses by most in 8 years January 17, 2014 Positive US consumer sentiment fell slightly at the beginning of the year, missing expectations by the biggest margin in eight years and marking the fourth miss in five months. The Reuters/Michigan survey of consumers in dropped to 80.4 in January, after expectations of an increase to 83.5, up from 82.5 in December. There's not [...]
EU could still put a stop to UK shale gas January 17, 2014 Brussels could be on the verge of launching an investigation into the UK's plans to incentivise the drilling of shale gas. In a Twitter conversation on 14 January, EU competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia, told a EurActiv reporter that investigations would take place if needed. @ArthurNeslen If needed, they will be investigated indeed — joaquin almunia [...]
US house building recovery loses momentum in December January 17, 2014 Cold weather saw US house building activity slip in December, with new construction of homes down 9.8 per cent to 999,000 annualised. The number's above the expected fall to 985,000, but the extremely wintery weather much of the US has seen over the last few weeks still signifcantly dragged down starts from November's strong numbers [...]
Why this one bank is still cheery after Shell’s profit warning January 17, 2014 Shell dealt something of a blow to investors this morning, as it issued its first profit warning in 10 years. The fourth quarter of 2013 was never going to be a good one for the oil giant, with almost a fifth of its LNG portfolio down for maintenance. Then high exploration and refining costs, fuel [...]