Public finances put chancellor in the spotlight September 16, 2012 CHANCELLOR George Osborne will be under the spotlight again this week, with the release of the UK’s public finance figures for August. Last month’s shock news – that the deficit grew by £600m rather than falling by £2.8bn in July – means Friday’s figures will give an even clearer indication of whether the government can [...]
Euphoria of Federal Reserve boost waning as market fatigue creeps in September 16, 2012 COMPARING the Federal Reserve to a rehab clinic offering addicted investors a synthetic high has been a favourite of Wall Street wags ever since the first round of Fed stimulus nearly four years ago. The punch line is that you always need more and more to get the same high and each bout of euphoria [...]
Simple tax planning helps to reduce costs September 16, 2012 But a new EU directive will hike price of life assurance for women I MET a new professional client recently who has just taken out £300,000 of life insurance online. She is married and both she and her husband have made wills, but their combined estates are over the inheritance tax (IHT) threshold. Therefore, on [...]
Investors need to actively manage their Sipp funds September 16, 2012 SELF invested personal pensions (Sipps) are an increasingly popular kind of tax-efficient pension scheme. But like all investments, they are not suitable for everyone. Sipps allow better control over what your money is invested in and investors benefit from increased transparency. Compare this to stakeholder pensions, for example, where you have no control over how [...]
How computer science will rescue fashionistas September 16, 2012 WHAT PROBLEM DOES YOUR BUSINESS SOLVE? Due to the boom in online shopping that’s taken place over the last five years, the internet is swarming with items of clothing for us to buy. If you’re trying to find something similar to an item that you’ve seen in a magazine, or on the catwalk, it can [...]
Reinventing the wheelchair: Sometimes it pays to take the cash September 16, 2012 I’VE been doing this for four years. I’ve put a huge amount of money, my money, my wife’s money, which is our future, on the line. I can’t make a mistake now. I don’t want to be the founder that ended up with the tiny little minority share of the thing he started, while other [...]
UK start-ups need Silicon ambitions September 16, 2012 AMAZON is coming to London’s Tech City. Jeff Bezos’s company will do a lot to help build what many entrepreneurs call an “entrepreneurial ecosystem”. This analogy is a useful one: a self-sustaining system in which entrepreneurs feed off one and other’s talent. Tech City – still primarily based around Old Street’s Silicon Roundabout but theoretically [...]
FTSE closes at three-week high as data improves and optimism lifts September 13, 2012 BRITAIN’S benchmark share index rose to a three-week high yesterday, boosted by expectations of stimulus action from the US Federal Reserve, prospects of renewed merger and acquisition activity and a brightening technical picture. After the close of the UK market, the Fed was widely expected to unveil a third round of quantitative easing for the [...]
Wall St soars as Fed pledges fresh stimulus September 13, 2012 US stocks and crude oil prices rose and the dollar weakened yesterday as investors bet the Federal Reserve’s fresh dose of monetary stimulus would improve economic growth. The US central bank initiated another aggressive stimulus programme, saying it will buy $40bn of mortgage-backed debt per month until the outlook for jobs improves substantially as long [...]
Fears US won’t deliver hit FTSE September 12, 2012 BRITAIN’S top shares retreated yesterday as optimism over a German constitutional court ruling in favour of the Eurozone’s new bailout fund faded, and investors focused on the possibility the US may not come up with eagerly anticipated stimulus. The FTSE 100 ended down 10.11 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 5,782.08, having risen as high [...]