An open culture is the best safeguard against the risk of damaging scandals July 19, 2011 HEAD OF ACCA UK BEING in business is about value creation. We live in a capitalist society; it is profits, losses, warnings, and dividends that routinely make the business headlines. But if there’s one thing that recent events involving the press have shown, it is that businesses have to deliver more than just economic value [...]
For the public sector, releasing data to the public gaze needs to be far more common July 19, 2011 HEAD OF PUBLIC SECTOR, ACCA LAST week, the Treasury published the unaudited whole-of-government accounts for 2009/10. This was a landmark moment for public finance in the UK, as it’s the first time that this has happened; the idea of publishing the accounts was floated in the mid-90s, so this is something that we’ve been waiting [...]
FTSE drops sharply as banks suffer in wake of stress tests July 18, 2011 BRITAIN’S top shares fell sharply yesterday after the results of stress tests on European banks were met with disappointment over their credibility while investors were also fearful over the threat of a US default on the nation’s debt. The banking sector index sunk to a two-year low as money managers and traders cast doubts over [...]
Debt deal impasse sinks US market July 18, 2011 US stocks dropped yesterday as bank shares bore the brunt of investor frustration over governments’ inability to solve debt crises in the United States and Europe. With five days to go before President Barack Obama’s deadline for a debt ceiling deal and no agreement in sight, Republicans and Democrats were crafting a fallback plan to [...]
Gold is through the roof and silver set to follow July 18, 2011 GOLD is stealing all the headlines, having broken $1,600. This is on the back of justifiable fears of a grim economic outlook, particularly in the highly indebted Eurozone countries and US. But silver is on the up too and with the gold/silver ratio (graph right) suggesting that the latter is lagging behind the former, silver [...]
THE PRECIOUS METALS SHINE IN POLICY FOG July 18, 2011 LAST week was a difficult one for equity investors, thanks to a lack of clarity from policymakers and central bankers. On Tuesday, the minutes of the last Federal Open Market Committee meeting stated that it may “be appropriate to provide additional monetary policy accommodation” if economic growth remained too slow to reduce unemployment. This led [...]
Stress test relief to provide a lift to markets on open July 17, 2011 AND the winner is…” direction for stocks this morning will be driven by the results of the European bank stress tests, which were released at 5pm on Friday, after European stock markets closed. A grand total of eight banks failed the tests, but that number was well below the worst fears of some analysts who [...]
THE WEEK AHEAD in association with GFT July 17, 2011 COMPANIES ● Today, Iceland Foods announces. Investors will hope it doesn’t get frosty results after news that Morrison may bid for some of its individual stores. ● IG reports tomorrow. The spread betting provider could soon be in the FTSE 100. ● On Thursday, the business process outsourcing company Capita will announce. It has been [...]
Meet the man behind the wheel at Addison Lee July 17, 2011 RECESSIONS are colonic irrigation for the economy,” John Griffin tells me, “all the crap gets washed out.” He smirks at me. “When things started going down the pan, I employed more staff. 150 drivers, 35 in the central office. I put my foot to the floor because everyone else started scaling back.” Griffin is a [...]
Commodity falls and fears for stress tests see FTSE decline July 14, 2011 FALLS among commodity issues sapped the strength of Britain’s top share index yesterday, as worries over global growth clouded the demand outlook for metals and oils. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 59.48 points, or one per cent at 5,846.95, reversing all and more of the previous session’s 0.6 per cent rally. [...]