ECONOMIC DIARY February 7, 2010 AFTER the Bank of England announced that it would be pausing, at least for now, its quantitative easing policy, the big event in the UK this week will be the quarterly inflation report on Wednesday morning. The Bank is expected to revise down its growth forecast while revising up its inflation predictions and will give [...]
Lack of confidence a country’s biggest problem February 7, 2010 THE BIGGEST problem for any country or company is a crisis of confidence. During the peak of the global recession, we saw what a lack of confidence can do to the biggest financial institutions and the richest nations in the world. Although everyone may have hoped that those problems were behind us, the rapid deleveraging [...]
Toyota is wounded but in the long term the brand is strong February 7, 2010 LAST week was surely the worst in the history of the Japanese car-maker Toyota. A global safety recall of 9m cars was projected to cost the company $2bn. The potential damage to future sales can only guessed at, but we can get a hint from what happened to its share price, which fell by more [...]
New challenge will harness Twitter power February 7, 2010 IN RECENT months, spread betting and forex trading companies have begun to really make the most of the new technologies that are changing our lives. American firm GFT and London-based City Index both offer iPhone apps so that their customers can manage their investments while they are on the move. Many other financial news providers [...]
THE TIPSTER February 7, 2010 IF THERE’S one industry that has not weathered the recession well, it is travel firms. They have suffered from consumers tightening their belts while the weak pound has made Britons even less likely to holiday abroad. But TUI Travel should have benefited from many of its less resilient competitors falling by the wayside. With its [...]
FTSE at lowest level in three months as bank shares drop February 4, 2010 WORRIES about the global economy pushed Britain’s top share index to its lowest close in three months yesterday as spiking risk aversion hammered banks and miners while energy stocks fell on weaker commodity prices. The FTSE 100 ended 113.84 points or 2.2 percent lower at 5,139.31, its lowest close since 5 November, having snapped a [...]
Dow hit by fears over sovereign debt February 4, 2010 THE Dow briefly fell below the crucial 10,000 mark yesterday as stocks suffered their worst losses in more than nine months. Escalating sovereign debt problems in Europe and an unexpected rise in jobless claims put investors on the defensive just ahead of Friday’s crucial payrolls report. Investors dumped banks and commodity-related shares and Wall Street’s [...]
The biker driving ideas in the City February 4, 2010 AFTER spending 10 years talking about the idea of starting his own economic consultancy in the pub with friends and colleagues, Danny Gabay decided to take the plunge. After a road trip around the US in a jeep (he’s also a keen biker), Fathom Consulting, an independent economic and financial market consultancy, was born. Gabay [...]
Paternity leave threat to firms February 4, 2010 FOR years employers have been wary about giving jobs to women of child-bearing age, but they might soon be casting nervous glances at the males in their offices, too. As of 6 April next year a father will be allowed to take up to 26 weeks additional paternity leave in the first year of their [...]
Q&A CHOOSING A NAME February 4, 2010 Q. I’ve got a great idea for a business, but I’m struggling to find a name. How do I go about it? A.The first step is to look at the nature of the service you are providing and use that as a way to come up with conceptual themes, says David Haigh, CEO of Brand [...]