Three immediate challenges to the new government are apparent July 13, 2016 Recently I sat next to the head of corporate lending at one of the big banks. The usual question of “how’s business” was inevitably asked, with the answer “just had six quarters of lending growth but the last two weeks… awful! Especially with infrastructure, we had so much in the pipeline but confidence is low”. [...]
Three reasons why gold is the best-peforming investment this year, and prices are going to keep on rising July 13, 2016 Gold has been one of the best-performing assets this year, and the weeks since Brexit was announced have pushed the precious metal higher. Gold is now priced at $1,373 an ounce, 22 per cent or $312 higher than when 2016 began. Of all the investment funds out there, gold funds are the five best performers. [...]
This is how insurers can become part of the sharing economy July 13, 2016 If the general public was asked ‘what does the insurance industry do’, it’s unlikely the answer would be; ‘it supports entrepreneurial innovation and endeavour ’. But that’s precisely what insurers do and the exponential growth of the sharing economy has provided an interesting challenge for insurers in this role. Sharing enablers such as AirBnB, RideLink and Vrumi are [...]
What Theresa May as Prime Minister means for the future of the fraud squad July 13, 2016 Monday saw the pound spike and the FTSE 100 creep back into bull territory following Andrea Leadsom’s exit from the Conservative party leadership race. It was clear that bookies’ favourite Theresa May’s campaign to frame herself as the candidate for stability in the post-referendum chaos had resonated deeply with markets. Yet while those in the [...]
Let’s not be misled by the Celtic Tiger’s roar July 13, 2016 Behold the Celtic Tiger! Ireland’s economy grew by a whopping 26.3 per cent last year according to the country’s official stats office, which put out revised numbers yesterday – that’s over 11 times as much as the UK, and more than three times faster than India’s widely-celebrated economic expansion. Incredible, eh? There’s a reason why [...]
Indian nationals need a new visa: Britain is shooting itself in the foot with its backward system July 13, 2016 The UK-India relationship is one of both traditional and contemporary strength. Current business secretary Sajid Javid has described the partnership as being at a “key juncture” and as providing “opportunities we would be foolish to ignore”. And with a UK-India trade agreement hailed a “deal made in heaven” by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), now [...]
With the Labour Party in complete turmoil, does it have any chance of regaining power by 2025? July 13, 2016 Alex Thomson, director at Hanover Communications, says Yes. Politics is a bit like geology. For years it can appear that nothing is happening. But the tectonic plates are ever shifting under the surface, and finally things erupt. So while Labour may be facing a number of problems at the moment, including a fall in Jeremy Corbyn’s [...]
History shows us why the next chancellor must tighten the belt July 13, 2016 On the face of it, the Brexiteers have a bit of explaining to do. A week before the vote, Boris Johnson dismissed fears about the value of sterling, and accused the governor of the Bank of England of “talking the economy down”. Yet the economy does seem to have stalled, property funds have had to suspend [...]
This isn’t a break with the past – it’s a revival of past ideas that don’t work July 12, 2016 We've just spent the last 43 years resisting the imposition of continental style corporate governance upon British companies. Now that we’re leaving the EU’s embrace, new Prime Minister Theresa May is advocating that we adopt them anyway. This is not, to be polite about it, a sensible move. Earlier this week, May vowed to put workers [...]
It’s high time Southern Rail got its act together July 12, 2016 Commuters on the troubled Southern rail franchise have had enough, and rightly so. The London and south-east England service has been beset by delays and cancellations caused by engineering works and industrial action. Yesterday, long-suffering commuters demonstrated in Victoria station during the evening rush-hour in protest at the lamentable service they’re forced to endure. The protest [...]