Markets aren’t necessarily telling the truth about the state of the global economy January 27, 2016 The opening month of 2016 has been marked by sharp falls in asset prices, not just in financial markets but in commodities such as oil too. The conventional wisdom is that the markets form a rational assessment of future prospects for the economy and set prices accordingly. So if prices fall, we should be downgrading our [...]
Ignore Google’s corporation tax bill – and scrap the tax altogether January 27, 2016 It would be easy to believe, from the coverage of Google’s £130m tax deal with the Exchequer, that corporations are a big pot of money from which we can take as much as we like, limited only by their cunning wiles, our bumbling and/or complicit tax men, and our foolishly malleable tax rules. But this couldn’t [...]
After a Brexit war game found prospects for the UK outside the EU are bleak, should we take the result seriously? January 27, 2016 Rajesh Agrawal, founder and chief executive of RationalFX and Xendpay and business adviser to Labour’s London mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan, says Yes. The EU gives us access without barriers to 500m customers, £24bn of foreign investment and the clout of negotiating as part of the world’s largest trade bloc. Britain could of course go it alone, [...]
Take red tape burden away from UK startups January 26, 2016 As an economically-literate and highly-educated reader of City A.M., you will no doubt be familiar with the theory of “bootleggers and baptists”, coined by regulatory expert Bruce Yandle. It goes as follows – regulations are typically supported by self-styled moral crusaders (the baptists), but also by commercial interests that stand to benefit from the measures. [...]
How we can mobilise public sector land to build the homes London needs January 26, 2016 In 1941, under tremendous pressure to increase food production, the war cabinet commissioned a National Farm Survey. It sought to identify uncultivated agricultural land, as well as new land to support the dig for victory. It resulted in 36,000 maps and was nicknamed the “Second Domesday Book”. Under pressure to identify land for new homes [...]
With Twitter shares down 55 per cent from a year ago, is the future of the social media platform secure? January 26, 2016 Nick Leech, digital director of 123-reg, the domain registrar and hosting company, says Yes. Twitter does have a future, but investors and the public need to keep their expectations for that future in line. Twitter is not going to rival the mass adoption that Facebook is recognised for, and it’s not going to have the [...]
Ignore celebrities who moan about corporations January 25, 2016 The American writer Paul Theroux once observed that “there are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in an American cowboy hat, but I can’t think of one at the moment". It was 2005, and he was expressing a no-doubt commonly held frustration with Bono’s incessant posturing. [...]
China: The end of dreams and the return of sanity January 25, 2016 Perhaps the most debilitating of all human emotions is disillusionment, for it marks the death of fond hopes, the painful recognition that dreams will simply not come to pass. It is this feeling – as much as any hard empirical data – that is driving the present market crisis in China, where not one but [...]
Immigration powers the City’s competitiveness: Don’t cut off the supply in the pursuit of an arbitrary migration target January 25, 2016 For centuries, the City has thrived on being open – open to those who want to come to a leading financial and business centre, work hard and contribute to the growth of the economy. And this openness is not limited to people from fellow European countries, but also to those spread across the globe. This [...]
Following the FTSE 100’s first weekly gain of the year, is the panic gripping global markets now over? January 25, 2016 Alexander Dryden, global market strategist at JP Morgan Asset Management, says Yes. Global equity markets have had a shaky start to 2016 which has come off the back of global growth concerns and investor nervousness. We had expected increased volatility in 2016, but the recent market pessimism had become excessive. Investors should remember that the global [...]