London has nothing to fear from leaving the EU – but much to gain August 6, 2014 THE EUROPE Report: A win-win situation, authored by Boris Johnson’s chief economic adviser Dr Gerard Lyons and released yesterday, is a major contribution to the “in/out” EU debate – a debate that will simply not go away. I welcome its measured, positive and undogmatic analysis of the main scenarios facing Britain and our relationship with [...]
As the chancellor embraces Bitcoin, could it soon be integral to commerce in the UK? August 6, 2014 Charlotte Bowyer, digital policy researcher at the Adam Smith Institute, says Yes. Given the right conditions, digital currencies could revolutionise payments processing and become an integral part of UK commerce. Paying online with Bitcoin could become a serious alternative to using Visa or PayPal – if they don’t adopt the technology themselves. The low fees [...]
The top 10 interview questions you really should know the answer to August 6, 2014 Interviewers like consistency, they enjoy being able to judge each candidate by a set benchmark. This is why the same interview questions come up time and time again. Doing well in a job interview is down to you being able to express yourself clearly and coherently, communicating your message (i.e. your provable and evidenced differentiating [...]
What Britain’s little toll road says about the future of infrastructure finance August 6, 2014 Compared to many Western countries, the UK has a relative dearth of toll roads. Today, only one major toll road operates, the M6 Toll from Cheslyn Hay to Coleshill, near Birmingham. Even so, the road is a public-private partnership. It has been many years since a truly private toll road has been built in the [...]
Israel and Hamas both think they won in Gaza: This crisis is doomed to fester August 5, 2014 After four weeks, the guns over Gaza have been stilled, at least temporarily, as a three-day ceasefire has gone into effect. Further, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – satisfied that, in destroying 32 tunnels, it has significantly (if temporarily) degraded Hamas’s ability to directly strike Israel proper – has announced it is leaving the Palestinian [...]
Why recessions can be good for your health – unless you’re in your fifties August 5, 2014 MANY readers at this time of the year will be looking forward to their summer break, perhaps contemplating with a certain amount of envy those colleagues who have already departed. But is leisure good for you? A bit of a no brainer, you might think. Indeed, until recently, the consensus among applied economists was that [...]
Don’t blame developers for poor doors – blame Britain’s planning laws August 5, 2014 "POOR doors” have been slammed on newspaper front pages in recent weeks – stories of luxury developments in New York with separate entrances for on-site affordable housing have spread across the Atlantic, as it turns out that there are similar arrangements in London too. The outrage this discovery has provoked is understandable. Though the practice [...]
Are investors underestimating the risks of the Scottish independence referendum? August 5, 2014 Bill O’Neill, head of the UK investment office at UBS Wealth Management, says Yes. So far, the independence debate has been black or white: union or separation. Yes, the market is anticipating a rejection, which would see a modestly positive reaction in sterling, gilts and equities. But investors need to consider the wider picture presented [...]
Juncker’s new EU financial services tsar would be disastrous for the City August 4, 2014 The prevailing winds of politics have not been kind to the City or the wider financial world of late. Politicians, often with one eye on the next election and tempted to kowtow to “banker bashing” sentiments, have paraded their credentials by legislating against the unruly financiers who “caused the financial crisis”. But if you think [...]
Pork barrel UK: Buying off voters with taxpayer cash has serious consequences August 4, 2014 THE CLASSICAL liberal French economist Frédéric Bastiat once said that “government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavours to live at the expense of everybody else.” Over the past year or so, numerous examples and allegations suggest that a more accurate pearl of wisdom for the UK would be: “Government is the great fiction, [...]