With Brent crude prices at a four-year low, is Opec’s power over the oil market waning? October 14, 2014 Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, says Yes. Opec’s control over global oil prices is waning because supply growth increasingly comes from non-Opec producers. An example is the US, where production has risen to the highest level in 28 years – largely due to the shale revolution, which has added almost 4m [...]
A rising populist politics of envy has the City in its sights: Banks must fight back October 13, 2014 LIFE could become even more difficult for the financial sector in the coming year. The fundamental forces shaping UK politics threaten an aggressive new round of regulation and taxation. These forces derive from a steady growth in envy and parochialism in politics, and the weakness of capitalist voices within the wider conservative movement. After the [...]
This anti-immigration arms race exemplifies everything that’s wrong with politicians October 13, 2014 "Race relations/immigration” is now ranked by voters as the most important issue facing Britain, according to Ipsos MORI. On 39 per cent, it’s above the economy and the NHS – areas the Conservatives and Labour want at the centre of their 2015 campaigns. This concern is not new. Even in the 1990s, when net migration [...]
Cameron has given up on NHS reform – and has put the health service at risk October 13, 2014 THE NHS costs £110bn a year in England alone, amounting to around 7 per cent of GDP. It employs more than 1.3m people, and its success or failure touches all of our lives, while indirectly affecting the strength of every business. So it matters that, as reported yesterday, the government now sees its NHS policy [...]
With the FTSE 100 trading close to 12-month lows, will it fall further by the end of the year? October 13, 2014 Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, says Yes. The FTSE is currently trading below its long-term average compared to company profits, but that doesn’t mean it won’t go further into deficit. Markets are fickle beasts over the short term, and there’s no telling how long, or deep, the current bout of risk aversion will [...]
Bombing IS in Syria was always going to fail – and Washington knew it all along October 12, 2014 In his magisterial work The Best and the Brightest, David Halberstam makes clear that the essential tragedy of the Vietnam War was US decision-makers’ inability to see beyond the Potomac river in Washington, DC. Every policy debate concerned what would sell in the city’s foreign policy community, rather than what might make sense on the [...]
Both Miliband and Cameron must bet the house on Rochester to save themselves now October 12, 2014 UKIP’s victory in the Clacton by-election was historic, if not unpredictable. From the moment Douglas Carswell entered the room of shocked journalists and activists in August and declared his defection, to when the polls opened early on Thursday morning, it was inevitable that Ukip would be celebrating the election of its first MP – a [...]
Forget New York versus London: Business has its own special relationship October 12, 2014 If two cities could ever be described as siblings, it would be London and New York; two truly global cities, alive with culture, and both co-operating and competing as the world’s two largest international financial centres. And like all siblings, we often engage in friendly rivalry, jostling to be the best at theatre, art, fashion, [...]
As oil prices fall sharply, is this a worrying sign for the health of the global economy? October 12, 2014 Ole Hansen is head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank, says Yes. The sharp drop in oil comes at a time of rising global tensions. IS militants are causing havoc in the Middle East, while deteriorating relations between Russia and the West have triggered something akin to a new Cold War. Lower oil prices mean [...]
Both Miliband and Cameron must bet the house on Rochester to save themselves now October 10, 2014 Ukip's victory in the Clacton by-election was historic, if not unpredictable. From the moment Douglas Carswell entered the room of shocked journalists and activists in August and declared his defection, to when the polls opened early on Thursday morning, it was inevitable that Ukip would be celebrating the election of its first MP – a [...]