Why India’s political earthquake is the most significant turning point of 2014 May 18, 2014 GENOA – I find myself in this predictably beautiful Italian city, about to visit the house of Christopher Columbus. Like most American schoolchildren, I remember finding the fact that Columbus discovered the new world by mistake uproariously funny, as the “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” literally bumped into the Americas, sitting annoyingly in the way [...]
How powerhouse London beat New York to become the best city in the world May 18, 2014 LONDON has, for the first time, claimed the top spot as a centre for business, finance and culture in Cities of Opportunity – PwC’s sixth annual index of 30 major cities internationally. The capital has edged ahead of New York since last year, with Singapore coming in third. The index covers an impressively wide range [...]
City Matters: How British companies can help Latin America unlock its huge potential May 18, 2014 THE EYES of the world are turning to Brazil as “the beautiful game” returns to its spiritual home next month. This is an exciting time for all the teams involved ahead of the World Cup, but also one filled with major challenges and opportunities – a situation not dissimilar to that facing Latin America as [...]
Letters to the Editor – 19/05 – Cost of Brexit, Best of Twitter May 18, 2014 Cost of Brexit [Re: Beware the corporate grandees who claim Brexit would cost Britain dear, Friday] I don’t think it’s possible to accurately assess the cost/benefit of staying in, leaving, or renegotiating our membership of the EU. But what is clear is that any exit would be expensive in the short term, as we go [...]
City & Gild: Has Gary Barlow shattered a dream brand? May 16, 2014 When I was a child and believed in Father Christmas, I bought into the whole “Ho ho ho” thing hook, line and sinker – to the point where I would lie awake on Christmas Eve, terrified that a complete stranger was going to come down the chimney and pad about the house. (To be honest, [...]
Letters to the Editor – 16/05 – Monetary dark age, Best of Twitter May 15, 2014 Monetary dark age [Re: The real world looks much less rosy than the Bank of England’s forecasts, yesterday] This is a dark age for macroeconomics. The likes of Mark Carney are concerned with communication but have forgotten that the maximum impact of an interest rate increase occurs within 12-18 months. If this is appreciated, then the [...]
Beware the corporate grandees who claim Brexit would cost Britain dear May 15, 2014 ONE OF the chief arguments of those who are keen to maintain the status quo with regard to the EU is that a huge number of jobs is bound up with the continuation of the UK’s membership, not just in the City but throughout the whole economy. In the UK, both the present coalition government [...]
Don’t misunderstand business beasts: Like Godzilla they’re on our side May 15, 2014 IT LOOKS like the monster showdown of the year. I’m not talking about the sadly limited charms of the new Godzilla movie, but the public clash between the state-sanctioned might of Westminster’s MPs and corporate behemoth Pfizer over its takeover bid for Astrazeneca. Yet the monstrous truth is that while the latest kaiju film with [...]
Austerity is working – but we must continue to challenge its diehard critics May 15, 2014 THE “BACKFIRE effect” is a term coined by the US political scientist Brendan Nyhan to describe how a person’s deeply-held convictions may actually get stronger when presented with contradictory evidence. In one recent study, Nyhan and his colleagues presented a group with information confirming the safety of vaccines. Faced with the facts, those who already [...]
Letters to the Editor – 15/05 – Politicising M&A, Best of Twitter May 14, 2014 Politicising M&A [Re: Britain’s apparently open economy can’t afford this Pfizer political inquisition, yesterday] Government interference in the market always leads to disaster. The shareholders and their board of directors created Pfizer and Astrazeneca, and only they should decide their future. House of Commons committees are merely a device for airing political prejudice or personal [...]