European Central Bank hikes supervision fees by 21 per cent as Brexit takes financial toll April 30, 2019 The European Central Bank (ECB) today increased supervisory fees by 21 per cent as it seeks to cover higher than expected costs to prepare for Brexit. Read more: Euro falls as ECB chief Draghi bearish on Eurozone economy The hike amounts to an estimated €576m charge on banks this year, up from €502.2m in 2018, as a [...]
Sainsbury’s slips behind supermarket rivals after Asda merger blocked April 30, 2019 Sainsbury's sales fell behind those of rivals in the three months to the end of April, according to data released just a week after the supermarket's £7.3bn Asda merger was blocked. Sainsbury’s suffered a 1.2 per cent fall in sales compared to the same period last year, data group Kantar's statistics showed, while Aldi and Lidl [...]
Use your local post office or lose it to the long list of high street casualties April 30, 2019 Owning and operating a post office couldn’t be any harder. The ongoing high street decline and the difficult retail environment over the past 12 months have hit subpostmasters hard, and it has never been tougher to make ends meet. We recently conducted a national survey of our membership, and found that more than one in five [...]
DEBATE: Should the UK’s judicial system embrace using artificial intelligence in the courtroom? April 30, 2019 Should the UK’s judicial system embrace using artificial intelligence in the courtroom? Emily Foges, chief executive of Luminance, says YES. The explosion of digital information, from social media posts to WhatsApp messages, can lead to cases collapsing in our courts as police and barristers struggle to review evidence in time. Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is [...]
Incentives are needed to fix our broken social care system April 30, 2019 If I could choose just one phrase to sum up what politicians and civil servants need to know – the single maxim that should be tattooed on the insides of their eyelids – it would be this: “People respond to incentives.” It’s such a simple idea. But it’s extraordinarily powerful. Whenever something in government – [...]
Some investors are clearly living in a parallel universe April 30, 2019 Having watched the phenomenal “Avengers: Endgame” this weekend (no spoilers here), I did take a moment to think about parallel universes. To put it bluntly, it doesn’t take a genius like Tony Stark to work out that many market commentators are living in a parallel universe – that is, they can’t remember what happened 20 [...]
A new book about austerity has put Keynesian economists on the defensive April 29, 2019 Notoriously, economists quarrel about almost everything in their subject. But since the publication of John Maynard Keynes’ General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money in 1936, they are supposed to agree on one point: that increases in government spending boost demand and output, and reductions in government spending depress them. Indeed, according to the theory, a [...]
Sam Torrance: Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer’s Zurich Classic triumph a heartwarming tale for golf April 29, 2019 Jon Rahm continued his rise at the weekend by winning the Zurich Classic and the heartwarming nature of his victory made it even better. The Zurich Classic has been a team event since 2017 and the format makes it all the more enjoyable, with Rahm winning alongside partner Ryan Palmer in New Orleans. The Spaniard [...]
Missing the opportunity to align ourselves with the US would be a serious mistake April 29, 2019 The UK is the world’s leading exporter of financial services. Within that, there are few better success stories than the special relationship that we have built with the United States. The benefits for both sides are obvious. Every day, a million UK citizens go to work for US firms, while the same number of US [...]
The white paper’s strict salary threshold on EU migrants would only exacerbate inequality April 29, 2019 Britain is on course to leave the European Union by 31 October. However, Theresa May has expressed her wish that the UK should quit well before, provided her withdrawal agreement is passed. Nonetheless, whether we leave with a deal or without one, the government has been clear that ending free movement and bringing down immigration [...]