To understand the future of oil, ask the right question September 26, 2011 “WHY CAN’T WE predict the price of oil? That’s the wrong question. What we should ask is, in a non-linear world, why would we think oil prices can be predicted. Practically since the dawn of the oil industry in the nineteenth century, experts have been forecasting the price of oil. They’ve been wrong ever since. [...]
Defending wholesalers September 26, 2011 Wholesalers are the middlemen that oil the wheels of commerce – integral for national and international economic coordination, and crucial for the growing wealth of nations. Particularly maligned when supplies are disrupted, wholesale businesses are also vital to the recalculation necessary to deal with change. ECONOMIC COORDINATION Complex economic coordination is a wonder of human [...]
WORKING WITH INSURERS CAN CUT OUT FRAUD September 26, 2011 UK CLAIMS FRAUD & INVESTIGATIONS MANAGER, ZURICH INSURANCE DAY in day out, we hear about the impact of fraud on the personal insurance market. The industry-led Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) was formed to work on this area specifically and their hard work, alongside insurers has really helped to bring the issue to the forefront of [...]
MARKETS NOT HAPPY WITH FED’S TWIST September 26, 2011 ANYONE hoping that last week’s FOMC statement would help to calm markets has been bitterly disappointed. On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve announced that it plans to sell $400bn of short-term debt and buy $400bn of longer-dated Treasury bonds. This operation is designed to put a lid on longer-term interest rates while keeping the size [...]
Kicking the Eurozone can down the autobahn September 26, 2011 YESTERDAY saw more volatility in the markets – triggered by a mixture of the weekend’s announcements and by bargain-hunters going shopping in the equity markets hoping to snap up stocks that they saw as being oversold. At the weekend, Christine Lagarde led an IMF summit, warning that the $384bn (£248bn) earmarked as an emergency bail-out [...]
THE TIPSTER September 26, 2011 WITH Thomas Cook set to serve up results later in the week, it’s difficult to see much cheer for the industry against the current economic backdrop. The company has already revised down guidance for the full year and even the prospect of plummeting oil prices is unlikely to deliver any positive sentiment. Current IG Markets [...]
Volatile trading and uncertainty are set to persist September 25, 2011 AFTER another roller-coaster week, which was the second-worst of the year for the FTSE 100, the only really safe call this morning is for the volatility to rumble on. Despite repeated international assurances that action will be taken to preserve financial stability and restore economic growth, the markets start another week without anything definite on [...]
WALL STREET WEEK AHEAD September 25, 2011 EARNINGS forecasts for US companies are starting to feel the pain on Wall Street and in the broader economy as the odds of another recession rise. Intense fear that global debt issues and stagnant growth cannot be resolved has pummelled market confidence in the past couple of months. Earnings have been one of the market’s [...]
Successful entrepreneurs’ advice on how to ride out the three-year glitch September 25, 2011 STARTING a business is not easy. It’s a monumental decision like getting married, buying a house or having children. So much energy goes into getting it off the ground in the first year that it seems odd to focus on the third. But the third year really does matter. It’s a decisive year when most [...]
What to do if markets fall in step September 25, 2011 AFTER a tempestuous time in the markets last week, the good news is that things could be worse. The bad news is that they are probably going to get worse. The markets look set to turn very ugly in the coming weeks – Eurozone sovereign debt worries, European banking equities and increasingly dire macroeconomic indicators [...]
