Nobel Prize for Economics awarded to Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom for innovations in contract theory October 10, 2016 British professor Oliver Hart is one of the two laureates of this year's Nobel Prize for Economics, which has been awarded for innovation in contracts theory. Hart, who is based at Harvard University, and Finnish Bengt Holmstrom, based at MIT, have created valuable new theoretical tools that have helped to "[understand] real-life contracts and institutions, as [...]
Here we go again: Sterling drops against the dollar October 10, 2016 A bad start to the week for currency traders, as the pound dropped against the dollar and the euro, adding to drastic losses at the end of last week. Sterling was up-and-down in morning trading, before an afternoon sell-off gripped the currency, taking it down 0.5 per cent against the greenback to $1.2371. Against the [...]
SolGold shares jump 13 per cent as it knocks back BHP Billiton offer October 10, 2016 Aim-listed miner SolGold said today it is recommending shareholders vote against an offer from BHP Billiton – causing its share price to rocket 12.6 per cent. The group revealed BHP offered $30m (£24m) for a 10 per cent stake in SolGold, implying a value of $0.22 per share. The stock is currently at $0.1869. BHP [...]
Ire over immigration: Careless policy debates risk damaging Britain October 10, 2016 Sometimes great damage can be caused by a government policy idea that doesn't end up seeing the light of day. Think back to 2013, when the Tory-LibDem coalition announced plans to introduce a visa bond. The idea would have seen arrivals from countries such as India or Nigeria paying a £3,000 bond as part of the [...]
Working 9 to 5? Actually, 14m of us are now independent workers October 10, 2016 As many as 14m people in the UK are classed as an independent worker employed outside the traditional 9 to 5 job, new research reveals. The figures calculated in a new report by McKinsey pegs the number of freelancers, temporary workers, and those selling items on eBay or renting out a room on Airbnb as part of the so-called [...]
After a torrid time for sterling, is the UK economy heading for trouble? October 10, 2016 Andrew Sentance, senior economic adviser to PwC and former member of the Bank of England’s MPC, says Yes. It is not just Brexit which is undermining sterling at present. The UK has a large balance of payments deficit. The government still has a large deficit – and Philip Hammond seems more relaxed than George Osborne about [...]
MPs gear up for fight with Theresa May over Single Market access October 10, 2016 MPs are gearing up for a fight with Theresa May over access to the EU’s Single Market, as the government prepares for a series of legal battles over its right to take Brexit decisions alone. May has come under fire from senior backbenchers and business groups after a Conservative Party conference that saw the Prime Minister suggest [...]
How low can the pound go? All your questions about the flash crash answered October 10, 2016 Currency markets opened yesterday evening after a turbulent end to last week for the pound. Sterling has slowly trundled steadily south since Britain’s decision to leave the EU. But last Friday sterling plummeted by six per cent in just two minutes during the early hours of the morning – it was dubbed a “flash crash”. Read [...]
Chin up: How Twitter reacted to today’s sterling free fall October 7, 2016 It’s fair to say the pound has had quite a day. The currency regained some of its losses in afternoon trading, but spent most of this morning in free fall, after an overnight flash crash. Widely thought to be a case of either a "fat finger" or an algorithm picking up on negative Brexit stories overnight, at one point the [...]
Flash crash and extreme trading slams sterling October 7, 2016 Sterling has been rocked by an extreme day of trading about a freak flash crash overnight rattled markets and sent investors running. After dropping at least six per cent against the dollar in a matter of minutes, the pressure failed to lift and sterling had its worst week of trading since the referendum. A fresh sell-off had the currency down [...]