Yanis Varoufakis has some advice for the UK, Theresa May and Labour September 28, 2016 Academic, EU-tormenter, former Greek finance minister and leather-jacket-wearing big thinker Yanis Varoufakis has blasted George Osborne and told the UK to get a move on with triggering Article 50. In an interview with the Today programme, Varoufakis, who resigned from the Syriza-led government last summer after he helped prime minister Alexis Tsipras take Greece to the [...]
Mark Carney warns North Sea industry turmoil to “persist for some time” September 28, 2016 Bank of England governor Mark Carney has warned that the crisis engulfing the North Sea oil and gas industry is likely to “persist for some time”. An estimated 120,000 jobs will have been lost by the end of this year due to the oil price slide which began in mid-2014. Carney added that the turmoil was [...]
Carney’s Bank of England ally Minouche Shafik calls for further rate cuts September 28, 2016 A key Bank of England policymaker has said Threadneedle Street will need to loosen monetary policy again in the wake of the Brexit vote. Minouche Shafik, deputy governor of the Bank with responsibility for markets and banking, said this morning it was "likely" the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) would need to cut interest rates or [...]
Article 50 fears temper consumer confidence gains September 28, 2016 Fears over job security in the wake of the EU referendum are lingering despite a string of robust economic data and no signs of a rise in unemployment. According to the latest consumer confidence monitor from YouGov and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), optimism continues to creep back following the shock 23 [...]
Stuck in a rut? Here’s how to help the Brits who feel left behind September 28, 2016 England cricketer Stuart Broad was lambasted last year when he tweeted: “I’ve heard if you earn minimum wage in England you’re in the top 10 per cent earners in the world.” What was no doubt intended to be an innocuous observation prompted a wave of outrage on social media from people furious that a wealthy [...]
The UK is the seventh most competitive economy in the world September 27, 2016 The UK has surged to seventh place in a highly-influential ranking of the world’s most competitive economies. The World Economic Forum (WEF) said the UK had overtaken Hong Kong, Japan and Finland to climb three places in this year’s global competitiveness index, more than reversing last year’s embarrassing fall to 10th place. The WEF hailed [...]
Cambridge biotech firm sees shares jump over 100 per cent on US pharma deal September 27, 2016 Shares in Cambridge-based pharma firm Sareum have shot up by 130 per cent after it announced its up-coming cancer drug has been licensed to North American firm ProNai Therapeutics. Sareum will collect $1.9m (£1.45m) as an up-front payment and is in line for up to $88.4m over the next eight to 10 years provided the [...]
Is Donald Trump right that the US economy is in “a big, fat, ugly bubble”? September 27, 2016 Neil MacKinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital, says Yes. US financial markets are in a bubble, courtesy of the Fed’s long-running ultra-easy monetary policy. Equity markets are at record highs and at extreme valuations, even though US corporates are still in a profits recession. Credit markets are exhibiting 2007-style excess leverage and commercial real estate [...]
London’s the best place in the world for fostering fintech as industry eyes new success measures September 27, 2016 London is the best city in the world for fostering fintech, ahead of New York, Silicon Valley and Hong Kong – but it faces a run for its money from Singapore – as the industry pushes for better measures for assessing its contribution to the economy and the government's new industrial strategy. The two cities were ranked highest based [...]
Bank of England’s quantitative easing is making the rich richer claims Osborne September 27, 2016 The UK's monetary policy has made "life difficult for savers" and has helped the rich become richer, former chancellor George Osborne has said. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Osborne said: “We need to offset the very necessary loose monetary policy and the distributional consequences that is having. Essentially it makes the rich richer and makes [...]