Demand fears hit materials – New York Report September 23, 2015 LOSSES in materials and energy shares as weak Chinese and US factory data added to growth worries led to US stocks ending down slightly yesterday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 50.58 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 16,279.89, the S&P 500 lost 3.98 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 1,938.76 and the Nasdaq Composite [...]
London can come out on top in the era of job-killing robots September 23, 2015 Scary, scary robots. If you believe the hype, robots are coming for your job, your society and everything you hold dear. A widely publicised report argued that 35 per cent of jobs in the UK could be destroyed by automation and computerisation (which is what “robots” have come to mean in the shorthand of [...]
The etiquette secrets for doing business in Asia-Pacific: Think twice before belittling a colleague or waving your card around September 23, 2015 Are you thinking about taking your business to other markets and expanding beyond Europe into Asia- Pacific? Taking the leap into Asian markets can be daunting – especially given the challenge of operating across very different cultures with specific rules and etiquette. Having acquired a Tokyo-based business, here are a few lessons I’ve [...]
ITV knuckles rapped over airing The Enfield Haunting advert during pre-watershed Britain’s Got Talent ad break September 23, 2015 ITV has had its knuckles rapped over the airing of an advert for Sky Living drama The Enfield Haunting during an episode of Britain's Got Talent. The advert for the series, which was based on claims of poltergeist activity in the north London suburb between 1977 and 1979, had been cleared by Clearcast with an [...]
EU referendum: Even people leaning towards Brexit are still unconvinced September 23, 2015 Nearly half of British voters could still be persuaded to change their minds before the EU referendum, according to a new poll out today. Thirty-one per cent of voters polled by YouGov this summer said that they would "definitely" vote for the UK to stay in the EU, while 23 per cent said that they [...]
Supermoon total lunar eclipse 28 September 2015: There’s going to be a rare totally eclipsed blood moon on Monday morning in the UK September 23, 2015 Set your alarm and get your coffee pots at the ready, people. There's going to be a total eclipse of a supermoon in the early hours of the morning next Monday (28 September). Budding astronomers are being advised to set their alarms for 2am to catch the celestial phenomenon. The first signs of the earth's [...]
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appoints new cabinet to tackle bailout reforms September 23, 2015 Greece's new cabinet was sworn in today, enabling the newly re-elected government to get on with the economic reforms that underpin the country's third bailout deal. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reappointed oxford economist, Euclid Tsakalotos, as finance minister. He'd played a pivotal in brokering the three-year €86bn (£61bn) bailout agreement with creditors in August. [...]
Bank of England’s Ben Broadbent: UK productivity is not as bad as it looks September 23, 2015 The weakness in productivity growth in the UK may not be a sign of something inherently wrong with the economy, but could be due to more subtle changes in the jobs market, the Bank of England’s deputy governor for monetary policy said today. Productivity normally grows each year, but its stagnation since the 2008 financial crisis [...]
Martin Winterkorn resigns: Volkswagen chief executive quits saying he accepts “responsibility” for VW recall – but denies knowledge of car emissions scandal September 23, 2015 Volkswagen chief executive Martin Winterkorn is stepping down, saying he accepts "responsibility" for the emissions scandal that has erupted in the last few days. In a statement issued this afternoon, the embattled boss said he was "shocked by the events of the past few days, adding: "Above all, I am stunned that misconduct on such [...]
London jobs will be safe from the National Living Wage September 23, 2015 While some business figures have warned about the potentially nasty side-effects of the government's National Living Wage it appears London will be largely immune from this. The National Living Wage means employees aged over 25 will be paid £7.20 an hour from next April, rising to 60 per cent of median earnings in 2020, estimated to be [...]