Market slips as Fed holds – New York Report September 17, 2015 THE S&P 500 and Dow industrials ended lower yesterday, giving up a one per cent rally in a choppy session, as investors struggled to interpret the Federal Reserve’s decision to hold off on raising interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 65.27 points, or 0.39 per cent, to 16,674.68, the S&P 500 lost 5.11 [...]
Fintech is booming – but where are the insurance tech startups? September 17, 2015 As a technology investor, I spend my days scouring Europe in search of the next big thing. London’s fintech scene has been a profitable hunting ground of late. With the UK fintech industry generating $20bn in revenue annually, it is not surprising that $5.4bn has been invested in British fintech companies since 2010. [...]
Uber can help make London’s congestion a thing of the past – if sensible regulation allows innovation September 17, 2015 Every morning, 1m people brave London’s roads at rush hour and drive to work. And 94 per cent of them drive alone. This might be preferable to squeezing onto public transport, but the strain on London’s roads will only worsen as our economy grows. We need change. Yet there is an alternative to [...]
Federal Reserve interest rate decision: Fed leaves US interest rate unchanged September 17, 2015 The Federal Reserve decided to keep US interest rates unchanged today, confirming analysts’ suspicions that recent market turmoil would stay the bank's hand. The shaky global economy, recently dragged by turmoil in China after Black Monday, lay behind the Fed's decision to hold its fire and keep the interest rate at its zero to a [...]
Retail sales suggest UK economic growth to slow in the third quarter September 17, 2015 UK retail sales inched up in August – having dipped a month earlier – but a lack of strength is leading analysts to warn that UK growth is hitting a "soft patch" in the third quarter. Retail sales grew by just 0.2 per cent on a monthly basis, in line with expectations, according to the [...]
Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw cleared of wrongdoing in cash-for-access scandal September 17, 2015 The two ex-foreign secretaries stepped down after a cash-for-access scandal uncovered by an undercover TV investigation, but always denied any wrongdoing. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has now found that neither broke any Commons rules. Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Labour MP Jack Straw were caught on camera by an investigation by Channel [...]
Google’s wearables push “Project Aura” could mean Google Glass is making a comeback September 17, 2015 Poor, embattled Google Glass. Google tried everything, even teaming up with couture designer Diane von Furstenburg, but despite its best efforts nothing seemed able to shake customers’ feeling that the headgear made you look, well, like a bit of an idiot. A far cry from the massive hype surrounding its unveiling in 2012, a hefty [...]
International Democracy Day: Eric X Li, Paul Krugman and Richard Dearlove debate the future of the West, but is democracy the best guarantor of human rights? September 17, 2015 Delegates from the worlds of politics, business, media, civil society, and academia considered burning issues on the universality of democracy, challenges of poverty, religious extremism and the digital age. The “West” accounts for only 12 per cent of the world but consumes 60 per cent of resources and seeks to export its value-systems against increasingly [...]
EU migrant crisis: Visa Europe donates £1m to child refugee crisis appeal as Save the Children thanks business donations September 17, 2015 Visa Europe has donated £1m to the appeal which is raising money to help child refugees in Europe as the situation reaches crisis point. The financial services company has dug deep to donate to Save the Children's Child Refugee Crisis Appeal, saying the situation needed an exceptional response. “Visa Europe has a longstanding track record of [...]
Most girls think STEM subjects are too difficult for them to learn September 17, 2015 Why are there fewer women in science, technology, maths and engineering careers than men? It could be because girls decide at a young age that they're not capable of doing them, according to new research by Accenture. By carrying out a survey on girls aged 12 in the UK, they found that 60 per [...]