Bad numeracy is damaging UK economy August 7, 2011 THE FUTURE of the economy is in jeopardy unless the UK’s failing maths education system is radically overhauled, according to Tory maths guru Carol Vorderman who today releases the damning findings of her two-year investigation into financial literacy. Shocking findings from the study, which was commissioned by the Conservative party in 2009 and carried out [...]
The City needs to calculate the benefit of better maths August 7, 2011 MATHEMATICS is essential to the City, with A-level graduates in the subject better-equipped for logical thinking and statistical analysis – and likely to earn 10 per cent more on average than those without the qualification. And yet, in the advisory committee for mathematics education’s (ACME) report into the nation’s maths needs, published last month, evidence [...]
City firms need to be prepared for the Olympics August 7, 2011 London 2012 TIME TO GET READY WITH London 2012 less than a year away, companies around the capital need to prepare for the impact the Games will have on their business. The good news is that the City is leading the way in business preparedness. According to research from London 2012 and Transport for London, [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS August 7, 2011 Survitec Group The manufacturer and distributor for the marine, defence and aerospace survival technology industries that was bought by private equity firm Warburg Pincus in 2010 has appointed Paul Lester CBE as chairman. Lester, the former chief executive of VT Group and group managing director of Balfour Beatty, is currently chairman of Greenergy and non-executive [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 7, 2011 BP Credit Suisse rates the oil group “outperform” with a target price of 610p. The broker likes BP for its expected positive news from the Gulf of Mexico assets, and expects progress in the region to help the group push past share price pressure linked to its failed deal with Rosneft. Credit Suisse also thinks [...]
OFFSHORE FUNDS: HALF THE NATION’S WEALTH COMES OUT FOR COWES August 7, 2011 THE RUM Jungle was once chartered by Hugh Hefner and an assortment of his Playboy bunnies, when the ageing porn baron came to London for his eightieth birthday celebrations. But on Saturday, it was the turn of Aberdeen Asset Management’s seafaring chief executive Martin Gilbert to hop aboard the 75-foot gin palace, as part of [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK August 7, 2011 ONE OF the most regular visitors to Boisdale in Belgravia is a Russian gentleman who lives around the corner on Queen Elizabeth Street. So when the local dropped in to the restaurant with three Russian friends, he felt sufficiently at home to order one of the most expensive items on the menu: a plate of [...]
US loses AAA rating August 6, 2011 The United States lost its top-tier AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor’s, hours after investors alarmed by the euro zone debt crisis forced Italy to speed up an austerity drive. China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. government debt, made clear that Washington only had itself to blame and called for a new stable [...]
Banks lead FTSE down on close after tumultuous week August 5, 2011 Banks and commodity stocks fell sharply on Friday as the top share index extended losses into a sixth straight trading day, battered by a global debt crisis and unmoved by US jobs data easing fears of another economic recession. London’s blue chip FTSE 100 closed down 146.15 points, or 2.7 per cent at 5,246.99, as [...]
US given boost by jobs figures August 5, 2011 US job growth accelerated more than expected in July as private employers stepped up hiring, a development that could ease fears the economy was sliding into a fresh recession. US payrolls increased 117,000, the Labour Department said on Friday, above market expectations for an 85,000 gain. The unemployment rate dipped to 9.1 per cent from [...]