Azerbaijan’s majestic scenery is refreshingly untouched by global tourism October 19, 2015 ‘Azerbaijan border – Good luck,” read the sign at the Georgian frontier town. I gulped, hoisted my backpack and reached for my passport. Ominous cautions from its neighbours notwithstanding, Azerbaijan is trying to court people like me. It’s not, on the face of it, an easy sell. Human Rights Watch recently noted “Azerbaijan’s government has [...]
From Thomas Cook to the Prosecco shortage: Here’s what got us talking this week May 22, 2015 There was a bomb. There was an earthquake. And there was, very nearly, a nation-wide rail strike. Here's what got us talking this week. 1. Panic stations over Prosecco and…er… eggs We don't know which is worse. Well of course we do. Still a global egg shortage is pretty alarming. But cards on the table, [...]
How betting markets could solve the problem of inaccurate Bank forecasts August 28, 2013 IN HIS first major speech since becoming governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney is today likely to defend a policy that has come to be described as the “Carney rule”. Also known as forward guidance, the rule effectively promises that interest rates will stay at present levels until unemployment drops below 7 per [...]
How betting markets could solve the problem of inaccurate Bank forecasts August 27, 2013 IN HIS first major speech since becoming governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney is today likely to defend a policy that has come to be described as the “Carney rule”. Also known as forward guidance, the rule effectively promises that interest rates will stay at present levels until unemployment drops below 7 per [...]
World leaders kick the Cannes down the road November 6, 2011 DIPLOMATS are useful only in fair weather. As soon as it rains they drown in every drop”. So said France’s most famous post-war leader Charles de Gaulle. So in my analysis of the G20 in Cannes, let me start by telling you the heavens were fully open from start to finish. Cannes was wetter than [...]
Kitty cat wins over awful rom com December 8, 2011 Film PUSS IN BOOTS Cert: U After the grouchy cash monster that was the Shrek series, Dreamworks has quite rightly laid the franchise to rest, instead focusing on the series’ most interesting character: a small cat who looks cute but kicks arse. It may well have been a disaster, but thankfully there are enough gags [...]
DRAGHI TAKES A NEW APPROACH TO BACKING THE EURO IN ECB PROMO December 1, 2011 AS European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi stood in front of the European Parliament yesterday and delivered a gloomy outlook on the future of the euro, a very different Draghi was doing the rounds on YouTube, in the latest piece of pro-euro propaganda released by the ECB. In a video introduced by soft focus images [...]
UK Plc hit by series of PR disasters May 31, 2010 THESE are dark days for some of Britain’s flagship firms. Three of our corporate giants are floundering: British Petroleum, whose inability to stem the spill off the US coast is now in the realm of the preposterous; British Airways, which is being crippled by the actions of a minority of deluded and self-destructive strikers; and [...]
When quiet love and death collide with the noisy banalities of money February 10, 2010 THE OTHER FAMILY by JOANNA TROLLOPE Doubleday, £18.99 by Zoe Strimpel Trollope’s fifteenth novel starts from a rock-solid premise – that is, one guaranteed to stir something in most people’s bosoms. Richie Rossiter, a musician just a bit past his prime, suddenly dies. In London, he’s got three daughters with Chrissie, a beautiful blonde and [...]