The Long View: Bill Gates is gone and the dot-com era is over: It’s only the end of the beginning February 6, 2014 AS FACEBOOK turns ten, and with Bill Gates stepping down as Microsoft chairman, it feels like something is drawing to an end. But if so, it is only the end of the technological revolution’s beginning. It is extraordinary to look back now and think how visionary both Gates and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg were: Gates saw [...]
No Diane Abbott, now is the worst time for rent controls February 5, 2014 It'd be hard to miss London's housing problems. London house prices rose by a staggering 11.6 per cent in the year to November 2013, according to ONS data. Labour MP Diane Abbott has proposed a solution: Just made a speech in Parliament on need for RENT CONTROLS #ifnotnowwhen? #londonhousingcrisis — Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) February [...]
Barclays’ chief Jenkins gives up 2013 bonus February 3, 2014 BARCLAYS’ chief executive yesterday turned down his bonus for the second year running, a week after the bank set aside another £330m to pay for legal bills and regulatory costs. The lender also raised almost £6bn from investors in the last year, and Antony Jenkins does not want to take a bonus so soon after [...]
Merkel calls for integration to end euro crisis January 29, 2014 GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday warned that the Eurozone is not out of the woods yet, and called on the troubled currency bloc to make a “quantum leap” in order to escape its economic crisis for good. Warning of “deceptive calm” surrounding the Eurozone, Merkel used her state of the nation address to urge further [...]
The grave crises facing Putin’s Russia lay bare its fundamental weaknesses January 28, 2014 CHAOS in Kiev must feel uncomfortably close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Ukrainian parliament yesterday annulled laws that sought to clear the streets of protesters against Ukraine’s increasingly authoritarian pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. Ukraine’s prime minister and government have quit, and the country stands perilously on the edge of deeper conflict – prompted initially [...]
Dimon says settlements unfair January 23, 2014 JP MORGAN chief executive Jamie Dimon has said legal settlements against the firm were not fair. Speaking at The World Economic Forum in Davos, Dimon told the US network CNBC: “I think a lot of it was unfair, but I am not going to go into the details,” adding that court battles could have taken [...]
Jenkins warns global economy still at risk January 22, 2014 BARCLAYS chief executive Antony Jenkins yesterday warned global markets would remain at risk of a repeat of the global financial crisis until the end of the decade. “It’s very difficult to argue that the financial system is not safer than it was in 2008, but the question is how much safer is it,” he said [...]
Farage: Women are worth less to City bosses January 20, 2014 WOMEN who take time off to have children are “worth less” to City bosses than their male colleagues, Ukip leader Nigel Farage has said. Speaking at a conference on Europe, Farage said he didn’t believe there was any discrimination against women in the City, singling out banks, brokerage houses and Lloyd’s of London as good [...]
Hollande: This is a difficult time January 14, 2014 BELEAGUERED French President Francois Hollande faced a new barrage of criticism yesterday, after announcing a programme of reforms that he hopes will lift the country’s stagnant economy. In his first speech of the year – and amid intense scrutiny of his personal life – Hollande announced plans for a “responsibility pact,” committed to being “as [...]
US tech giants face trouble if Obama fails to shut down internet snooping January 14, 2014 THIS Friday, Barack Obama will decide what he intends to do about the US National Security Agency’s (NSA) covert surveillance activities on the phone and internet records of the American people. He will do so having received a coruscating report from his own review panel, recommending that he shut it down. A bunch of hard-headed [...]