New rankings show US democracy on the edge January 21, 2016 The Economist Intelligence Unit today releases its 2015 Democracy Index, ranking countries on a range of criteria including political participation, pluralism, civil liberties and political culture. One of the central conclusions of the EIU’s analysis is that “in many democracies, political elites worry about their inability to relate to the electorate and fear the challenge [...]
City Moves for 21 January 2016 | Who’s switching jobs January 21, 2016 Akin Gump International law firm Akin Gump has announced that Hamish Lal has joined the firm as a partner in its international arbitration practice in London. Hamish, who focuses on international construction arbitration in the oil, gas, nuclear, major projects and infrastructure sectors, joins Akin Gump from Jones Day. Hamish’s practice covers international construction arbitration [...]
Markets mauled: FTSE 100 crashes and officially enters bear market territory January 21, 2016 The FTSE 100 officially entered bear market territory yesterday for the first time since 2009, as the New Year sell-off sent panic through trading floors and stoked fears of a broader economic slowdown. London’s main market closed at 5,673.58, more than 20 per cent down from its intra-day peak of 7,122 in April last year. A drop [...]
Advertising Standards slams telcos over broadband prices January 21, 2016 Apparently Britons are struggling to work out the cost of broadband contracts – but don’t worry, it’s not entirely due to a lack of mathematical ability. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has teamed up with the communications watchdog Ofcom to censure broadband providers over the way they advertise their services. According to research commissioned by [...]
News Corp says rumours of interest in buying Twitter are untrue as social network’s share price jumps on rumours of potential takeover January 20, 2016 News Corp has denied that it is interested in buying or building a stake in Twitter, after rumours of potential takeover interest pushed the social network's shares up by almost six per cent earlier today. Rupert Murdoch's media giant was cited by CNBC as one potential bidder for the struggling tech firm, however a spokesperson for News Corp [...]
Tube strike 2016: Train drivers’ action over Night Tube set to be suspended January 20, 2016 Planned strikes by London Underground (LU) train drivers are set to be suspended, after progress was made in talks today between LU and the drivers' unions. Industrial action had been planned to begin on the evening of Tuesday 26 January, with further strikes to take place on Monday 15 February and Wednesday 17 February. Discussions between the parties [...]
Brics foundations are proving to be shaky January 20, 2016 In the world of macro-economics, a good rule of thumb is as follows: whenever you read the word “forecast”, replace it with the word “guess”. This advice came to mind yesterday when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published the latest update to its world economic outlook, a document that contains some astonishing revisions. Brazil is [...]
City Moves for 20 January 2016 | Who’s switching jobs January 20, 2016 Like Minds Sarah Hollingworth has been appointed a senior consultant at employee communication specialists, Like Minds. She joins from Punter Southall, where she was a senior consultant in the DC Consulting Group and leader of its employee and member communication team. SalaryFinance Fintech platform SalaryFinance has announced the addition of Benefex founder and chief executive [...]
Every little helps Tesco take on German disruptors January 20, 2016 It seems the Big Four supermarkets are fighting back against German disruptors Aldi and Lidl, with big beast Tesco reporting better-than-expected figures for the Christmas period. Despite gloomy City forecasts, the news saw Tesco shares spike as optimism returned for the future of the embattled retailer with the turnaround being spurred by lower prices on some [...]
Elites need to beware of angry anti-EU voters January 19, 2016 One of the main criticisms of the European Union is that it is a project of the elites. Such a view is not hard to justify. Just look at the contempt with which the EU holds public opinion. On the night of the 2005 French referendum on the proposed EU Constitution, Jean-Claude Juncker (then Prime [...]
