Bank of England minutes: New documents reveal flaws in financial crisis response January 6, 2015 The former directors of the Bank of England (BoE) have come under heavy fire after minutes of meetings from the time of the financial crisis released today revealed it suffered from a lack of transparency as well as “groupthink”. “The Bank appears to have been a very hierarchical organisation, with clear signs of ‘groupthink’ among [...]
Bank of England financial crisis minutes: BoE dubbed “the angel of death” by City watchdog January 6, 2015 At the peak of the crisis, the City watchdog was so scared that a lender’s discussions with the Bank of England could cause a run on that lender, it dubbed the Bank: “The angel of death.” Throughout the financial crisis, the Bank of England had to tread a careful line between propping up failing parts of [...]
UK economy shows signs of losing steam January 6, 2015 THE UK’s economic growth may have slowed in the final three months of the year, new survey data shows. The service sector purchasing managers index (PMI) compiled by Markit slowed to 55.8 from 58.6 in November, according to figures published yesterday. A score above 50 represents growth. The UK’s service sector makes up approximately 80 [...]
Eurozone ends the year with a whimper January 6, 2015 THE EUROZONE continued to stagnate at the end of 2014, survey data suggests. The services purchasing managers index (PMI) rose to 51.6 in December from 51.1 in November, according to figures released by Markit yesterday. Any number above 50 indicates growth but 51.6 is very weak growth. The Eurozone composite PMI which includes manufacturing and [...]
Credit conditions make recovery January 6, 2015 CREDIT availability improved from October to December last year, according to survey figures released by the Bank of England yesterday. This contrasts with the plummet in availability from July to September. The net balance of lenders – the percentage of those saying “more” minus the percentage saying “less” – saying availability of credit to households [...]
London to experience 3.3pc house price slump in 2015 January 6, 2015 A slowdown in the prime end of the London housing market could drag UK house prices down by 0.6 per cent this year, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) – a marked different to the 8.8 per cent growth experienced across the UK in 2014. The CEBR expects to see a [...]
Yorkshire and Clydesdale Bank chief exec quits before flotation January 6, 2015 CLYDESDALE Bank chief executive David Thorburn is standing down after four years at the National Australia Bank (NAB) subsidiary, the bank said yesterday. NAB is selling the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, after poor performance in the UK. Last year, the group had to set aside £420m to pay for payment protection insurance (PPI) claims. But recruiting [...]
Elon Musk reveals all in Reddit AMA shortly before SpaceX rocket launch cancelled January 6, 2015 Elon Musk, Silicon Valley’s enigmatic answer to Richard Branson, had an interesting day yesterday. The soon-to-be-divorced (from English actress Talulah Riley, again) SpaceX founder was due to send one of his rockets, Falcon X, to the International Space Station – then safely land it back on earth to be used again, a first in rocket [...]
The fictional town of Trumpton enjoys Ukip’s website failure January 6, 2015 The lolz were mighty yesterday when it was revealed that Ukip’s website was down. At first, political satire site Guido Fawkes suggested Ukip hadn’t paid its bill – as Kippers were faced with a holding page from domain site 123-Reg when trying to access their party’s web page. Who was in charge of paying that?! [...]
McDonald’s not lovin’ high-end burgers biting into sales – Brand Index January 6, 2015 Previously unassailable fast food giant McDonald’s is facing a Big Mac-with-bacon-and–extra-cheese-sized challenge as falling sales and negative customer opinion are taking a huge bite out of its market share. Using YouGov BrandIndex data to explore the problems it faces in the year ahead, we see the rise of higher-end restaurants such as Byron Burger and [...]
