As paltry returns are criticised, do savers have unrealistic expectations about the rates banks can offer? December 8, 2015 Frances Coppola, a former banker blogging at coppolacomment.blogspot.co.uk, says Yes Since the financial crisis, banks have been under pressure to increase stable funding and reduce reliance on money that can run. This not only means using less wholesale funding, it also means persuading retail customers to tie up money in notice accounts, minimum balances or [...]
Burberry, Berkeley Group, Entertainment One: Best of the Brokers for 8 December 2015 December 8, 2015 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com BERKELEY GROUP According to analysts from Shore Capital, business is looking rosy for property developer Berkeley Group, with trading for its first half of the financial year roughly in line with expectations and the underlying profit before tax of £242m, marginally beating [...]
Oil price drags on the FTSE 100 as airlines takeoff – London Report December 8, 2015 OPEC’S failure on Friday to agree to curb oil production weighed yesterday on the FTSE 100 index. The cartel failed to reach agreement despite a global supply glut and the strength of the dollar, which is leading to the collapse of global oil prices, with the resulting uncertainty hitting stock markets. The FTSE 100 closed [...]
Brazil’s pain has no end in sight as impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff kick off December 8, 2015 The soap opera of Brazilian politics continues as impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff kicked off last week. After months of lobbying, petitions to have the President impeached were accepted by the speaker of the lower house, Eduardo Cunha, one of the most powerful sitting politicians. The charges (which she denies) are that [...]
Your new must-have gadget is already in your attic – CNBC Comment December 8, 2015 It’s finally happened. As well as my ever-expanding waistline and retreating hairline, there’s been an important development in my life. In the last few weeks, a sizeable chunk of wall space in my living room has been taken up by a collection of 12-inch LPs, and a rather weighty hi-fidelity music system complete with a [...]
The case for keeping performance evaluations: Dispensing with ratings will make it harder to issue bonuses December 8, 2015 In July, Accenture announced that it would be scrapping performance evaluations in favour of continuous feedback. “Imagine, for a company of 330,000 people, changing the performance management process — it’s huge,” chief executive Pierre Nanterme told the Washington Post. Accenture’s change in policy is representative of a wider corporate shift away from expensive and [...]
City Moves for 8 December 2015 | Who’s switching jobs December 7, 2015 BAKER & MCKENZIE Global law firm Baker & McKenzie has appointed Andy Moody as a partner in London. He joins in early 2016 from Eversheds. Andy has acted on a wide range of commercial disputes, focusing on international arbitration. His experience is in the energy sector where he has advised on international upstream, downstream and [...]
Wall St slides as S&P energy index dives – New York Report December 7, 2015 Oil prices slid to their lowest point in nearly seven years yesterday, pulling the S&P energy index’s down to its biggest one-day percentage drop since late August. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 117.12 points, or 0.66 per cent, to 17,730.51, the S&P 500 lost 14.62 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 2,077.07 and the [...]
David Cameron’s EU renegotiation has been exposed as the fudge it is December 7, 2015 The Prime Minister’s strategy of convincing the British public to stay in the European Union because he will deliver fundamental reform to our relationship can now be seen for what it is, a worthless EU fudge. In November, David Cameron wrote a letter to European Council president Donald Tusk, setting out the four objectives that [...]
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg should use his fortune to promote freedom – not do-gooder causes December 7, 2015 Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s decision to give away 99 per cent of their $45bn Facebook wealth has received a mixed reaction. One would have thought that, among right-on opinion, the decision to dispense with a fortune through lifetime philanthropy would be cause for celebration. After all, the Zuckerbergs’ daughter, Max, will now no longer [...]
