London Report: UK marks five-year anniversary of low Bank interest rate March 2, 2014 WEDNESDAY marks the five-year anniversary of the Bank of England’s record low 0.5 per cent interest rate, a figure that Thursday’s rates decision is unlikely to change. In other economic news, February PMI reports for manufacturing, construction and services will be announced. The corporate calendar starts today with news from Amlin, Intertek, Keller Group, Senior [...]
Wall St The Week Ahead: Weather sways US economics March 2, 2014 AFTER months of sub par economic data that has been blamed at least partially on the brutal winter weather, investors may still struggle to discern the real picture of the economy next week. The closely watched monthly jobs report due on Friday is expected show that employers stepped up hiring a bit in February, but [...]
Five laws (and our brains) make one in a billion events happen every day March 2, 2014 YOU’RE thinking of a friend, and suddenly the phone rings and it’s them. You’re on a short break in Paris and you bump into your brother. Or, as happened to me, I go into BBC Broadcasting House to record an interview about the improbability principle, and on my way out they tell me I’m the [...]
City Matters: Tighter immigration controls risk London’s position as a global business hub March 2, 2014 IMMIGRATION is a sensitive subject at the best of times. So when figures published last week showed that net migration had climbed to 212,000 in the year to September 2013 – well above the government’s target of reducing it to below 100,000 by 2015 – it was inevitable that critics would attack the current system [...]
Crimea checkmate: Putin now has his Ukraine veto March 2, 2014 US SECRETARY of state John Kerry tends to reveal more than he ought to. In response to the Russian takeover of Crimea, he blustered, “you just don’t in the twenty-first century behave in a nineteenth-century fashion by invading another country,” as though the laws of human nature and geopolitics have been recently improved upon. In [...]
Letters to the Editor – 03/03 – Immigration, House building, Best of Twitter March 2, 2014 Immigration [Re: The coalition’s immigration policy has now lost all credibility, Friday] Obsession with immigration (and the EU) has distracted attention from implementing real reform to increase our country’s economic capacity. Few are prepared to so boldly announce their support of immigration, and it has become a real emotional rather than rational issue. Name withheld [...]
Human touch March 2, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks to Lindsay Pattison, UK chief executive at Maxus Global SIR Martin Sorrell decided in 2008 that there was room in the world for another global media network. In October that year, Maxus was born. Current UK chief executive and global chief strategy officer Lindsay Pattison has been credited with humanising and realigning [...]
Blurred lines: What the rise of branded content means for marketers March 2, 2014 @LiamWardProud WHEN is an ad not an ad? Last year, Channel 4 aired a daytime cookery show called What’s Cooking? It featured celebrity chefs including Jean-Christophe Novelli, and often drew an audience in excess of 200,000 according to Kantar Media. But there was something different about this programme: the food featured was mostly Sainsbury’s own-label [...]
The week in brief March 2, 2014 Cadbury in £7.5m communication campaigns launch The confectionery company has invested £7.5m in a campaign for its new Dairy Milk Ritz and Lu products. A 30-second TV ad, created by Fallon and directed by David Wilson, premiered on British TV on Saturday. Cadbury hopes this will help position the brand in the afternoon tea break [...]
The Rainmaker March 2, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks to serial entrepreneur and renowned investor Robin Klein about his career’s many successes – and one missed opportunity ENTREPRENEURS often complain that access to capital is an insurmountable barrier to getting their business off the ground. But Robin Klein – the entrepreneur and venture capitalist – thinks they’re lucky. “There has never [...]
