Deflation can be good or bad but the Eurozone isn’t facing the bad sort yet February 6, 2014 AT THE European Central Bank (ECB) press conference yesterday, Mario Draghi was asked whether the Eurozone is tipping into deflation and whether the ECB has the tools needed to respond if it does. “Deflation” has become a bogeyman, the thing economists normally agree to fear most. But is that right? That deflation might be a [...]
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 [...]
The ECB’s toolkit looks worryingly limited for tackling euro malaise February 6, 2014 THE CLAMOUR for further monetary easing from the European Central Bank (ECB) has become almost deafening. Despite this, the ECB yesterday decided to hold its interest rate at 0.25 per cent. As one journalist at ECB president Mario Draghi’s press conference griped, “Why won’t you simply cut rates!?” There are two fundamental reasons why the [...]
Letters to the Editor – 07/02 – Spillover effects, Charity lobby, Best of Twitter February 6, 2014 Spillover effects [Re: Global growth has peaked for now – but no need to panic, Wednesday] We’re all talking about the spillover effects of US monetary policy on emerging markets at the moment, but consider the situation over the next five to ten years. Governments across the West will surely embrace rising prices as a [...]
What’s ticking? watch news February 6, 2014 An exponential expansion for Patek Philippe on Bond Street Bremont and William & Son may be making Mount Street the watch district to watch, but venerable heavyweight Patek Philippe is proving that Mayfair’s Bond Street is still the place to be, and to be seen. Having secured an agreement with Watches of Switzerland’s Aurum Holdings, [...]
Mr Smith goes to London February 6, 2014 It may have escaped your knowledge that Great Britain harbours the only watchmaker in the world capable of making his watches entirely by hand. But it certainly hadn’t passed No. 10 unnoticed, and the Isle of Man’s Roger Smith was an immediately obvious candidate for the UK government’s international “GREAT Britain” campaign, promoting our nation’s [...]
An exponential expansion for Patek Philippe on Bond Street February 6, 2014 BREMONT and William & Son may be making Mount Street the watch district to watch, but venerable heavyweight Patek Philippe is proving that Mayfair’s Bond Street is still the place to be, and to be seen. Having secured an agreement with Watches of Switzerland’s Aurum Holdings, the family-owned Swiss watchmaker has taken over the leasehold [...]
Breva forecasts sunny outlook for William & Son February 6, 2014 Look beyond the leather bags and shotguns, and the windows of William & Son on Mount Street boast the most interestingly curated clutch of independent watch brands in the UK. New among the FP Journes, De Bethunes and H Moser & Cies is a truly unprecedented bit of horological gadgetry, courtesy of start-up brand Breva. [...]
Sentence passed on Swatch Group vs Tiffany & Co February 6, 2014 SHORTLY before Christmas, the Dutch Arbitration Institute passed judgement on a lawsuit between Swatch Group vs Tiffany & Co, sentencing the Fifth Avenue jeweller to pay the titan of Swiss watchmaking damages totalling CHF402m (£273.8m). This brings a lengthy dispute to an end, waged since September 2011 when Swatch terminated its collaboration for breach of [...]
British watch brand firing on all cylinders February 6, 2014 Recent visitors to the Square Mile’s super-exclusive Royal Exchange shopping mall will have noticed a new next-door neighbour to Watchfinder’s pre-owned WF&Co boutique, its window populated by an ejector seat and a model of Louis Blériot’s Channel-hopping XI of 1909. But rather than selling Airfix kits, this is the second London boutique for Bremont – [...]
