China’s astonishing growth trajectory holds few lessons for democratic Britain October 21, 2013 I’VE SEEN the future and it works.” That was US journalist Lincoln Steffers’s message after visiting the Soviet Union in the 1920s. It’s worth remembering how wrong he turned out to be. Why? George Osborne and Boris Johnson have just come back from China, and they’ll be tempted to use the impressive things they’ve seen [...]
Nick Clegg’s guarantee for schools will damage standards in education October 21, 2013 SOMETIMES a minister will say something so straightforwardly ignorant, so uninformed of the history and facts of the issue, that I feel a kind of despair. A good example is Nick Clegg’s comments on schools this week. Clegg claims to have discovered the Holy Grail in state education: to provide a “guarantee” to “every parent” [...]
Letters to the Editor – 22/10 – UK tech failures, Cost of nuclear, Best of Twitter October 21, 2013 UK tech failures [Re: UK efforts to nurture a tech startup revolution are worryingly trivial, yesterday] The world laughs at our abject failure to build global tech companies. Sadly Tech City will go the way of other innovation initiatives like the Cabinet Office’s Skunkworks, the Innovation Launch Pad, the Solutions Exchange and ICT Futures, which have [...]
Fed QE taper fears on hold for now October 21, 2013 But a subsequent rally in global equities may be short-lived given the lingering uncertainties Global equities traded close to five-year highs yesterday, in part buoyed by expectations of a delay to the Federal Reserve’s tapering of its quantitative easing (QE) programme. The MSCI world index rose 0.7 per cent before dropping slightly, and the FTSE [...]
CNBC Comment: Euro banks await critical stress tests October 21, 2013 EUROPE’S banks are facing one of their most difficult periods since the credit crisis began. Tomorrow the European Central Bank (ECB), is expected to outline the criteria for its Asset Quality Review (AQR). This is the highly-anticipated stress test of banks’ balance sheets, and will be the first time the ECB outlines just how stringent [...]
DailyFX: Analyst picks October 21, 2013 CURRENCY STRATEGIST CHRIS VECCHIO My pick: Short dollar-yen, long Aussie-yen Expertise: Fundamental and technical analysis Average time frame of trades: A few hours to a few weeks My dollar-yen short remains viable, despite cooling US fiscal tensions, as the Fed is unlikely to taper in October. US yields should remain under pressure (if not capped). [...]
The range of premium mixers produced to raise gin’s spirits October 21, 2013 Annabel Palmer talks luck, liquor and a lightbulb moment with Charles Rolls, co-founder of drinks label Fever-Tree WHILE gin may not be the most popular global spirit (that prestigious title goes to Korean rice wine brand Jinro), the world consumes 440m litres of it each year. But back in 2000, Charles Rolls, co-founder of the [...]
A smaller SUV that can’t compete October 21, 2013 The Chevrolet Trax is uglier, noisier and worse value than its Nissan, Peugeot and Renault equivalents OVER the last few years, SUVs have been shrinking. Small SUV crossovers – which are commonly offered with two-wheel drive, as well as four-wheel drive – have proved a big hit in the UK, particularly with city drivers who [...]
Attention seekers: take note October 21, 2013 With open-plan offices full of nattering colleagues and an ever-increasing array of bleeping machines vying for your attention, the office is more loaded with distractions than ever before. The steady drip feed of emails into inboxes encourages us to do everything at once, but everything at once all too frequently amounts to nothing at all. [...]
Five apps to keep the mind on track October 21, 2013 Focus Time £2.99 Focus Time is simple. Choose a task to complete, start a timer and work until it goes off. Take a short break, then start the process again. With short 25 minute bursts of attention, that To Do list will be ticked off in no time. Clear £2.99 Speaking of To Do lists, [...]
