Britain faces a recession, says leading index report February 14, 2012 FALLING consumer and business confidence points to a shallow recession for the UK economy, the US-based Conference Board said yesterday. The group’s Leading Indicator Index (LEI) fell for the fifth consecutive month in December, down 0.5 points to 102.0, based on a figure of 100 in 2004. However, the Coincident Economic Index, measuring current activity, [...]
Who’s to blame for recent anti-business sentiment? February 14, 2012 This week, we are asking members of our Voice of the City panel, run with PoliticsHome.com, how they think recent anti-business sentiment is affecting the country. Following the decision by Moody’s to place the UK on a negative credit rating outlook, chancellor George Osborne took to the airwaves yesterday to hit out at the BBC [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 14, 2012 The Salamanca Group Jeremy Wrathall has been appointed as managing director of Salamanca Resources, the recently formed division of Salamanca that will focus on the metals and mining sector. He joins from Renaissance Capital, where he was head of investment banking for the London operation and had responsibility for metals and mining, focusing on Africa. [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 14, 2012 BARCLAYS Shore Capital has upgraded the bank from “sell” to “hold” with a target price of 240p following its full-year 2011 results, saying the company has made better progress than expected in rebuilding its core tier 1 ratio. The broker is also more positive due to the ECB’s intervention into bank funding markets, which it [...]
Wall St steady as shopping stats flat February 14, 2012 US stocks erased losses to end little changed yesterday after a Greek government source said the conservative party leader was expected to deliver a letter of commitment to the country’s international lenders. And US retail sales fell short of forrecasts, rising 0.4 per centin January. A sign of Greece’s commitment to the tough austerity measures [...]
Disappointing data dents the recent strength in the FTSE February 14, 2012 BRITAIN’S top shares went into retreat yesterday after disappointing US retail sales data raised concern over the strength of the economic recovery, prompting a move out of banks and miners into more defensive sectors. A 0.4 per cent rise in retail sales fell short of the 0.7 per cent increase expected by economists polled by [...]
Why we should speak out against moves to curtail the UK’s freedom of speech February 14, 2012 DAWN raids by police on the homes of reporters are not something we expect to happen in the UK. But that’s what happened last weekend, when the Metropolitan police sent teams of up to 10 officers to the homes of senior Sun journalists. Reactions were mixed. Brian Cathcart of the Hacked Off campaign, which has [...]
We need radical reforms to raise NHS productivity February 14, 2012 EVERY now and then academic disputes break out into the mainstream. In an article for The Lancet medical journal, Professor Nick Black claims it’s a myth that NHS productivity has fallen over the last decade. Productivity (what we put in against what we get out) may not actually be down 0.4 per cent a year [...]
Donating organs could prove a costly decision February 14, 2012 NEVER make yourself worth more dead than alive. This was the sage advice my father gave me as a boy and I have stuck to it ever since. That is why my life insurance pays out less if I die than the net present value of my likely future earnings. I trust my wife, but [...]
RAPID RESPONSES February 14, 2012 Account for waste It’s impossible to disagree with Anthony J. Evans’ article [A nation of tax cheats changed by new rules, yesterday]. The Greeks largely got into a pickle because their attitude was that paying tax was for wimps. However, one of the deterrents to paying taxes is waste by government. When we see pictures [...]
