WALL STREET WEEK AHEAD February 5, 2012 EUROPE will again be at the centre of investors’ focus this week as the US earnings season passes the halfway mark and there is little on the economic calendar to give the market direction. Economic data expected this week includes weekly initial jobless claims, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index and international trade [...]
Politicians are slaughtering UK finance – the goose that is still laying the golden egg February 5, 2012 OVER recent years British business has withstood many onslaughts with quiet stoicism, but the latest politically inspired witch-hunts against financial leaders seems to have finally broken the camel’s back. The unpalatable truth is that politicians of all parties, in their selfish efforts to bolster their personal election prospects, have delivered a savage wound to business [...]
Regulation has pushed pharma off a cliff edge February 5, 2012 THE latest big pharma company to fall victim to the so-called “patent cliff” is AstraZeneca. Its announcement last week that it’s shedding 7,300 jobs globally is in part an acknowledgement that it does not have sufficient new drugs to replace revenues lost, as a number of its key drugs come off patent. Across the sector, [...]
Dickens gives a lesson on the value of money February 5, 2012 TOMORROW marks the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens, an author whose writing made a continuous and concerted effort to marry the concepts of prosperity and morality. It is right, therefore, that, in view of the challenges we currently face, we celebrate the life and works of a great writer and Londoner. Never before [...]
RAPID RESPONSES February 5, 2012 Growing negative You are spot on (Britain is now an anti-business nation, last Thursday). These days I find the Conservative party an enigma – whatever happened to deregulation, low taxes and minimal state control, which are the core drivers for growth in any successful economy? We seem to be doomed to decades of low, or [...]
The five most useful things to know about Junior Isas February 5, 2012 JUNIOR Isas were launched in November 2011. Any child born before September 2002, who does not already have a Child Trust Fund (CTF), can be signed up, as well as all children born after 3 January 2011. The Junior Isa scheme supplants the CTF (though the government does not contribute to the new scheme), and [...]
NEWS IN BRIEF February 5, 2012 TAXED ON TIME According to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), this year saw a record 9.45m self assessment tax returns filed on time, with a record 7.65m filed online. This means that 90.4 per cent of taxpayers met the deadline – an increase of 4 per cent on last year and the highest on-time filing [...]
From the UK to Silicon Valley and back again February 5, 2012 GLOBALISATION throws up some interesting associations. The western world’s need to stay awake supports the coffee industries of Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa; the desires of Japanese, Indians and Chinese consumers to imbibe is helping the UK’s Scotch whisky industry flourish. No less interesting is the case of WANdisco – a tech company that [...]
LOOK BEYOND THE UK TO CASH IN ON GROWTH February 5, 2012 THE UK is full of chief executives facing the harsh reality of uncertain home markets for years to come. So, with forecast sales flatlining – what is an entrepreneur to do? Successful companies are finding new customers and markets beyond our shores. In our recent global survey of over 400 companies, India (34 per cent) [...]
Money and brains inspire business beyond borders February 5, 2012 TRADE across borders – natural and man-made – binds humanity together: “When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will”, surmised the French economist Frédéric Bastiat. Trade enriches us, both in our standard of living and in the variety of our cultural experiences. And it makes others better off too, as if lead by an invisible [...]
