Ratings agencies won’t be trusted without a fight January 22, 2012 THE Big Three rating agencies hardly seem to be out of the news with their ability to move markets. Following Standard & Poor’s (S&P) decision to reduce its assessment of the health of France’s sovereign debt by one notch to AA+ from AAA status, top German politicians like Michael Fuchs and others have jumped on [...]
London’s success is the whole country’s gain January 22, 2012 HAVING just returned to this country after leading a senior City delegation to Turkey, I am currently on an equally important business visit – to six of our own major cities across the United Kingdom. At first glance, it may seem to some that promoting the City in my hometown of Bradford – where I [...]
RAPID RESPONSES January 22, 2012 Informal channels Dionysios Demetis makes a good point [Tracking Money Laundering Matters, Wednesday] – very little terrorist funding goes through the conventional banking system. Most of the cross-border financing is via the hawala or informal money transfer system, especially to and from the Indian sub-continent. The UK authorities are well aware of this but do [...]
At least world won’t end in 2012 January 22, 2012 AMONG the many gloomy predictions for the coming year, what really catches the eye is the one that says the world will end on 21 December 2012. This is, debatably, the prognosis of the Mayan calendar of eschatology. If the world were really to end on that date, one suspects it would come as a [...]
A Brit in New York who is truly getting stuck in January 22, 2012 MOST students don’t even consider setting up a business, but at university Will Dean founded an alternative graduation t-shirt company to compete with UK universities’ offerings. He later took near-monopolistic control of the global supply of antique Bollywood posters. But this was small fry compared to his current company: Tough Mudder. After finishing university he [...]
THE BEST LAID PLANS OF SOME ENTREPRENEURS January 22, 2012 JOHN, Jeremy and Joan had a plan. A good plan. A plan to start a business. They were so sure that the business would succeed that each used £100,000 of their own money to fund the start-up costs and take the inevitable losses until they turned the corner into profit. Their hunch was right, and [...]
We should embrace and foster success – not disincentivise it January 22, 2012 IT IS good news that Sir Richard Branson, still the UK’s most famous self-made businessman, will be speaking at this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) in Liverpool – the first ever to be held in Europe. Taking place from 9 to 16 March, this is the world’s largest gathering of “startup champions”. Branson says: “A [...]
When skiing becomes more like snow-flying January 22, 2012 The American satirist PJ O’Rourke had little time for snow sports. As he put it: “Skiing consists of wearing $3,000 worth of clothes and equipment and driving 200 miles in the snow in order to stand around at a bar and drink.” That might not have been so bad for O’Rourke – he is famous [...]
TOP GEAR January 22, 2012 1) Swatch Snowpass Watch Do you find lift passes annoying? Hate having to shuffle around trying to get the right pocket up to the scanner? The Swatch Snowpass is designed to help – it includes a RFID chip rather like the ones in most lift passes. The idea is that when you buy your pass, [...]
Redknapp rages after Balotelli escapes red card for clash with Parker and then crushes Tottenham comeback with penalty winner January 22, 2012 MANCHESTER CITY (3) vs TOTTENHAM (2) MANCHESTER 2 LONDON 0 CRESTFALLEN Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp criticised referee Howard Webb’s failure to send off Mario Balotelli after the controversial forward took full advantage of his reprieve to sink Spurs with an injury-time winner. Balotelli’s decisive penalty came seconds after Jermain Defoe missed a chance to snatch [...]
