Rigged and ready: After recent gains, are oil prices set to recover? December 4, 2018 The oil market has had a tough time this year, with prices sliding since October. And yet, there’s been a radical turn of events over recent days, with the picture looking drastically different as the markets opened for trading this week. In fact, one of yesterday’s biggest market movements was oil, with brent crude surging [...]
Will markets have a jolly festive season this year? December 4, 2018 It's December and time to deck the halls with boughs of holly. Or in CNBC’s case, it’s time for the business channel to be immersed in chatter of a potential Santa Claus rally and 2019 fortunes. Santa’s performance for the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been fairly reliable over the past five years, with investors rewarded [...]
Has masculine culture changed? The answer lies in our height December 3, 2018 Have you been watching Dynasties on BBC? The first episode followed the plight of David, an alpha male chimpanzee, as he tried to maintain power within his tribe. After one attempted coup, David sustained severe injuries, the likes of which might have killed a human. However, through extreme posturing and canvassing of support from other [...]
Heed Hammond’s warning: We must not be prisoners of change December 3, 2018 Britain has become a single issue nation. So all-consuming have the ins and outs of Brexit become that the national debate seems incapable of concentrating on anything else. Which was why it was so surprising when Philip Hammond spoke to a small business audience last week and didn’t drop the B-word once. In so doing, [...]
The founder of DNAFit on how understanding our genetic makeup can help us get healthy December 3, 2018 We can see physical traces of our genetics in our parents, but for the most part, our DNA is a mystery that many of us can never truly comprehend. But what if we could understand some of the unique information captured in our DNA, so that we could use it like a map, helping us [...]
A new hope: Backing firms of the future November 30, 2018 If you missed the big news of the last couple of weeks, you must have been hiding under a rock. And no, I’m not talking about the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal – but rather Small Business Saturday, which is returning for a sixth year on 1 December. This is the most important day in the calendar [...]
Big ambitions and grand challenges: How the industrial strategy fares one year on November 29, 2018 It’s now a year since the industrial strategy was launched. Encompassing a 255-page tome, it laid five foundations for productivity: ideas, people, infrastructure, places and the business environment. It promised waves of sector deals between government and industry to de-risk investment and improve workers’ skills. Six such deals were announced in the first year, from automotive [...]
As Theresa May has shown, it’s crucial to keep a cool head when staff start jumping ship November 29, 2018 Love or loathe her, it’s fair to say that Theresa May has had a tough time recently. As if being tasked with successfully navigating Britain’s exit from the EU isn’t enough, members of her cabinet have been dropping like flies. Regardless of whether we’re looking at the world of business or politics, every leader knows [...]
Finally, the inheritance tax system is getting cleaned up – here’s what you need to know November 28, 2018 Inheritance tax (IHT) is not a modern phenomenon – in fact, the first “death tax” dates back to the late 1700s. Since then, IHT has been tweaked and amended, adding layer upon layer of rules. Now, in 2018, we’re caught in a system that is ridiculously confusing, riddled with legacy issues, and in desperate need [...]
Entrepreneurs should be selective with their investors November 27, 2018 It’s not a secret that London is the fintech capital of Europe. Startups and tech entrepreneurs can flourish here because of the concentration of world-class financial services, and the access available to funding from a variety of key players. However, the nature of investment in tech startups is undergoing a process of significant and positive [...]
