It’s time to Kickstarter your life July 11, 2012 CROWD FUNDING is the latest buzz-word in Silicon Valley, with entrepreneurs and mad scientists alike asking the public for micro-investments of a few dollars (or a few thousand) to fund the production of their projects. Kickstarter is the reigning king of the sector, with thousands of companies raising funds through its website. Public investments are [...]
COALITION IN CRISIS OVER LORDS PLANS July 10, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT suffered a bloodied nose late last night after Prime Minister David Cameron endured the biggest rebellion from his own party since arriving in Downing Street over two years ago. Around 90 Tory MPs voted against the House of Lords reform bill, despite the coalition dropping the most contentious element of the legislation earlier [...]
Diamond: unfair and unfounded to say I was not candid July 10, 2012 BOB Diamond yesterday accused the Treasury select committee of tarnishing his reputation as the Libor scandal surrounding the bank he once ran continues to unfold. In a letter to chairman Andrew Tyrie, the former Barclays boss expressed “dismay” at the suggestion that he was “less than candid with the committee last week,” calling the implication [...]
Tetra Pak heiress dies July 10, 2012 EVA Rausing, one of the UK’s richest women, has been found dead at her Belgravia home, police confirmed yesterday. The 48-year-old mother of four was an heiress through marriage to the £5.4bn Tetra Pak carton empire. Police are treating Rausing’s death as “unexplained” after a postmortem failed to shed light on the matter, but her [...]
FSA had warned Barclays of aggressive behaviour July 10, 2012 REGULATORS warned Barclays bank about its “aggressive” interpretation of market rules just four months before it was hit with a £290m fine for abusing the Libor interest rate, it was revealed yesterday. Lord Turner, the head of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), wrote to Barclays chairman Marcus Agius on 10 April this year to spell [...]
Massive revolt by Tory MPs is beginning of end for coalition July 10, 2012 YOU may not care about the government’s bizarre obsession with trying to replace the unelected House of Lords with an almost equally strange upper chamber. If so, you are not alone – the public has completely switched off from the arcane, introspective world of the Westminster village. Ordinary people want to talk about growth and [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 10, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES China opens door to foreign hedgies China has given foreign hedge funds permission to tap its wealthy citizens inside the country for funds to invest overseas, according to people in the industry. The move represents another important step by China to open its capital account – a process that involves dismantling regulations separating [...]
Hollande wary of banks after rates scandal July 10, 2012 FRENCH president François Hollande said that the spectre of the Libor scandal had increased international suspicion towards the banking sector, as he made his first official visit to the UK yesterday to meet with both Prime Minister David Cameron and the Queen. “There have been a few revelations in Britain that mean we have to [...]
Bob Diamond misses out on £20m bonuses July 10, 2012 FORMER Barclays boss Bob Diamond yesterday agreed to turn down payments worth around £20m following his resignation from the firm. But the bank’s ex-chief executive will still receive a year’s salary and a cash payment in lieu of pension contributions, worth around £2m in all. “Bob Diamond has voluntarily decided to forgo any deferred consideration [...]
US policymakers face Senate committee over Libor scandal July 10, 2012 US LAWMAKERS said yesterday they would call Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and the Treasury secretary Tim Geithner to face questions over the Libor scandal. Tim Johnson, chairman of the US Senate Banking Committee, said: “I am concerned by the growing allegations of potential widespread manipulation of Libor and similar interbank rates by some financial firms,” [...]
