Obama’s healthcare victory could prove a poisoned chalice in November July 4, 2012 FOLLOWING the ratification of the US Constitution, Benjamin Franklin quipped that “in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Due to the creative jurisprudence of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts, President Barack Obama can be thankful that the death of his health care reforms has been [...]
The Higgs boson discovery is only the first chapter July 4, 2012 SCIENTISTS at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) announced yesterday that they have identified a new heavy particle with all the properties expected of the Higgs boson – first predicted to exist in the 1960s. This is not the first new particle that experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern have discovered since [...]
As Barclays’ rate-fixing revelations continue to emerge, should this be the end for Libor? July 4, 2012 YES Tim Price There has to be a more honest and efficient way of establishing market interest rates than having banks submit – whether fraudulently or not – where they think they might be able to borrow from or lend to their competitors, and then crudely averaging the results. One answer might be to allow [...]
RAPID RESPONSES July 4, 2012 Systemic failure [Re: Crisis threatens UK’s entire politico-financial establishment, yesterday] This crisis is not essentially about greed or malfeasance by commercial banks, but about the toxic environment created by decades of misconceived policies by governments, and enablors and abettors in central banks. The Barclays’ affair is potentially explosive, so let’s hope the media start asking [...]
YouView…. Well, you might. July 4, 2012 Digital TV service YouView was finally unveiled by Lord Alan Sugar yesterday, albeit long after its slated 2010 release date. The joint venture between the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, Channel 5, Arqiva and TalkTalk offers a host of catch-up, on demand and streaming services and it promises more partners are ready to join. But [...]
YOUVIEW’S RIVALS July 4, 2012 Freeview Freeview might be a slightly spurious inclusion, but YouView has to convince people they need to shell out a pretty big sum to upgrade their current set-top box. Lots will stick with what they already have. Google TV Google TV has been something of a disaster in its native US, with the major networks [...]
Red alert July 3, 2012 BOB Diamond will today face questions from parliament on his role in the Libor-fixing scandal, following a dramatic 12 hours that began with his resignation as chief executive of Barclays and ended with the Bank of England battling to keep itself out of the crisis. Diamond’s resignation was announced early yesterday morning after he decided [...]
MPs set to grill Bob ahead of their full investigation July 3, 2012 LORDS rejected Labour calls for a judge-led inquiry into the Libor fixing scandal last night, increasing the chance that the government will get its favoured parliamentary investigation into the manipulation of the key inter-bank interest rate. However David Cameron and George Osborne may not get the exact panel of MPs and peers they hope for, [...]
Crisis threatens UK’s entire politico-financial establishment July 3, 2012 THIS is no longer just a crisis for Barclays, even though that particular bank has just suffered a devastating blow. This is now a crisis that could engulf the entire British establishment in a much broader way than anything we saw in 2008-09. The questions are piling up at an astonishing rate. Remember that there [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 3, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Facebook hit by glitches after email switch Facebook has been racing to deal with a series of technical glitches after making a controversial change to its members’ email settings that has been criticised as a way to promote its service at the expense of competitors. African minerals names new head Frank Timis plans [...]
