Osborne and Clegg clash over way to fix economy January 24, 2013 GEORGE Osborne yesterday rejected a call from the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist to adopt a less aggressive stance on cutting the UK’s deficit. The IMF’s Olivier Blanchard suggested this year’s Budget, due in March, “would be a good time to take stock and make changes to the austerity plan” and “slower fiscal consolidation” may be [...]
Why you should take economic statistics with a bucket of salt January 24, 2013 TODAY is GDP day, when the Office for National Statistics releases its first, early and ultra-preliminary estimate of the growth of the UK economy. As ever, the media, the markets and the political classes will massively over-react to whatever gross domestic product (GDP) number is released, good or bad. I would urge everybody not to [...]
Fed data shows record balance January 24, 2013 THE size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet reached a record, Fed data released yesterday showed, due to the central bank’s purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities that are part of its unconventional policy aimed at supporting economic growth. The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet – which is a broad gauge of its lending to the [...]
Twitter rolls out video function January 24, 2013 SOCIAL network Twitter, the social network known for its 140-character messages, hinted at the direction of its evolution yesterday with the launch of a new streaming video service for smartphones. The service, called Vine, records six-second-long video clips, which can then be seamlessly embedded within tweets. Privately held Twitter is expected by analysts to go [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 24, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Fears over ECB funding scheme Concern is mounting among senior bankers that the European Central Bank’s special longer-term funding scheme risks backfiring, stigmatising the region’s weaker banks a year after it was launched. From the end of January banks have the opportunity to start paying back the cheap three-year money they borrowed under [...]
Pay cut for Morgan Stanley chief January 24, 2013 Morgan Stanley chief executive James Gorman received lower pay for 2012 after profits declined but the bank showed progress in reshaping its businesses. Gorman received $6m (£3.8m) in total compensation for 2012, including $800,000 in salary, $2.6m in deferred cash and $2.6m in stock options, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday. He did [...]
Samsung posts record profits January 24, 2013 Samsung Electronics reported a record quarterly profit of $8.3bn (£5.3bn) and kept its 2013 investment plans at the previous year’s level, defying expectations that it may reduce spending amid weaker demand for computer chips. The South Korean firm said October to December operating profit increased 89 per cent from a year ago to 8.84 trillion [...]
Amazon buys voice tech firm January 24, 2013 Amazon said yesterday it had snapped up text-to-speech technology company Ivona Software, a sign that the world’s largest Internet retailer may be looking to develop more services similar to Apple’s Siri voice-based search product. Ivona’s technology already supports several features on Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet computers, such as text-to-speech, said Dave Limp, who oversees the [...]
West End ranks as the world’s priciest offices January 24, 2013 LONDON’S West End has leapfrogged Hong Kong to regain its spot as the world’s most expensive location to rent office space after rents declined in the Asian city. Property specialists DTZ’s annual Global Occupancy Costs survey published today shows that occupiers in London’s West End had to pay US$23,500 (£14,900) per workstation per annum at [...]
After a three-year wait … the Walbrook secures its first tenants January 24, 2013 THE WALBROOK Building opposite Cannon Street station has finally clinched its first two tenants, nearly three years since it was first built. Property developer Minerva, said it has secured the first deal with insurance broker, Arthur J Gallagher, which has taken offices on the ground floor and the whole of the seventh floor amounting to [...]
