Another summit, another letdown by Europe’s elite December 12, 2011 AUSTAN Goolsbee, former chairman of President Obama’s council of economic advisers, is hardly a virulent eurosceptic. However, his assessment of the prospects of the common currency is very stark: in his view, as long as European leaders remain wedded to a utopian vision of political union in Europe, they will have to keep fighting off [...]
Government spending won’t fix the economy December 12, 2011 WHEN looking at investment data during the recent recession two key things emerge. The first is that UK investment (or “Gross Fixed Capital Formation”) has not fully recovered (see top chart, below). It did bounce back, but once more the growth rate is negative. However, to understand what is going on, it’s important to look [...]
RAPID RESPONSES December 12, 2011 Deutsch courage [Re: David Cameron was right to say No, yesterday] Believe me: most people here in Germany are very concerned about that elite project called €. Once more in history, the UK is doing the right thing. It seems that German leaders haven’t learned anything from the past. See the readers’ comments in German [...]
Filtering out the noise to help measure trends December 12, 2011 THE use of moving day averages is a very simple idea. By taking an average of the price over a certain period of time, you can concentrate on long-term trends. The most common time frames used by traders are the 200-day, 100-day, 50-day and 10-day moving averages. “The shorter the time span, the more sensitive [...]
WE’RE BACK TO SQUARE ONE FOR S&P 100 December 12, 2011 WE’RE rapidly approaching the year-end and analysts are busy finessing and publishing their 2012 outlooks. With just a couple of weeks to go before we can consign 2011 to the dustbin of history, it is probably useful to have a brief look back at how some of the major financial markets behaved over the past [...]
Get your adrenaline fix without leaving London December 12, 2011 In Chile there is a downhill bike race built through the middle of the city of Valparaiso. If you have never seen the footage, get your phone out and watch the YouTube video. If you have no signal, stop what you are doing and go to the nearest computer. If you’re in the supermarket, abandon [...]
Top gifts for gym fiends December 12, 2011 FITNESS & DIET EXPERT Whether you’re trying to nudge a loved one in a healthier direction, or stuck for a gift for your fitness fiend friend, these are the fitness gizmos that would make my Christmas list. The perfect stocking filler for the gym bunny, the new SmartShake is no ordinary shaker cup. With three [...]
EPISODE 40: BEER, BUSINESS AND BIRCH-THEM-ALL December 12, 2011 Birchenall only looked about 70. That means he can’t have been more than – what?” Quickly I do the maths. Surely not. “That means he can’t have been more than about 45 when we were at school,” I say to Nick, incredulously. “I know. Scary,” replies Nick. “I’m sure Birch-Them-All looked about a hundred back [...]
Alyn Williams’ debut sparkles December 12, 2011 Alyn Williams at The Westbury 37 Conduit Street W1S 2YF Tel: 020 8283 5036 FOOD ***** SERVICE ***** ATMOSPHERE **** Cost per person without wine: £65 Alyn Williams, who was head chef at Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley for four years, was sick of being the bridesmaid. You could tell – he’s been wearing white [...]
Stuck for wine this Xmas? Try a Madeira my dear December 12, 2011 HEAD SOMMELIER AND MANAGER OF LUTYENS RESTAURANT In the great age of exploration, Portuguese sailors would fill the holds of their ships with the wines of Madeira and sail to the New World. Like many wines of the era, destined for export, they were fortified – grape spirit was added to improve their stability and [...]
