FTSE commodities drop on fear over Fed announcement September 21, 2011 BRITAIN’S top shares dropped back yesterday, led by weakness in commodity issues as investors nervously awaited the outcome of a US Federal Reserve meeting with expectations for further economic stimulus seen as already discounted. The FTSE 100 closed down 75.30 points, or 1.4 per cent at 5,288.41, retreating after a two per cent bounce on [...]
US grim forecast spooks investors September 21, 2011 THE Federal Reserve’s warning that the US faces a grim economic outlook jolted investors yesterday, driving down US stocks more than two per cent, while benchmark Treasury yields hit a more than 60-year low on the Fed’s announcement of a $400bn bond-buying programme. The dollar rallied against the euro and the yen, buoyed by the [...]
This year’s hot sectors: risk and compliance September 21, 2011 WE’VE been told that the boom years are over. The fast-growth sectors of City employment have ground to a halt. New job opportunities will be fewer and far between. Well, that is unless you work in risk and compliance: the fallout from the credit crunch has given a new lease of life to these sticklers [...]
How to go about asking for that raise September 21, 2011 HEADHUNTER, ROBERT HALF EMPLOYEES are currently faced with a barrage of contradictory news and opinions about economic and business forecasts and the potential impact of these on their own career prospects. While some companies within the financial services sector may be maintaining a tight hold of their purse strings, others have seen some buoyant remuneration [...]
Companies don’t pay taxes: we do. A Tobin Tax will cost us far more than it collects September 21, 2011 GLORY be, we are to be saved! As the TUC, President Nicolas Sarkozy, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the European Parliament agree, impose a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) upon the banks and Europe, or at least the euro, will be saved. The banks shall pay for their errors and kittens will gambol in sunshine once again. [...]
It is always the perfect time to start a business September 21, 2011 WHY would now be a good time to start your own business, when the economy is weak and all around is pessimism? Well the truth is that plenty of great companies were started in downturns. In the depths of the Great Depression in the 1930s, Walt Disney launched his eponymous animation company, now almost the [...]
A lack of leadership is tearing Europe apart September 21, 2011 IN a moment of truth after losing referendums in France, the Netherlands and Ireland, Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, admitted to me that the EU could seem like a conspiracy by political elites against their citizens. Never has that been truer than of the euro crisis, which really is crunch time for Europe. [...]
RAPID RESPONSES September 21, 2011 Boris backs us With the crisis in the Eurozone deepening and world markets shakier than ever, headlines of financial Armageddon are today vying for space with stories of celebrity gossip. It can be tempting for commentators to shoot from the hip during times like these, but we must resist populist, reactionary instincts when trying to [...]
ETF criticisms don’t stand up to scrutiny September 21, 2011 EVEN prior to Kweku Adoboli’s UBS fraud, there was plenty of mud being slung at exchange-traded funds (ETF) – almost all unjustifiable. UBS’s rogue trader is irrelevant to the concerns of retail investors, for whom ETFs offer a cheap and liquid way to track many indexes. UBS IN CONTEXT In the case of the UBS [...]
Only facing up to your debt problems will stop the stress September 21, 2011 DON’T look so frightened,” Tracy Finn tells me. We are sat in the big Queen Street branch of HSBC in the City. It’s 10am on Wednesday morning, and I’m only about a year late for this meeting. “I help dozens of people with their personal debt every month,” she assures me. “Most of them earning [...]
