Travel Notes July 24, 2011 ROMAN SAVINGS Rome in high summer is no fun if you aren’t doing it properly. You don’t want to slog miles across the city through the crowds; no, you want the Forum on your doorstep. The luxe Palazzo Manfredi, a 17th century palazzo in the heart of the historical centre of Rome, offers a rather [...]
CYCLISTS AND SUITS NEED NOT BE AT WAR WITH EACH OTHER July 24, 2011 TENSIONS between the City’s suits and its many cyclists – from couriers to tourists – have reached boiling point, The Capitalist hears. One disgruntled cyclist pulled over recently on Bishopsgate has been in touch to relay exactly why it is that City of London cops are out in force, lurking under trees and behind lamp-posts, [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK July 24, 2011 ACCOUNTANTS have a reputation for being somewhat straight-laced, but this tale suggests it isn’t entirely deserved. When two employees turned up for their first day at one of the City’s biggest accountancy firms, their new colleagues put them through an initiation ceremony that had more in common with the ways of an American university fraternity [...]
Markets cheer Eurozone deal July 21, 2011 MARKETS rallied after Eurozone leaders agreed to a new Greek rescue that will cut the country’s debt by 12 per cent of GDP from its current 140 per cent level and see the EU’s bailout fund given sweeping new powers. The deal, fronted by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, will also see most private holders of [...]
Directors at BSkyB turn on Murdoch July 21, 2011 A NUMBER of independent directors at the News Corp-controlled BSkyB are expected to push for the ousting of James Murdoch as chairman at the firm’s board meeting next Thursday. Their unease over his position will be intensified by new allegations that suggest he knew in 2008 that phone hacking at the News of the World [...]
Greece’s latest rescue: what you need to know July 21, 2011 In A scheme that euro leaders dubiously dubbed their very own “Marshall Plan”, after the US’s post-Second World War aid programme for Europe, the parameters of a new Greek bailout were announced in Brussels yesterday: • In a controversial move, the interest rate on Greece’s loans will be cut to 3.5 per cent when they are [...]
Don’t compare this to Marshall Plan July 21, 2011 PERHAPS the worst element of yesterday’s proposals to rescue the Eurozone was the attempt to rebrand the exercise as a new Marshall Plan for Greece. It is the kind of propagandistic nonsense that would have made George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth proud. The Marshall Plan was intended to help Western Europe survive the post-Second World [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 21, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES FSA FINES WILLIS ARM A RECORD £6.9M The UK arm of Willis, the number three global insurance broker, has been fined a record £6.9m by the City watchdog for anti-bribery and corruption failings related to commissions paid overseas. The fine is the largest meted out by the Financial Services Authority for failings in [...]
TMX Group to start talks with Maple over bid July 21, 2011 CANADA’S stock exchange group TMX has relented and agreed to start talks with the Canadian consortium that ended its ambitions to merge with the London Stock Exchange. TMX Group, whose shareholders vetoed the LSE merger last month, will meet the Maple consortium to discuss the C$3.8bn (£2.5bn) hostile takeover bid it tabled in June. Canada’s [...]
Summer of riots to take over Greece July 21, 2011 GREECE’S opposition Left Coalition party expects public anger over government austerity measures to rise to new heights after the summer and force a snap parliamentary election, its leader said yesterday. Often blamed by the socialist government for inciting violent protests in May and June, the smallest of five parties in parliament opposes the European Union/International [...]
