SPORT | IN BRIEF September 28, 2011 Paralympic success for Locog OLYMPICS: London 2012 chiefs have announced their “delight” at the record number of applications for the London 2012 Paralympic Games, with over 1m tickets applied for from 100,000 applicants. The demand means ballots to allocate the tickets will now take place for 16 of the 20 sports featured in the Games, as [...]
Amazon unveils its iPad killer September 28, 2011 AMAZON yesterday seized the initiative in the tablet wars, unveiling a new device that will sell for just half the price of an iPad 2. The world’s biggest online retailer hopes the Kindle Fire, priced at just $199 (£127), will build on the success of its range of e-readers. The launch is the first serious [...]
Treasury accused of dishonesty over its position on Tobin tax September 28, 2011 THE GOVERNMENT was branded “dishonest” yesterday, after it said it had “no objection” to a global Tobin tax that would wipe billions off City profits – even though it continues to oppose a European version of the levy. A spokesperson for the Treasury said the government had “no objection in principle” to a financial transaction [...]
UK’s 50p top rate slammed September 28, 2011 ONLY three other European Union states have a higher top rate of income tax than the UK, consultancy group KPMG said today. Outside the EU, just Japan and the small Caribbean island of Aruba have a higher top rate than the UK, out of 96 countries surveyed by the group. Western Europe remains the region [...]
Why a Tobin tax would be a disaster September 28, 2011 VERY strange. That is the only way that the coalition’s half-hearted, let’s have our cake and eat it, position on the Tobin tax can be described. The Treasury is rightly opposed to the European Union’s plan – but it actually supports a Tobin tax in principle, as long as it is implemented globally and not [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 28, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES PLANS REVEALED FOR US-STYLE PLEA BARGAINS The UK plans to introduce US-style corporate plea bargains that could result in fines totalling hundreds of millions of pounds, according to the Solicitor General. “You have to have a cost-benefit analysis. If I can produce a system which has all the benefits [of the US] and [...]
Brit heads up new Walmart arm September 28, 2011 American supermarket behemoth Walmart has shaken up its top team, and has chosen British exec David Cheesewright to head a new division encompassing the UK, Canada and Sub-Saharan Africa. Cheesewright, the former chief operating officer of Walmart-owned Asda, was most recently chief exec of Canadian operations.
UBS boss asks for less risky bank September 28, 2011 UBS interim chief Sergio Ermotti appealed to staff in an internal memo to back efforts to make the bank less complex and risky yesterday, following the $2.3bn (£1.5bn) loss from unauthorised trading. Ermotti told workers he has “no magic recipe to inspire you to redouble your efforts. I can only appeal to your professionalism, your [...]
More suitors are sizing up LME September 28, 2011 Interest in the London Metal Exchange as a takeover target has snowballed and the number of suitors has risen to double digits because business is booming with volumes at record levels, its chief executive Martin Abbott said yesterday.
Banks in sigh of relief over Vickers rules September 28, 2011 JOHN Vickers has privately reassured Britain’s biggest banks that they will not need to issue billions in complex new debt instruments to comply with his recommendations. City A.M. understands that several anxious lenders sought informal clarification from Vickers’ Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) recently and were told definitively that they will not have to invent [...]
