Standing room only: coming soon to an airline near you July 7, 2009 YESJEREMY HAZLEHURSTTHE news that Ryanair is offering standing seating to customers should come as a surprise to nobody who has ever travelled on the carrier. Indeed, it is the logical extension of its ethos, which involves turning aeroplanes into a mix of a fairground and a sardine tin. The idea behind this radical new idea [...]
Higher leverage fuelled banking bonanza July 7, 2009 TODAY’S banking White Paper will contain some nasty surprises. Of that we can be sure. In the main, however, it will amount to a rehash of pre-announced policies. Some of the proposals will be firm; others more hypothetical, relying on global agreement. There will be a call for banks to structure themselves so that they [...]
Four Rio staff held in China July 7, 2009 FOUR workers from Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian mining group, have been detained by Chinese authorities in Shanghai without explanation. The company said yesterday it is concerned about the arrest on Sunday of the Shanghai-based staff. So far it has not been able to speak to the three Chinese and one Australian passport holder. Rio Tinto [...]
My assistant dresses like a major frump July 7, 2009 DEAR VEXED: My assistant has been working for me for about a year. She’s great, but there’s something that really annoys me about her, even though it’s trivial. Basically, her dress sense is so dowdy it actually makes me depressed. Is there anything I can do about any of this? Susanne, 47, investment banker TOUGH [...]
AIG loses $4.3bn battle July 7, 2009 A FIRM run by former AIG chief executive Maurice “Hank” Greenberg did not plunder billions from a retirement fund, a jury ruled yesterday, dashing the bailed-out insurer’s chances of collecting $4.3bn (£2.6bn) in damages. AIG took Starr International, a private company run by Greenberg, to court in an effort to recover millions of shares held [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 7, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES RECESSION INCREASES SUICIDE AND MURDERUnemployment and recession add to the death toll from suicide, murder and heart attacks but cut the number killed in road accidents, according to the most comprehensive analysis so far of the health effects of economic downturn. Researchers at Oxford University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical [...]
ESPN launching new channel July 7, 2009 ESPN said yesterday that it plans to launch a new channel in August to show its 46 Barclaycard Premier League soccer matches and other international sports programming. The channel, which will be available in standard and high definition, will also carry a range of US sports. Pay-TV firm BSkyB , which owns the rights to [...]
CVC’s shock at F1 boss remarks July 7, 2009 CVC, the private equity firm that owns Formula 1, yesterday said it was “shocked” at comments made by motor racing boss Bernie Ecclestone, who praised Hitler’s ability to “get things done”. The remarks are a massive humiliation for CVC, which invests money on behalf of Jewish funds. The 78-year-old racing mogul’s comments caused outrage at [...]
The hard-core soft-top July 7, 2009 IF this road test ends abruptly, it is because I’ve been skewered by a BAE Hawk T1A aircraft flown by one of the Red Arrows display team, which as I am writing are rehearsing for the first day of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Or the even more earsplitting Eurofighter Typhoon, which is now overhead [...]
Clifford Chance loses top spot, but global reach means it will still flourish July 7, 2009 IT WAS never going to be a great result, but even so the news that partner profits at Clifford Chance were down a whopping 37 per cent in the year ending in April compared to the previous one revealed the once globe-conquering law firm to be uniquely exposed in the financial crisis. A reordering of [...]
