One year after the start of Occupy Wall Street, has the movement had any positive impact? September 17, 2012 YES Sam Bowman Occupy asked the right questions. The Great Recession ravaged the people at the bottom of society, while governments have spent trillions of pounds protecting the ones at the top. Some have called Occupy anti-capitalist, but its target has mainly been the incestuous relationship between big business and the state. Rightly so. We [...]
Rapid Responses September 17, 2012 Economic renewal [Re: Welcome to the New Normal: Pay can go down as well as up, yesterday] This article is right. Politicians must grapple with a new reality – the UK is unlikely to see real wage growth again unless it faces up to some extremely unwelcome truths. However, a painful process of stagnant wages [...]
Learning how to live with open-ended QE September 17, 2012 FEDERAL Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke last week did what the markets had been waiting for. He announced that the US central bank would be rolling out another round of its controversial quantitative easing program (QE3). The Fed will commit to monthly asset purchases of $40bn (£ 24bn) until a substantial improvement is seen in the [...]
A Grexit scenario may be disastrous for Germany September 17, 2012 FX360 ACCORDING to a recent report, some economists predict that the likelihood of a Greek exit (Grexit) from the European Monetary Union (EMU) is between 50 and 75 per cent. Some even put the chances 90 per cent – an awfully high number. If Greece does leave the EMU, we should consider the potential unintended [...]
The Tipster | Imperially smoked September 17, 2012 AFTER a difficult period in early September, investors in Imperial Tobacco will be hoping that Thursday’s update will give the company momentum. Share prices sit in the middle of its 52-week range, after being hit by Russia’s ban on smoking in public. But continued growth in emerging markets should give investors something to cheer about. [...]
Eastern dragon threatens to bite September 17, 2012 IF YOU think that the world’s financial ills have all been resolved, think again. Lingering geopolitical tensions in the east have the potential to shake markets, and could sting traders if they are not positioned appropriately. THE DRAGON ROARS Today marks the anniversary of the invasion of Manchuria, when Japanese forces invaded a northern region [...]
Analyst picks for 18 September 2012 September 17, 2012 CURRENCY STRATEGIST CHRIS VECCHIO My pick: Long Aussie dollar-dollar Expertise: Fundamental and technical analysis Average time frame of trades: 1 day to 1 week The Aussie dollar-dollar failed to break out on Friday, with an inverse hammer pattern forming on the daily chart at the descending trend line. Given the Fed’s dollar debasement programme, we [...]
The locks lowdown September 17, 2012 FASHION moves so fast it is often hard to keep up. Gone are the days of the mods and rockers, collections being shown in the spring and the spring/summer 2013 collections having been broadcast across London only in the last few days, it all becomes very confusing. Should we be wearing autumn styles now or [...]
Business as usual at London Fashion Week September 17, 2012 British designers have achieved the balance between creative flair and commercial nous London Fashion Week has been another creative success – British designers know they have nothing left to prove on that front. But its success over the past few seasons is increasingly owed to its shrewd business acumen. Traditionally, the capital has been criticised [...]
Sberbank unveils £3.3bn stake sale September 17, 2012 Russian state bank Sberbank is to list in London this week in a $5.4bn (£3.3bn) share sale, it announced today. The sale of a 7.6 per cent stake in Sberbank, which is seeking a joint London-Moscow listing, has been held back for more than a year by weak financial markets. Russian stocks rallied by eight [...]
