US stocks slip on Fed inaction August 1, 2012 US stocks slipped yesterday on disappointment that the Federal Reserve offered no new measures to stimulate the economy and after a computer glitch at a brokerage triggered a spike in volatility shortly after the open. The market will now turn its focus to today’s highly anticipated European Central Bank amid expectations that the ECB could [...]
FTSE lifted by strong results August 1, 2012 BRITAIN’S benchmark share index rose yesterday following strong numbers from retailer Next and other blue-chip companies, although many investors held off trading ahead of key US and European central bank policy meetings. The blue-chip FTSE 100 ended up 77.54 points, or 1.4 per cent higher, at 5,712.82 points – its highest closing level in nearly [...]
INNOVATION OF THE YEAR August 1, 2012 City A.M.’s Innovation of the Year category seeks out businesses that are frontrunners in their field, whether finance, marketing or product development. Our shortlist includes green technology, new media, manufacturing, a finance provider and a new approach to financial restructuring. The winner will need to show a genuinely innovative approach and demonstrate significant milestones achieved [...]
DEALMAKER OF THE YEAR August 1, 2012 INVESTMENT bankers have had a difficult year, with London’s IPO market virtually closed, and M&A deals few and far between. Our fourth short-list for the third annual City A.M. awards, though, highlights some superb individual performances in such difficult markets. Jonathan Rowley, for example, was on at least three M&A deals in just one week [...]
How Olympic organisers can get shot of the West End ghost town August 1, 2012 WE’VE scared them off. Somewhere between Boris Johnson’s ominous ode to overcrowding, and TfL’s weird posters of diligent Londoners in their underwear, planning routes to work, the city’s attempts to keep moving during the Games have frightened droves of tourists into barely venturing out of the confines of the Olympic Park. If organisers don’t act [...]
Londoners may not love Romney but he is trying to woo American voters August 1, 2012 AGREAT deal of column space has been dedicated to Mitt Romney’s Olympic-sized faux pas this past week. Democrats have called Romney’s utterances over London’s preparedness for the Olympics “embarrassing” and have launched advertisements questioning his suitability to succeed Barack Obama. Will this impact November’s elections? One Republican strategist was blunt: “The London stuff? Voters don’t [...]
France’s Tobin Tax will make a little but damage a lot August 1, 2012 WHEN Napoleon Bonaparte’s regime executed an aristocrat on trumped-up charges of treason, stirring up bloody memories of the Revolution, his chief of police is said to have remarked that it was “worse than a crime; it was a blunder”. The same could be said of this week’s introduction of a Tobin Tax in France. The [...]
After calls for Boris Johnson to stand for the Tory leadership, could it happen before 2015? August 1, 2012 YES Tim Montgomerie Boris will become Tory leader before the next election if Conservative MPs conclude that they won’t keep their seats with David Cameron still in place. In such a circumstance, they’ll face a choice between almost certain political death and an almighty blonde-headed gamble. There are big practical obstacles to a Boris ascendancy [...]
RAPID RESPONSES August 1, 2012 Sporting nations [Re: Entrepreneurial nations win big in medal tables, yesterday] Stefania Lovo raises some interesting thoughts in her article, but the truth is more complicated. Why, for example, have some large nations not won more medals? The answer is linked to cultural characteristics of each particular nation. Many countries provide winning athletes because they [...]
Happy birthday to the Commodore 64 August 1, 2012 MITS ALTAIR 8800 The first home computers came as build-it-yourself kits, led by the MITS Altair 8800, launched in 1975. The technology, which was later sold as an assembled unit, was the inspiration for future PCs. APPLE II The Apple I had already been released as a kit computer but the Apple II was where [...]
