RAPID RESPONSES September 21, 2011 Boris backs us With the crisis in the Eurozone deepening and world markets shakier than ever, headlines of financial Armageddon are today vying for space with stories of celebrity gossip. It can be tempting for commentators to shoot from the hip during times like these, but we must resist populist, reactionary instincts when trying to [...]
ETF criticisms don’t stand up to scrutiny September 21, 2011 EVEN prior to Kweku Adoboli’s UBS fraud, there was plenty of mud being slung at exchange-traded funds (ETF) – almost all unjustifiable. UBS’s rogue trader is irrelevant to the concerns of retail investors, for whom ETFs offer a cheap and liquid way to track many indexes. UBS IN CONTEXT In the case of the UBS [...]
Only facing up to your debt problems will stop the stress September 21, 2011 DON’T look so frightened,” Tracy Finn tells me. We are sat in the big Queen Street branch of HSBC in the City. It’s 10am on Wednesday morning, and I’m only about a year late for this meeting. “I help dozens of people with their personal debt every month,” she assures me. “Most of them earning [...]
Growing role of automatic FX trading September 21, 2011 OVER the last two years, we have witnessed a significant increase in demand to trade automatically in the FX market. Even if it is to follow the same trend as the equity and futures markets after Mifid – its high levels of liquidity and huge volumes of trade per day makes it a very attractive [...]
The latest gadgets that will help turn your home into a 3D palace September 21, 2011 3D technology is having a moment. No longer just the add-on special effect confined to the realm of cinemas and the odd Derren Brown show on television, it is now the hero embracing its mainstream appeal. With companies such as Sony, LG and Samsung leading the charge with gadgets that let you recreate the 3D [...]
Hurray! Put on your Zuckerberg masks – it’s Facebook day! September 21, 2011 IT’S Facebook day! Put on your cut-out Mark Zuckerberg masks. Celebrate by poking your colleagues; remember – you can’t be taken to a tribunal on Facebook day. Today, of course, being the F8 (fate, see) conference in San Fransisco where the social network will layout the next stage in its plans for world domination. Later [...]
Gregory’s new one is ambitious but under-juiced September 21, 2011 THE LADY OF THE RIVERS BY PHILLIPPA GREGORY Simon & Schuster, £7.99 PHILIPPA Gregory’s success has been built upon portraying women that have remained on history’s periphery – notably Mary, sister of Anne Boleyn in 2002’s The Other Boleyn Girl and Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor, in 2009’s The Red Queen. Both have enjoyed [...]
My girlfriend is too ambitious at work and it troubles me September 21, 2011 DEAR VEXED: My girlfriend is powering ahead in her career at a global accountancy firm and is working 24/7. The more successful and ambitious she is, the worse I feel. It sounds bad but I’m not sure I’m comfortable in a relationship with a woman this ambitious. Should I stick with it and try to [...]
Foster’s board recommends £6.5bn sale to SABMiller September 21, 2011 Foster’s board has finally recommended its sale to SABMiller in a deal that values Australia’s largest brewer at 9.9bn Australian dollars (£6.5bn). Fosters had rejected SAB’s previous bid worth A$9.5bn, saying it undervalued the company. However, the Foster’s board said it would be recommending the latest offer to its shareholders. Shareholders will now be asked [...]
Public borrowing rises September 21, 2011 Public sector net borrowing in the UK during August was a higher-than-expected £15.9bn. The August figure marked a rise of £1.9bn from a year earlier, and was the highest total for an August on record. Cumulative borrowing for the year so far is £52bn.
