Fat Face: Great clothes for those “settled” in life May 1, 2014 A regulatory filing from fashion chain Fat Face inlcudes one feature we wouldn't expect. When discussing their customers, the company states that its customers are relatively "settled". The lifestyle brand seems to be pitching itself as somewhere for those who've basically given on being stylish. They say they're "generally not focused on 'high' fashion". Instead [...]
Labour wants to introduce the one policy guaranteed to make the housing crisis worse April 30, 2014 The UK's housing crisis is no secret, and political solutions are offered two a penny. Unfortunately, Ed Miliband's plan to limit rents is perhaps the one thing that can be relied upon to make the situation worse for Britain's renters. At the launch of Labour's election campaign in Redbridge, Miliband is expected to say [...]
Bank of England might finally stop destroying historical records April 30, 2014 Some small steps towards transparency at the Bank of England. The central bank has appointed Governor Kevin Warsh to undertake a review of the Bank's transcripts policy. At present, recordings of the Bank of England's meetings are routinely destroyed once minutes have been finalised. Warsh, a former member of the Board of Governors of the [...]
Cold weather sees huge US growth miss in first quarter April 30, 2014 US growth has ground to what is nearly a halt. At an annualised 0.1 per cent in the first quarter, GDP growth is well below the 1.2 per cent analysts were expecting. Clearly the weather is colder than we thought. The US grew at an annualised rate of 2.6 per cent in the last quarter [...]
Why the Occupy Wonga campaign may want to check its sums April 30, 2014 Campaign group Occupy London is to mobilise this Mayday, in order to fight what they see as "the new economic fascists" – pay day loan companies. An email from the group, announcing the launch of "Occupy Wonga", states that "we see the most vulnerable people in society being charged immoral interst rates". So on 1 [...]
EU court throws out UK challenge to Financial Transaction Tax April 30, 2014 The European Court of Justice has rejected a legal challenge launched by the UK against a Financial Transaction Tax. 11 countries are set to implement the EU-devised FTT. Not hugely surprising – French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel firmly support the measure – but bad news for London. The Court found that [...]
Damning report into Co-op Bank practices released April 30, 2014 Since the Co-op Bank revealed a significant capital shortfall last June, it's been up to Sir Christopher Kelly to look into failures at the organisation. He began his work last August, and has come back to say that the Bank has suffered from "a flawed culture" and "fundamental weaknesses in the governance and management [...]
Mr Gold just became Barclays Americas CEO April 29, 2014 Another episode of nominative determinism in finance. Barclays is appointing its current global head of client capital management – Joe Gold – to a restructured role as CEO of the Americas. As of 1 May, he'll be reporting to co-CEOs of the Corporate and Investment Bank, Tom King and Eric Bommensath. He replaces Hugh "Skip" [...]
Is UK GDP set to pass its pre-crisis peak? April 29, 2014 Today's growth figures may have disappointed analyst expectations, but could signal that we're finally closing in on peak activity. Economic activity, measured by real GDP, collapsed in 2008. Since then, we've been waiting for the economy to return to that pre-crisis peak. The Office for National Statistics' latest GDP estimate sees the economy 0.6 per [...]
Portes vs Lilico: Growth figures trigger inflation wager April 29, 2014 News that UK GDP has grown by 2.3 per cent on a year-on-year basis has triggered a bet between two economists with very different outlooks. Andrew Lilico, chairman of Europe Economics, and Jonathan Portes, director of think tank Niesr, made a wager back in May of last year. The core disagreement between Lilico and Portes [...]
