Any Other Business – 19/07 July 18, 2013 Can you take insights from the bedroom to the boardroom? Author Avril Millar apparently thinks so. Her distinctly adult approach to business can be found in a new book called The Kama Sutra of Work. “Sadly, we’ll always spend more hours working than having sex, but the concept I introduce in the book will make [...]
Fed’s Bernanke says that nobody really understands gold prices July 18, 2013 The Federal Reserve's Ben Bernanke has said that "nobody really understands gold prices and I don't pretend to understand them either" when asked by a member of Congress about the recent fall in the price tag of the precious metal. Bernanke said that a fall in the price of gold is not necessarily a thing, [...]
Fed’s Bernanke stresses that monetary policy has limitations July 18, 2013 Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has that "monetary policy is not a panacea" when it comes to low growth and high unemployment, and that "there is still room for congress to address these problems". "It's not my place or the federal reserve's place to force Congress to come to any particular outcome" — Ben Bernanke, [...]
US inital jobless claims drop by 26,000 as continuing claims rise July 18, 2013 US initial jobless claims have dropped from 360,000 to 334,000 in the week to 13 July, a drop that exceeded what economists were expecting. Analysts had predicted a fall to 345,000. Weird blip with the continuing jobless claims though, which were up from 3.0323m (revised from 2.977m) to 3.114m. These jobs numbers have a special [...]
Morgan Stanley will begin £329m share repurchase as revenues beat estimates July 18, 2013 Morgan Stanley has posted earnings per share of $0.43 for the second quarter (release), which is exactly the number analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had been expecting. Revenues rose from the first quarter, up from $8.2bn to $8.5bn, despite forecasts that these would drop to $7.9bn. For the first time in years, the bank will be [...]
One chart that shows the failure of Osborne’s Funding for Lending Scheme July 18, 2013 Designed to get banks to lend more, chancellor George Osborne's Funding for Lending Scheme has failed to actually boost lending. Engineered to boost business lending, it's actually had more of an impact in the mortgage lending sector. This chart from the Bank of England demonstrates quite how poor the measure has been, and in July [...]
Pound gains as retail sales perform well in June July 18, 2013 (Source: ONS) Retail sales are up 2.1 per cent in the year to June, above the 1.6 per cent growth economists had been forecasting. The pound is performing better on the news. The growth into quarter 2 (0.9%) will therefore contribute approximately 0.1 percentage points to gross domestic product (GDP) when estimated from the output [...]
ECB’s Asmussen says that jobs should be at the centre of policymaking July 18, 2013 The European Central Bank's (ECB) Jorg Asmussen has said that the crisis which currently grips the Eurozone is not a product of the common currency, but of international business models and practices. He said that "austerity versus growth" is the wrong debate, and that fiscal consolidation will remain on the table, and that jobs should [...]
Bernanke claims that Fed’s policies are helping main street more than Wall Street July 17, 2013 Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has said that main street is doing better than Wall Street, when challenged on what the central banker is doing for the real economy. Bernanke said that the Fed is very focused on main street, and is trying to create jobs and make housing affordable, and that low rates created [...]
Bernanke warns that Congress needs to sort out long-term fiscal issues July 17, 2013 Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has said that fiscal policy has been focused too much on the short run, to the expense of the long run. Bernanke said that in the short therm the sequester and tax increases will see growth reduced by 1.5 percentage points in 2013, i.e. the US might experience 2.0 per [...]
