London’s rail dominance in one chart February 20, 2014 Rail travel has been steadily rising in the last decade and journey numbers are approaching the 1920s heyday. Overall UK journeys in the last three months of the year rose 3.9 per cent on last year to 390.3m, as Britons travelled a whopping 15.1bn kilometres on the railways. Passengers spent £2bn on tickets, up 6.4 [...]
Here’s how Facebook should have taken Whatsapp’s users February 20, 2014 If Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg really wanted Whatsapp's 450m users, there may have been an easier way to go around it. This comment on a Financial Times article suggests that Zuckerberg could just have had Facebook build its own mobile-to-mobile messenger, and saved so much that it would be able to pay [...]
This ultra-low inflation threat has investors on edge February 20, 2014 Data this morning showed that French inflation dropped to 0.8 per cent in January, continuing the country’s long term trend of disinflation. In fact, every G7 country is now recording inflation below two per cent. Though we’re only a month and a half into 2014, only Japan’s CPI appears to be on an [...]
Lululemon to open first UK store February 20, 2014 Canadian clothing heavyweight Lululemon is to open its first UK store in London's Covent Garden on 28 March. That 3,100 square foot store will have separate menswear and womenswear sections. Community relations manager Amanda Casger told Drapers that Lululemon is "in the process of understanding what the [UK] market is like" and that the company [...]
Goldman Sachs thinks Facebook just made a great strategic play February 20, 2014 Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg must be feeling pretty smug this morning. He's won approval for the bold acquisition of Whatsapp from a number of analysts, and can now add leading investment bank Goldman Sachs to the list of those who thinks the move is a strategic winner. As a move, Goldman analysts [...]
UK productivity is lagging other leading economies by the most since 1992 February 20, 2014 The UK may have finally see some signs of productivity improvements yesterday, but the economy is still mired in what must now be called a productivity crisis. The latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics show that the gap between the UK's productivity and that of other leading countries is now at its widest [...]
Why Facebook’s $19bn Whatsapp purchase makes complete sense February 20, 2014 Facebook's staggering $19bn (£11.4bn) payment for instant messaging service Whatsapp has knocked many market watchers over. Those numbers see the startup of just 55 employees valued at more than Marriot International, American Airlines, or Ralph Lauren. But Facebook isn't here for Whatsapp's lame profitability – it charges users $0.99 just once a year – it [...]
Think the good jobs are massaged by Workfare? Think again February 19, 2014 A somewhat amusing pastime, when one’s bored, is to look at the responses to any of George Osborne’s tweets. The internet may be full of irate ranters, but nothing inspires outrage and knee-jerk verbal abuse quite like a bit of positive No11 spin posted on Twitter. While enjoying this activity over the last year, [...]
Swedes, you are not a race of refereeing incompetents – and the stats prove it February 19, 2014 If Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini thinks his team got a raw deal in Tuesday’s Champions League defeat to Barcelona because the referee was Swedish he may want to think again, and consider this: at least the pesky whistler wasn’t Croatian. Or Portuguese. Analysis of all referees in the Champions League’s 22-year history shows [...]
Why the government’s offshore wind plans are full of hot air February 19, 2014 Offshore wind was one of the winners out of the UK government’s shakeup of renewable energy subsidies in December, but the investors have not come running. Slightly embarrassingly, on the same day that the government published its first Offshore Wind Programme Board annual report – a government/industry initiative aimed at maximising the economic benefit [...]
