3 reasons for the achingly slow progress on EU-US free trade deals February 17, 2014 Though a stock-taking meeting for the US-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) begins again today, progress is likely to be painfully sluggish. Transpacific talks have gone through 18 rounds already, not including meetings between ministers or chief negotiators. In comparison, the EU and US not yet even the third round of talks, which [...]
Who wants to be an Isa millionaire? February 17, 2014 Investing in Isas isn’t normally a strategy that savers equate with vast wealth or stunning returns. However, the wealth manager Brewin Dolphin reckons equity-linked Isa pots can create millionaires in just 27 years. Brewin, which says it already has 15 millionaires with significant Isa investments on its client list, has done the sums on [...]
Standard Life’s Essar outburst shows shareholder activism has come to the UK February 17, 2014 Standard Life's head of equities David Cumming is out of the country today but before he left these shores he did something UK institutional shareholders rarely do: He publicly castigated the majority owners of the London-listed group Essar Energy for a takeover attempt he described as an example of "cynical opportunism". His public intervention, [...]
SNP’s Salmond insists that Scotland could join EU February 17, 2014 Scottish first minister Alex Salmond insists that no EU member state has indicated it would block a move for a newly independent Scotland to join the political union. That clashes directly with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, who on the BBC's Andrew Marr show said that "it will be extremely difficult to get the approval [...]
Apple’s Jony Ive disappears from executives list February 17, 2014 Design guru Sir Jonathan Paul "Jony" Ive has disappeared from the tech giant's list of executives profiles. But don't worry too soon Apple afficionados – we suspect it's just a bug. The London-born designer has been responsible for the company's design team since 1996, and is widely thought to be one of the best minds [...]
The best response to that bogus 1929 parallels chart yet February 17, 2014 Not every permabear is in hibernation. This "scary parallel" chart, comparing the Dow Jones Industrial Average now and back in 1929 has been floating around since late last year, and it's a really great example of how not to do to charts. It's supposed to encourage the reader to think that another crash is imminent. [...]
Kazakhmys hikes wages after currency plunge February 17, 2014 Miner Kazakhmys has announced that it's hiking staff salaries after Kazakhstan's tenge dropped by 20 per cent last week. The rise is a "managed increase in order to protect workers from some of the imapct of the devaluation." Salaries for operational staff will increase by 10 per cent, with effect from 1 April. That follows [...]
Mark Carney and George Clooney to appear in the same room February 14, 2014 Sorry to bust the hopes of all those thinking they might be one and the same. Bank of England governor Mark Carney and Hollywood silver fox George Clooney are both to appear on The BBC's Andrew Marr Show. Or should that be Mark Clooney and George Carney? We get confused. Many say that Mark Carney [...]
City & Gild: You can’t handle the truth! February 14, 2014 I find a useful shorthand definition for ‘brand’ is the combination of product and reputation – where reputation is past performance and future promise. Which, if you read the press in any given day, should be the cause of sleepless nights for CEOs around the world. Because, in this day and age of social media, [...]
This week’s 4 must-see charts February 14, 2014 The gaping chasm between Mark Carney’s messaging and market expectations of future rate hikes, suspicious Chinese statistics, the sudden devaluation of Kazakhstan's tenge, and Janet Yellen's labour market worries. We bring you some of our favourite analyst’s picks of the most important graphs this week, as well as a choice of our own. Jeremy Cook, [...]
