This mystery Guardian advert is the best thing to happen to dogecoin February 7, 2014 An unexplained advert in today's Guardian financial pages has got Twitter into a stir. The newspaper has given a quarter page to the doge meme, a joke that has gained huge popularity in recent months since its inception in 2010. Featuring a shiba inu and some nonsensical phrases "pls red," "much 4mal", "so print", and [...]
Manufacturing and industrial production miss estimates February 7, 2014 A dent to the UK picture this morning. Industrial production grew by just 0.4 per cent in December on a seasonally adjusted basis, and manufacturing by 0.3 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics. Analysts had been expecting growth of 0.6 per cent across both. This month's release should see a small knock [...]
Google puts pressure on Sochi games with anti-discrimination logo February 7, 2014 Search giant Google has joined the ranks of those hitting out at Russia's dire record on civil liberties. Russian rules against "gay propaganda" have been widely critiscised for promoting hatred against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender groups. Google's move to change its homepage logo follows comments from US Olympic team sponsor AT&T, who made clear [...]
Do voters want Labour to bring back Brown? February 6, 2014 While the 2015 election is still months away, party insiders may want to take note of a recent poll by Ipsos MORI, which charts satisfaction with their leaders among the electorate. It’s a well-known fact that David Cameron consistently polls higher than his opposite number Ed Miliband when it comes to the ratings, but the [...]
Statoil expected to cut spending and output February 6, 2014 Norway’s Statoil will be the latest of the energy giants to show its cards tomorrow, as it unveils its fourth-quarter results and a strategy update. Statoil’s rivals – Shell, BG Group and BP – have failed to ignite the market with their results, as weak oil prices, low US gas prices and poor refining margins [...]
UK pension funds – behind the curve February 6, 2014 A fascinating graphic from Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s new UK pension report. It shows how much FTSE 350 UK pension schemes allocate to fixed income assets compared to their funding levels – and what it reveals offers a troubling insight into the management of UK schemes. As funding levels rise, the general idea behind pension [...]
Draghi’s good kind of deflation February 6, 2014 Setting monetary policy for the whole Eurozone was never going to be easy – one interest rate for all the economies from Germany to Greece is always going to leave plenty of people unhappy. European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi today tried to weigh up the balance between suffering in the periphery and recovery in [...]
London’s housing shortage is cramming young families into shared homes February 6, 2014 The number of families living in shared houses ballooned by 70 per cent in the decade up to the last census, as typically young families are increasingly locked out of a the UK’s harsh housing market. The Office for National Statistics has broken down some census data on the number of concealed families in England [...]
ABP establishes global headquarters in Newham February 6, 2014 The bosses of Advanced Business Park, the Chinese developer that wants to overhaul London’s Royal Albert Docks, unpacked their bags and moved into Newham today after a striking a deal to open new global headquarters there. At a formal signing ceremony this morning between ABP Chairman Xu Weiping and Mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales [...]
Carney tightens grammar at Bank of England February 6, 2014 Mark Carney unexpectedly tightened up the Bank of England’s grammar in today’s interest rate announcement. The monetary policy committee’s statement on interest rates and quantitative easing was suddenly flipped into reverse. Today’s statement said the Bank will “maintain the stock of purchased assets” – whereas last month the MPC decided to “maintain the stock of [...]
