How do you solve a problem like PMQs? January 29, 2014 It looks like Ed Miliband’s moderate approach to Prime Minister’s Questions has been chucked firmly out of the window. The Labour leader was on fiery form this lunchtime and chose a more combative style than his previous appearances in the commons, having said he wanted to see a more measured approach to the weekly question [...]
Forget the EM crisis. Fed tapering will leave France without a paddle January 29, 2014 Emerging markets continue to feel the pain of the Federal Reserve’s taper, but trouble could be rapidly approaching for another struggling economy – France. Research by Rabobank, looking at narrowing spreads in the Eurozone periphery, concluded that economic fundamentals are set to be an increasingly important driver of capital markets as the taper progresses. And [...]
Helicopter maker Agusta Westland wins £760m contracts from MoD January 29, 2014 The Ministry of Defence said today that it has awarded two contracts to helicopter maker AgustaWestland worth £760m in total, securing over 1,000 jobs in the UK. A £430m contract will provide maintenance and support for the British Army’s Apache attack helicopter, which is currently used on operations in Afghanistan, for the next five years. [...]
Carney challenge: Canada versus Scotland January 29, 2014 (Image: Canada Dry – Wikipedia, Irn Bru – Flickr) Today Carney donned his well-fitting black suit, fired up the economobile and raced up to Scotland for a breakfast meeting with Alex Salmond and a rather lengthy speech at The George Hotel in Edinburgh, to give his tuppence worth on a currency plan for an independent [...]
Vampire banks versus zombie firms January 29, 2014 RBS is acting like a “vampire,” sucking the cash out of troubled firms as soon as it becomes available, Lawrence Tomlinson told MPs this afternoon. Tomlinson caused a storm last year when he published a report into the treatment of small firms by the bank, arguing it took businesses with strong balance sheets and squeezed [...]
Germany’s Merkel is getting us all worried about the Eurozone again January 29, 2014 Silence is golden, so they say, and this certainly seems to have been the case for the troubled Eurozone in recent times. Since the summer of 2012, when its central bank governor Mario Draghi promised to do “whatever it takes” to save the currency, there has been less paranoia surrounding the bloc. Things have quietened [...]
South Africa’s is the third big central bank to hike rates this week. Here’s why January 29, 2014 South African Reserve Bank chief Gill Marcus has given investors a bit of a shock. After Turkey and India saw rate hikes yesterday, South Africa's policymakers have made a similar call. They've hiked their repo rate by 0.5 percentage points to 5.5 per cent. Markets suspected a hike when Marcus announced big upward revisions to [...]
5 things you didn’t know about new Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe January 29, 2014 Sainsbury's CEO Justin King is leaving the supermarket in July – but what do we know about his replacement and current commercial director, Mike Coupe? 1. A country boy at heart, Coupe was born in Watford in 1960 but was brought up in West Sussex. His mum was a housewife and his dad was an [...]
Tesco and Waitrose set to open Tube shops January 29, 2014 Tesco and Waitrose are opening six click-and-collect points each in the London Underground this year, as part of TfL’s efforts to get more retailers using the Tube. The supermarkets will follow Asda, which is running a six-month trial in carparks near Tube stations, with ambitions to open more outlets. Tesco will launch at station car [...]
Samsung takes on Apple with dedicated Carphone Warehouse stores January 29, 2014 Samsung and Carphone Warehouse have signed an agreement for the high street retailer to convert 60 of its stores across Europe into dedicated Samsung stand-alone stores. Of the 60 stores, that will stock only Samsung products, around 20 will be opened in the UK with the others spread across Ireland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and [...]
