Any Other Business – 30/08 August 29, 2013 City workers are finding themselves lured to work for firms with unusual office perks, such as in-house bowling lanes, bars and slides, according to a survey by City recruitment firm Empiric. The number one attraction for potential employees is a roof terrace, closely followed by dedicated beanbag areas. But are there any flash offices in [...]
Greek finance minister starts quoting Lenin and attacking speculators August 29, 2013 Greek finance minister Yannis Stournaras has started to quote Russian communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin's insights in discussing matters of policy. Yannis Stournaras Yannis Stournaras “Who does not want us to save ourselves? All the speculators in this world. All those who are shorting the euro and the bonds of eurozone countries,” Stournaras said. “Also, we [...]
US jobless claims just beat expectations August 29, 2013 US jobless claims have fallen by 6,000 this week, to 331,000 from 337,000 (revised from 336,000). Analysts had been hoping for a fall to 332,000. Continuing claims fell to 2.989m from 3.003m (revised from 2.999m). Here economists had forecast a greater improvement to 2.980m.
US GDP revisions see massive boost to 2.5 per cent August 29, 2013 US second quarter GDP has been revised up from 1.7 per cent on an annualised basis to a massive 2.5 per cent. Economists had been forecasting revisions to 2.2 per cent. Positive momentum came from a smaller trade gap and more inventories. The good news is confusing equities investors, who don't want the economy to [...]
Regulator welcomes end of Amazon’s “price parity” rule August 29, 2013 The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has welcomed a decision by online giant Amazon to end its price parity policy (release). Amazon's policy had prohibited sellers on its platform from offering the same goods elsewhere at lower cost. Here's how Amazon describe it: Price parity generally means that the price of each product you list [...]
Co-op bank won’t be healed for at least four years August 29, 2013 Niall Booker, chief executive of the Co-operative Bank has said that the bank will take at least four years to get into decent shape. That's if the bank is able to heal at all. Booker said that the process is going to take some time, pointing at state-backed Lloyds and RBS banks were returning them [...]
Syrian parliament invokes strange Shakespearean allegory in letter to UK MPs August 29, 2013 (Salanio and Salarino encounter Shylock) The Syrian parliament appears to have dropped a reference to Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" in a letter to UK MPs. In the second paragraph of a document obtained by Sky News, Mohammad Jihad al-Laham, speaker of the people's assembly of Syria, writes: We write to you as fathers and [...]
69,000 fall in immigration poses threat to UK’s fiscal position August 29, 2013 The latest quarterly migration statistics report shows a marked decrease in immigration, falling by 69,000 to 497,000 in the year ending December 2012 (release). Study became the most common reason for migrating to UK in 2009, overtaking work related reasons. Just 180,000 arrived for formal study last year, as foreign student numbers continue the decline [...]
ECB’s Nowotny says central banks shouldn’t intervene in currency markets August 29, 2013 The European Central Bank's (ECB) Ewald Nowotny has said that central banks shouldn't intervene in foreign exchange markets, apart from the Swiss. Apparently the Swiss interventions were justified and exceptional. Nowotny said that liquidity from the ECB can only be provided to already solvent banks. This is likely to allay fears that taxpayers will have [...]
Pre-election German unemployment sees surprise jump August 29, 2013 German unemployment has risen by 7,000 in August, despite economist estimates of a 5,000 drop. That sees the unemployment rate unchanged at 6.8 per cent. Last month German unemployment saw its second consecutive reduction as it fell by 7,000. This is the last Germans jobs number we'll see before the coming election. Christian Schulz, senior [...]
