How business can talk about Europe without getting its hands burnt January 6, 2016 It's easy to see why business voices might try to steer clear of the EU referendum debate that looks set to dominate the politics of 2016. Getting involved in such an emotional, partisan and polarised campaign carries more than its fair share of risks. No sensible executive wants to get into a political argument if [...]
Could the intensifying spat between Saudi Arabia and Iran erase recent falls in the oil price? January 6, 2016 Alastair McCaig, market analyst at IG, says Yes. Disagreements between Saudi Arabia and Iran are not unusual, and this latest scuffle has also drawn many of the other Opec nations into the fray. Considering the pressure that many of these nations have been under, with falling revenue streams due to the subdued price of oil, this [...]
New Year’s Resolutions for the world’s biggest economies January 5, 2016 Here we are – the start of a New Year and 365 fresh new pages to write. These are exciting times for most of us, but I bet in the first few days of 2016 there are already those suffering from pangs of guilt. Yes I’m talking about those New Year’s resolutions: binary promises which [...]
Business is in denial about the true likelihood of Brexit January 5, 2016 What are the economic implications of Brexit? Pro and anti-EU camps have been trading statistics for years about the number of jobs or level of exports linked to EU membership. It is a theoretical debate but, if Britain does vote to leave the EU, it will become very real. Most recent opinion polls have showed [...]
A vicious circle of state intervention is taking Britain’s energy markets back to the 1970s January 5, 2016 Whether you are a green activist or a poverty campaigner, energy policy under the Thatcher-Major-Blair governments was a striking success. Between 1990 and 1999, prices for domestic consumers fell by 26 per cent and the fall for industrial consumers was even greater. Energy-related greenhouse gas emissions per unit of GDP fell by 45 per cent [...]
Beware mayoral wannabes pledging a Tube fare freeze: The numbers don’t stack up January 5, 2016 While most resolutions – especially those involving regular gym attendance – do not last beyond January, there is one New Year tradition that is guaranteed to be with us for the whole year: Transport for London’s annual fare increase. Londoners will be familiar with the routine. Sometime between singing Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s [...]
As China fears spark a global market rout, is the country the greatest risk to the world economy in 2016? January 5, 2016 Rebecca O’Keeffe, head of investment at Interactive Investor, says Yes. You only have to look at the reaction to yesterday’s disappointing data and subsequent global stock market rout to appreciate just how important China has become to international investors. While the US economy is still much larger, relative growth rates mean that China is actually [...]
The biggest marketing trends for 2016 according to the industry’s leading figures January 4, 2016 MESSAGING WILL BECOME INCREASINGLY PERSONALISED – Matthew Heath, chairman and chief strategy officer at Lida. Messaging will become more and more personalised. Our ability to target consumers in segments of tens or hundreds of thousands, right down to the individual, has been something marketers have long talked about. But the right technology hasn't been available. Now, [...]
You’re never too old to become an entrepreneur January 4, 2016 The most high-profile entrepreneurs of the moment are fairly young and have achieved serious business success very early: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Theranos chief executive Elizabeth Holmes, and David Karp, founder and chief executive of Tumblr, to name but three. But that doesn’t mean the dream is dead for the rest of us. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s [...]
SME health check: What 2016 holds for UK firms January 4, 2016 The past year has seen the continuation of steady UK growth alongside a degree of political stability after the re-election of the Conservative Party with a majority in May. The result is that business confidence in general is positive. But what of SMEs in particular? And what could 2016 bring? First, we’ve seen a huge [...]
