What the other papers say this morning February 8, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BRUSSELS URGED TO END BIG FOUR DOMINANCE Four international accountancy networks have taken the unusual step of jointly calling for changes to the audit market in Europe and arguing that regulatory intervention is needed to dilute the power of the profession’s biggest operators. BDO International, RSM International and Grant Thornton International, the world’s [...]
Lawyers are bad at business? Think again February 8, 2011 THIS paper recently ran an article warning that for lawyers “doom is nigh” and that they should shape up or ship out. The context was the Legal Services Act and its welcome shake up of the way in which legal services can be delivered. The article had many solid, good messages: in summary, cutting overheads [...]
HISTORY IN reverse February 3, 2011 THE ESSENTIALS of what makes a mechanical watch tick have barely changed in 400 years. Back then, it was the British who were leading the way in the world of cogs, escapements and balance wheels, and the thread of that history can still be found in many watches produced today. We’ve covered that on page [...]
RULE BRITANNIA… with more than a little help from the Swiss February 3, 2011 ONE of the most striking timepieces produced by a watch company in the past year hasn’t been a watch at all, but a mechanical ship’s clock. Nor was it just the advanced technology behind the clock or the £40,000 price-tag that grabbed the attention. It was the fact that every inch of it, down to [...]
Dow and S&P close at a 31-month high February 1, 2011 THE Dow and S&P 500 closed at their highest levels since June 2008 yesterday and looked poised for more gains after strong earnings and signs of a surge in US manufacturing. Data showing improved factory activity and strong results from shipping company UPS, seen as a gauge for economic activity, bolstered the growing impression among [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 27, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES POLICE TARGET “HACKTIVISTS” An online “hacktivist” group that brought down the websites of perceived opponents of WikiLeaks has itself become the target of an international police crackdown. The London Metropolitan Police arrested five men in connection with a recent spate of attacks by Anonymous, behind last month’s revenge assault on the websites of [...]
Christie’s announces record-breaking sales of £3bn January 27, 2011 AUCTION house Christie’s notched up £3.3bn of sales in 2010 – the highest total in its 244-year history – as the art market continued to defy the global slump. It was a year of record-breaking firsts for the auctioneer, with global sales up by 53 per cent. Pablo Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust fetched [...]
PROPERTY NEWS January 27, 2011 HOME MOVERS DESERT CITIES The rising cost of living is pushing city dwellers into suburbia and beyond, according to a house-moving website. Figures published by reallymoving.com show that significantly more people moved away from UK cities than moved to them in the last quarter of 2010. Canterbury and Cardiff were among the most popular areas [...]
European stocks drop as UK and Spain falter January 25, 2011 EUROPEAN shares fell yesterday, as confidence in Britain was shaken by an unexpected drop in fourth-quarter UK growth figures and with Spanish banks down on concerns new capital requirement rules may not be tough enough. Britain’s economy unexpectedly shrank 0.5 per cent in the last three months of last year, the first quarterly drop since [...]
BHP eyed as potash bidder January 18, 2011 MINING giant BHP Billiton might finally get its chance to buy part of a major potash producer after agribusiness Cargill yesterday signed a deal to sell off its majority stake in fertiliser producer Mosaic. Cargill plans to offload its 64 per cent stake in Mosaic, valued at about $24bn (£15bn), to free up cash for the [...]