UK fiscal watchdog: Government finances “increasingly exposed” to global shocks July 6, 2021 The boss of the Government’s fiscal watchdog has warned the UK’s public finances are “increasingly exposed.” The Office for Budget Responsibility boss boss Richard Hughes said that two major crises – the global financial crisis in 2008 and the Covid-19 pandemic – had added 20 per cent each to the UK’s debt to GDP ratio. [...]
Bank of England deputy governor expects return to the office to be “bigger than we anticipate” July 5, 2021 The deputy governor and chief operating officer of the Bank of England told a conference today that she expects the return to the office “might be a bit bigger than we anticipate”. Joanna Place gave the remarks at an event hosted by the Investment Association in which she launched a pilot that will see all [...]
Euro 2020: Football’s coming home, says Goldman Sachs July 5, 2021 Football is probably coming home — at least according to Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs. Analysts at the US bank have predicted that England will end their 55-year run without a major football title by defeating Spain in the Euro 2020 final. “It’s (probably) coming home,” they wrote in a note dated 4 July. “With [...]
Oil prices climb as Opec+ resume talks July 5, 2021 Oil prices climbed on Monday as an impasse among Opec+ over oil output levels extended into a third day. Brent Crude was up 0.17 per cent to trade at $76.32 a barrel, while US WTI added 0.25 per cent to reach $75.35 a barrel. Discussions have broken down due to the United Arab Emirates and [...]
Bank of England to cut staff air travel amid green push July 5, 2021 The Bank of England is considering permanently cutting staff air travel as part of efforts to ramp up its climate change targets and “practise what we preach”. Sarah Breeden, the Bank’s executive director for financial stability and risk and lead on climate change issues, said the Bank was having an “active debate” over how to [...]
Greensill Capital: The financial scandal that just won’t go away July 5, 2021 On Friday, it was announced that Credit Suisse will pay out a further $750m to backers of its Greensill-linked supply chain finance funds. Thus far, the lender has clawed back $6.1bn of the $10bn of its funding supported by collapsed supply chain finance firm Greensill Capital, up $200m on its previous update. The news follows, [...]
One-in-four UK financial services workers want to work from home full-time, says new survey July 5, 2021 Almost one-in-four of the UK’s financial services workforce wants to work at home permanently post-pandemic, according to a new survey from Accenture. The survey found 24 per cent of the country’s 1m financial services workers “would prefer to work entirely from home once a full return to office is possible”, while 69 per cent said [...]
On the prowl for a new global goal for nature: will the UN pounce on “nature positive by 2030”? July 2, 2021 20 years ago I gave a talk to a group of investors about why it was important to think about issues beyond profit in investment decisions. I gave an example of an oil spill. I showed them pictures of environmental damage, of polluted waterways, habitat destruction and oil-soaked birds. My talk bombed – they weren’t [...]
Behind the scenes at the Decanter World Wine Awards July 2, 2021 There you are, browsing bottles and trying to decide what to buy next, when you notice a sticker telling you that this is a “Decanter World Wine Awards Winner”. Well, we all love a winner, but what does that really mean? And should we care? I went behind the scenes at the Decanter Awards to [...]
‘Buoyant’ UK job market had 200,000 new advertisements last week July 2, 2021 Almost 200,000 new UK job advertisements were posted in the last week of June, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). The REC said demand for staff is now “buoyant” across the UK as the country’s post-Covid economic recovery picks up steam. There are now a little more than 1.5m job vacancies across the [...]