WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 14, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES CAR LOANS SPEED UP AT CLOSE BROTHERS Close Brothers has reported strong growth at its banking arm in the six months to 31 January, but profits were held back by its securities and asset management divisions. Profits at the banking division have grown since the start of the financial crisis, as it expanded [...]
Doing game right – a stone’s throw from Cape Town March 11, 2012 After hours of anticipation, I finally caught sight of it – right in front of our jeep. Romantically backlit by the pinkening sky, a tall G&T with glinting ice cubes and a slice of lemon. Sundowners on safari. Best idea ever. We’d arrived in Cape Town five days ago for a little city before our [...]
Teaching machines to think March 7, 2012 At this moment, your brain is being bombarded with data. Not just from the conventional five senses, but with information about your balance, hunger, the positions of your limbs and the urgency of your next bowel movement. To cope with this assault, the brain must be ruthless in its compression. For instance, light signals are [...]
The tax avoidance rule that favours cronyism March 6, 2012 WHAT may you do without being punished by the state? With 25,000 pages of new legislation every year, and many laws expressed in hopelessly vague language, no one can be sure. But there is a more straightforward reason we cannot know what will land us in trouble. The authorities might punish us even though we [...]
Fixing rates is a safer option March 4, 2012 ALONG with discussing our regularly inclement climate, house prices and mortgages are a national obsession of the British. However, according to the latest research from unbiased.co.uk, there is room to take the level of interest in the interest we pay on our mortgages up another notch. Unbiased.co.uk has recently found that only 49 per cent [...]
No stopping United at Spurs on Sunday March 1, 2012 FOOTBALL TRADER BEN CLEMINSON BRINGS YOU THE BEST OF THIS WEEKEND’S FOOTBALL BETS TOTTENHAM vs MANCHESTER UNITED SUNDAY – 4.10PM SKY SPORTS AFTER the destruction derby against Arsenal, Tottenham must pick themselves up off the floor pretty sharpish – or else face the prospect of undoing much of the good work that has taken them [...]
Which asset is the true safe haven? GOLD OR SHARES February 26, 2012 TOM WINNIFRITH WE ARE entering an inflationary environment. This is the 1970s all over again. Across the globe governments are relaxing monetary policy. In China and India this is an attempt to keep their economies growing rapidly. In the West it is a desperate attempt to breathe life into economies which face structural issues no-one [...]
Meaningless numbers hinder meaningful debate over pay February 20, 2012 SOME media organisations are likely to carry a headline along the lines of this today: “City Fat Cats Award Themselves 10pc Pay Rise”. A press release sent out by Incomes Data Services (IDS) does indeed claim that pay increases for FTSE 100 non-executive directors averaged 10 per cent last year. Closer inspection proves the claim [...]
SAS AUTHOR FIXES CITY ROLES FOR MILITARY February 20, 2012 THRILLER writer Andy McNab is juggling more than one deadline. When the former SAS hardman is not working on his latest novel – a Channel Tunnel thriller starring his new character Tom Buckingham – McNab is fixing jobs in the City for service leavers as a director of military recruitment agency ForceSelect. McNab, who has [...]
Black Cats to taste victory with second bite of cherry February 16, 2012 SUNDERLAND vs ARSENAL TOMORROW – 5.15PM ITV 1 HAVING watched Arsenal’s disastrous trip to the San Siro on Wednesday, Sunderland might be licking their lips in anticipation of progressing to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. Arsenal were abject against AC Milan in their midweek Champions League clash, the 4-0 result becoming Arsene Wenger’s worst [...]