EUROPE GETS ANOTHER SCROOGE: OSBORNE NOW JOINED BY MERKEL December 20, 2010 LAST time The Capitalist reported on the activities of Evolution Securities’ head of fixed income Gary Jenkins, he was fantasising about taking over ratings agencies and hiring Natalie Portman as his PA. He has been putting his wild imagination to other productive uses recently, it seems, churning out a re-imagining of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas [...]
Fiat in crucial week of Italian union talks December 20, 2010 ITALIAN carmaker Fiat has entered a crucial week of talks over the future of its historic Mirafiori plant ahead of a self-imposed Christmas deadline to decide whether to stick to planned investments. Fiat unveiled a plan at the end of November to invest more than €1bn (£840m) in its Turin Mirafiori plant to build top-range [...]
Flights and commuters hit by snow December 19, 2010 SNOW storms and intense frost risk causing commuter chaos today, train operators and airports warned last night. Holidays have also been ruined at the busiest time of year, after Heathrow abandoned all of yesterday’s flights. Flight delays are expected throughout the week, as problems build up. Around half a million passengers are thought to have [...]
Emerging markets can give us all Christmas cheer December 19, 2010 WITH temperatures dropping to -15C and snow making it impossible to get to shops to fill those all important stockings, it’s hard to partake in this year’s Christmas cheer. It’s even harder to be jolly after a year that promised the beginnings of great things, which never came. But hope is the mantra for the [...]
SMELLING OF ROSES IN CAMERON’S NEW COURT December 19, 2010 AND so it came to pass. Outgoing Marks & Spencer chief Stuart Rose has wasted little time in finding another gig for himself: he’s been offered a job working on David Cameron’s “happiness index”, a headline-grabbing little initiative being led by the Office for National Statistics to monitor our “national wellbeing” as a supplement to [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK December 19, 2010 AN unruly handful of advertising sales executives made a merry time of their recent Christmas party in Chamberlain’s restaurant in Leadenhall Market. The drinks bill was stopped at a generous £2,000 for the group (though they kept on undeterred), but our revellers were well-lubricated before they even began on the downstairs bar, having glugged their way [...]
Christmas cheer to lift the markets December 19, 2010 TRADING is expected to be range-bound on European stock markets on the open today, with a mild bias to the upside as we begin a holiday-shortened week. GFT is quoting the FTSE 100 index to open up six points from Friday’s close, at a level of 5,877. The German DAX 40 is expected to open [...]
Behind the scenes at the house of KRUG December 19, 2010 KRUG, the grand old Champagne house, has been feeling a little unloved of late. Revered across the world as a wine that’s emblematic and long-lasting, it is perhaps perceived as a Champagne to be bought, sold and stored, rather than drunk in celebration. This was not always so, and Krug wants to have fun again. [...]
Grant is sure West Ham will emulate Baggies and stay up December 19, 2010 WEST HAM manager Avram Grant believes his side will re-write the record books by becoming only the second team in Premier League history to beat relegation despite being bottom on Christmas Day. Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Blackburn at Ewood Park ensured the Hammers will have the unwanted distinction of propping up the table next Saturday, two points [...]
Grant optimistic West Ham’s luck will change December 16, 2010 UNDER-FIRE West Ham manager Avram Grant is confident his players will collect enough points over the Christmas schedule to keep him in a job beyond the festive period. With the Hammers in danger of being cut adrift at the bottom of the Premier League it is understood that Grant has been given three games to save [...]