New watchdog: we don’t care if London is competitive or not November 1, 2011 THE NEW regulator charged with protecting consumers should not have to take into account the competitiveness of the City when making decisions, its incoming chief Martin Wheatley said yesterday. Appearing before the influential Treasury Select Committee, Wheatley, who will run the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) when it is created next year, said that the body [...]
Five must-follow tweeters for trading success October 31, 2011 1 @ZEROHEDGE From the mysterious writers who author the Zero Hedge blog, this twitter feed is streets ahead of the competition. It brings news scoops and links to insightful articles that often challenge the consensus. The website has been credited with bringing the controversial practice of flash trading to the public attention in 2009. 2 [...]
GOVERNOR: TIME IS RUNNING OUT October 18, 2011 BRITAIN’S recovery has been knocked off track by the global financial crisis, Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King claimed last night, in a sweeping attack on governments and monetary authorities throughout the world. King hit out at monetary authorities that have fixed currencies, and criticised governments for failing to act quickly enough on the [...]
Why unpaid internships are a good thing – they help the young get a foot in the door October 16, 2011 MY COMPANY is currently looking for an intern (don’t all apply at once). The reason is simple. We have a job that needs doing that we cannot get our clients to pay us for and, in the current climate, we cannot afford to pay an experienced person to do it. The work we want doing [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 11, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES MPS SET TO GRILL TAX OFFICIAL The UK’s top tax official is likely to be questioned by MPs today over leaked documents concerning the settlement of a tax dispute with Goldman Sachs. Dave Hartnett, permanent secretary for tax at Revenue & Customs, shook hands on a settlement last December that apparently waived a [...]
America’s solar scandal is a warning: Bankrupt climate policies boost tax, not jobs October 11, 2011 IN SEPTEMBER 2009, the United States Department of Energy gave a $530m (£339m) loan guarantee to the solar company Solyndra. President Barack Obama said at the plant: “It’s here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way, towards a brighter and more prosperous future.” In September 2011, the company collapsed, the jobs which the Vice [...]
FPC: Eurozone crisis could freeze credit September 28, 2011 THE ECONOMIC threat from the Eurozone crisis yesterday prompted the Bank of England’s new regulatory body to urge banks to boost lending. While praising the banks’ recent record in building up buffers of capital, the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) said that bonuses and dividends should be cut in order to release sufficient credit to businesses. [...]
The European Commission’s plans for a Tobin Tax would threaten the UK’s recovery September 28, 2011 THE call from President Jose Manuel Barroso and the European Commission to set up a European Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) is misguided, not only because it is unlikely to work, but because if it does, it would have a chilling effect on growth and would damage the UK’s competitiveness. It is clear that Europe needs [...]
Brussels wages war on big four September 26, 2011 RADICAL plans to force the UK’s biggest auditing firms to hive off their huge consultancy arms or ban them from cross-selling services to their clients have been tabled by European authorities, it emerged yesterday. The European Commission has set out new draft regulations to drastically curb the UK’s Big Four accountants Ernst & Young, PwC, [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 26, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BP PROPOSES FOURTH PIPELINE ROUTE TO BRING AZERBAIJAN GAS TO EUROPE BP is planning a pipeline stretching 1,300 km across three countries to bring gas from Azerbaijan to Europe. The scheme is a new entrant in the highly charged competition to construct a supply route to the Caspian basin and reduce Europe’s dependence [...]