Donald Trump is right: The Federal Reserve has created the conditions for another financial crisis March 3, 2016 Following Super Tuesday, it’s time to start taking “the Donald” seriously, as the improbably-coiffed, globally-lampooned businessman now seems nearly certain to win the Republican nomination. Trump’s frequently bizarre outbursts, together with his left-field initiatives in foreign and domestic matters, have led many to disregard any remark he makes. However, and at the risk of losing [...]
New Barclays chief executive Jes Staley gets a frosty reception in the City as investors reject his case for slashing dividends, sending share price down more than 10 per cent March 2, 2016 New Barclays boss Jes Staley received a frosty reception in the City yesterday, as investors rejected his case for slashing dividends, sending the bank’s share price down by more than 10 per cent and wiping £2.3bn off its market value. Investors recoiled when Barclays said it planned on paying a dividend of 3p for this year [...]
London’s housing market is failing the capital’s workers: We can’t make this crisis someone else’s problem March 1, 2016 With house prices a staggering 13 times the average London wage, and rents taking up on average 60 per cent of London tenants' incomes, the prospect of finding an affordable place to live is slipping further out of reach for many of the capital’s four million-strong workforce. As the housing crisis deepens, workers from across the [...]
Researchers have found a way to predict future oil prices February 29, 2016 From its sensitivity to shocks in global supply and demand, to outside factors such as the weather, oil prices are notoriously difficult to predict. After all, hardly anyone foresaw the current rout which has wiped around 70 per cent off the value of crude since the middle of 2014. But companies around the world have been forced to [...]
Centralbankism encounters strong resistance. Why in the light of lacklustre results the faith in central banks is fading away February 25, 2016 The great monetary experiment, as Brendan Brown calls the Fed’s quantitative easing (QE) programme, is under only minimal intellectual pressure in the US, despite modest results. The upswing in the US economy seems robust, in stark contrast with the poor performance of its European disciple the ECB. The Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP) as its first [...]
Fed Reserve Bank of St. Louis: Why oil prices could fall to zero by mid-2019 despite markets predicting $50 per barrel February 25, 2016 One calculation suggests oil prices could fall to zero by mid-2019. Two St. Louis Fed analysts looked at how low oil prices could fall given tumbling inflation expectations, and found it's largely out of whack with market expectations for the black stuff to recover to $50 per barrel in around three years' time. "According to our calculations, oil prices would [...]
How to save when buying or selling property overseas February 25, 2016 Sterling has had a tough start to the year against key major currencies like the dollar and the euro. And there is talk of it weakening further as 2016 progresses.For anybody buying property abroad this is unlikely to be good news. So the question is, can you do anything to protect yourself? Some economic commentators [...]
Why investors are fretting about the bond market: High yield spreads are pricing in 2008 levels of defaults – while some experts say a liquidity squeeze is beginning February 23, 2016 Does the jump in high yield spreads say anything about the global economy? Markets have focused on oil prices as a barometer of health in the global economy and stock markets, but historically high yield spreads over the risk-free rate have been a much better indicator. Spreads have widened considerably lately, and now “the market as [...]
Millennial woes may seem over the top but Generation Y could have a point with their moaning February 23, 2016 Last week, this paper ran a story based on research which found Generation Y (born between the early 80s and the late 2000s) is more like Generation Whiny in the workplace. The research, by Workfront, found bosses perceived so-called millennials as more prone to a moan than Generation X, and bigger babies than the Baby [...]
Is former No 10 tech guru Rohan Silva right that competition authorities should investigate Amazon’s book market dominance? February 23, 2016 Alex Krasodomski-Jones, digital researcher at Demos, says Yes. Amazon’s continuing dominance of the book market is problematic for both industry standards and for anybody who believes in the power of books to challenge and educate us. First, its dominance ensures that its working conditions and management style remain unchallenged. But its dominance costs us too. You [...]