Budget 2015: It’s George Osborne’s narrative that counts, not the details March 17, 2015 All eyes will be on George Osborne’s Budget today. An immense amount of media attention and serious commentary will be devoted to it. But do Budgets really matter? How much difference would it make if successive chancellors simply did nothing, apart from indexing various allowances and benefits in line with inflation? From time immemorial, British [...]
Why Engawa is an unusually well thought-out restaurant March 17, 2015 In Japan, the fax machine is still king of the office. While the western hemisphere abandoned it at the first whiff of email, the Japanese persevered, appreciating the personal touch that comes from a hand-written note, even if that note has been broken down into a series of blips and hisses and reassembled somewhere far [...]
Wall St rallies as Fed rate hike jitters ease – New York Report March 16, 2015 US STOCKS rallied yesterday as the greenback eased back from its recent peak and worries eased about the timing of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 228.11 points, or 1.29 per cent, to 17,977.42, the S&P 500 gained 27.79 points, or 1.35 per cent, to 2,081.19 and the Nasdaq [...]
Dollar surge: Just how much stronger will the currency get? March 16, 2015 The US Fed meeting this week will have big implications Yesterday saw some respite for those worrying about a surging dollar, as the euro rose just under 1 per cent to the $1.05 mark. But this did little to change the wider picture. Partly driven by divergent monetary policy paths in the US and the [...]
Sweden’s deputy governor Per Jansson to Nobel laureate Paul Krugman: You don’t know what you’re talking about March 16, 2015 Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has got it wrong when it comes to Sweden's fiscal policy, according to the deputy governor of the country's central bank. The influential economist last year compared the country's state to that of Japan, claiming “sadomonetarists” had turned the “rock star of the recovery” into a country plagued by rising [...]
US markets in a panic about Fed rate hike – The week ahead on Wall St March 16, 2015 US STOCK markets are in the midst of a “patient panic” ahead of Wednesday’s Federal Reserve statement, when many investors expect a change in the Fed’s language that would send the clearest signal yet that a rate hike is coming soon. The S&P 500 has fallen 2.6 per cent since February’s stronger-than-expected jobs report a [...]
Antibiotics not finger-licking good for KFC as McDonald’s and Costco vow to end sale of drug-raised chickens March 12, 2015 KFC is likely to come under pressure from consumer and environmental groups to change how its poultry are raised after McDonald’s said it would no longer sell chicken raised with human antibiotics. McDonald’s announced last week it will phase out chicken raised with antibiotics for human health over two years to allay concern that use [...]
Got $63m to spare? The most expensive New York City townhouse ever March 12, 2015 Feeling flush? Got $63m to spare? Then you could be the proud owner of the most expensive townhouse ever to go on sale in Manhattan. You do get rather a lot for your money – the six storey, 32ft-wide limestone mansion spans 17,850 sqft, including 10 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms and 2,300sqft of outside space. [...]
Santander and Deutsche fail US Fed stress tests March 11, 2015 TWO EUROPEAN banks have failed the Federal Reserve’s stress tests. The US central bank objected to the capital plans of the US operations of both Deutsche Bank and Santander. The Fed said its objections were made “on qualitative concerns” rather than quantitative. All the large US banks passed the tests, which were introduced in 2009. [...]
Backing the USA: Dollar climbs as investors buy into recovery March 11, 2015 Amid much talk of a US rate hike, Chris Papadopoullos asks if it will happen as quickly as some think The Federal Reserve has a way with words. Last year, it prompted mass market confusion by saying it would wait for a “considerable time” before hiking interest rates. In December, it ditched the term and [...]