The Exeter incinerator plant July 4, 2011 Q.WHERE DOES THE WASTE COME FROM? A.The plant will collect residual household rubbish, which is left over after recycling has taken place in the Exeter and East Devon area. Q.HOW IS THE RUBBISH PROCESSED? A.The waste goes into a bunker where it is then fed into a combustion chamber. An oscillating kiln, heated at 850 [...]
AT HALF-TIME GOLD NEEDS A PEP TALK July 4, 2011 THE first half of the year came to a close last Thursday. Events in the final few days of June helped to lift equity markets and temper earlier losses. The FTSE 100 ended the month virtually unchanged, while the Dax finished in positive territory rallying over 5 per cent from its low-point. In the US, [...]
The man with a passion for promoting maths June 28, 2011 IT might not be the most fashionable cause in the world, but Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI) is a charity with a proven track record. When Charlie Stripp, its chief executive, quit his teaching job in 2000 to join the charity, the death-knell had already been sounded for A-Level further maths. In 2003 just 5039 English [...]
THE TIPSTER June 28, 2011 STERLING fell to five month lows against the dollar yesterday, as fresh concerns over the European debt crisis saw investors flock to traditional safe-haven currencies, such as the greenback and Swiss franc. Spreadex offers $1.5921-$1.5924 sterling-dollar. Is the par(i)ty coming to an end for the Aussie dollar? After a meteoric rise fuelled largely by massive [...]
Texan factory activity slows June 27, 2011 Manufacturing activity has slowed down dramatically in Texas this month, official data showed yesterday. The Dallas Fed index slumped to 5.6 from 12.7, reflecting a marked slowdown in growth.
FED OFFICIAL: TAX SYSTEM ENCOURAGES DEBT June 27, 2011 THE US tax code is guilty of incentivising excessive mortgage borrowing for individuals and debt leverage at corporations, senior Federal Reserve official Narayana Kocherlakota said yesterday. The sudden drop in US land prices may not have set off the recent financial crisis had households and business not been weighed down with so much debt, he [...]
Fields of gold: How to harvest profits from market intervention June 27, 2011 GOLD has been in the headlines since the start of the year. With the Federal Reserve’s second round of quantitative easing (QE2) in place, gold has acted as the de-facto haven currency. Though attention has been on the seemingly inexorable rise of the yellow metal, commodities have been influenced or even manipulated by the authorities, [...]
Bank stocks pressured by new capital requirements June 26, 2011 BANKING stocks could be under pressure this morning, following news over the weekend from Basel that additional capital requirements of up to 2.5 per cent were agreed to be imposed on those financial institutions deemed too big too fail – or, to use the technical term, Global Systemically Important Banks (GSIBs). GFT quotes two-way prices [...]
Why interest rates won’t be going up June 22, 2011 IF you owe a lot of money to your bank, it’s time to rejoice. There is now almost no chance of interest rates going up this year. The Bank of England’s monetary policy committee voted 7-2 to keep rates on hold; and given the arguments and worries about growth expressed by the majority of the [...]
US growth revised down June 22, 2011 AMERICA’S economy will grow by 2.7 per cent this year, the Federal Reserve announced last night, revising down its previous forecast of 2.9 per cent. Yet despite admitting to a confusingly gloomy economic outlook, chairman Ben Bernanke yet again refused to suggest that the Fed would embark on a controversial third programme of quantitative easing [...]