Two hot new hotels signal a new wave of cool for Miami October 31, 2010 HURRICANE SEASON”. It’s a phrase I’d blithely brushed aside clicking “add to basket” on my Miami flight, and continued to ignore while enthusiastically selecting “convertible” as a rental car. Now, trapped on the bridge to Miami beach, windscreen wipers going like the clappers and palm trees bent straining under the gale force winds, it’s one [...]
Flame and meat on Jamie’s menu October 27, 2010 IF you know where to look, there are still plenty of places in the City where you can have gristly pies, waterlogged vegetables and boiled potatoes smeared with marge for your lunch. However, in the past years the City’s restaurants have changed beyond recognition, with a sprinkling of Michelin stars and one of the country’s [...]
Afternoon tea by Bea is for City folk in the know October 27, 2010 B EA Vo is an excited lady. And well she might be, because this week sees the launch of the second branch of Bea’s of Bloomsbury, the cake shop that has become one of the worst-kept secrets in foodie London. Although the new branch will be located in the biggest new shopping centre in the [...]
While you’re in the City soak up the atmosphere and the history October 27, 2010 FOR centuries St Paul’s, and not the Stock Exchange, was where the City’s activity and bustle reached its highest pitch. A seventeenth century writer wrote of it that “the noyse in it is like that of Bees, a strange humming or buzze, mixt of walking, tongues and feet: It is a kind of still roar [...]
The horror and dread of a work Halloween bash October 27, 2010 DEAR VEXED: As part of a team-bonding initiative, our office is having its own Halloween party on Friday. It’s seen as an important event and has been scheduled for some time. The worst thing is that costumes are mandatory. I loathe Halloween, I hate the idea of wearing a costume and I’m frozen with fear. [...]
It is about time for the dollar to reverse course October 26, 2010 THE US dollar has been the market’s whipping boy for some time now. For the last three months, the world’s reserve currency has persistently fallen against other currencies and most commodities, in a pattern described by one analyst as “everything up/dollar down”. With yields on dollar-denominated assets lower than ever before, lots of traders are [...]
Swiss class indoors, Swiss snow outdoors make an iconic St Moritz hotel October 24, 2010 THE lift doors opened and, there, standing in the grand foyer of St Moritz’s Suvretta House, stood a woman who seemed to epitomise this luxurious Swiss hotel. Tall, elegant and effortlessly chic in her glossy fur coat paired with long, expensive black boots, she oozed European-style opulence. Behind her, the stunning alpine view glinted in [...]
Don’t let your pension shrink due to big fees October 21, 2010 WITH Britain’s traditional pensions model in crisis, more savers are opting to take full control of their pension. The latest data available from the Office for National Statistics shows that assets in self-administered pension funds grew from £620.4bn to £927.7bn between 2002 and 2008 and their total income was £61.6bn last year. This growth has [...]
A Qatari takes on Wall St October 20, 2010 KAPITOIL BY TEDDY WAYNE Duckworth, £8.99 IT’S 1 October, 1999 and Karim, a genius computer progammer from Doha, is landing in New York. He’s been brought to help a company called Schrub Equities protect itself from the Y2K bug – New York’s biggest security concern at the time. The opening of this first novel by [...]
Facebook couldn’t have been British October 18, 2010 IT is simply untrue that Britain doesn’t produce any wealth and job creating entrepreneurs any more. Take some of the stories in today’s City A.M.; they demonstrate that Britain retains a vibrant start-up and growth culture. Hugh Willis, 50, and Mark Poole, 49, who founded BlueBay in 2001, are today each £82m richer after they [...]