Jamie Dimon hits out at Donald Trump’s proposed steel tariff and trade war threat March 8, 2018 The boss of JP Morgan Chase has blasted President Donald Trump’s plan to impose a steep tariff on steel and aluminium imports. “We don’t believe in these tariffs,” said Jamie Dimon, adding that the move would open up a “Pandora’s Box” of problems. “There are serious issues around trade. WTO [World Trade Organisation] needs to [...]
Bundesliga faces identity crisis as it debates the abolition of its fan ownership model in favour of increased investment March 1, 2018 For as long as football fans in England have complained about sanitised atmospheres, expensive tickets and disastrous owners, Germany has been held up as the exemplar of how much more supporter-friendly our national game could be. Affordable entry prices, safe standing areas and an ingrained respect for fan culture are all cited as examples of [...]
The nanny statists have been proven wrong – plain cigarette packaging does not work November 30, 2017 Tomorrow will mark the fifth anniversary of the introduction of plain packaging of tobacco in Australia. But don’t expect much in the way of celebrations. In the first 12 months of the branding ban, the number of cigarettes sold in Australia rose for the first time in years, and smoking rates proceeded to flatline for [...]
London living wage to rise faster than inflation to break through £10 per hour for first time November 6, 2017 Thousands of Londoners will enjoy a pay rise today with the London living wage to rise above £10 per hour for the first time. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan will today announce the rise from £9.75 to £10.20 per hour. The independently-calculated living wage aims to set a value based on what people need to [...]
From food and hotels, to where to find the best jenever, here’s our guide to the perfect long weekend in Antwerp August 18, 2017 Antwerp is the largest city in Flanders and a cultural Pandora’s box. It’s home to the largest diamond district in the world, whose official language of trade was Yiddish until the 1930s. It is also in this city that the printing trade was invented, and where artist Sir Peter Paul Rubens lived and worked for [...]
French presidential elections 2017: Apres Emmanuel Macron, le deluge: This is the European elites’ last chance to avert disaster May 2, 2017 You have to hand it to Louis XV of France. He may have been a mediocrity, but at least as a political risk analyst he knew the price of continual policy failure. A lowlight of his long, stagnant reign (1715-1774) was the Battle of Rossbach in 1757, where Frederick the Great of Prussia rang strategic [...]
Spain over Gibraltar, Argentina over the Falklands: Who will be next to stake a claim in Brexit? April 13, 2017 With Article 50 now triggered, both the UK and the EU are drawing up their opening red lines for the Brexit negotiations. The UK has said that it is ready to walk away from the talks with no deal and base future trade relations with the EU on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. There is [...]
Why markets are so calm about the coming triggering of Article 50 March 13, 2017 Brexit is back and this time it looks for real. The UK government’s decision to trigger Article 50 imminently means the start of official negotiations with the European Union on the exit plan. But while financial markets remain cautious, the tension seems to be less as compared to the 23 June referendum vote. There are [...]
Leaving the EU without a deal would bring significant tariff and regulatory barriers to trade, the CBI is set to warn at Mansion House March 2, 2017 The CBI has warned that leaving the EU without a deal and reverting to World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules would open a pandora’s box of economic consequences, hurting firms on both sides of the Channel. In a speech this evening to the Lord Mayor’s business and investment dinner at Mansion House, CBI president, Paul Drechsler, [...]
Britain is an oasis of calm amid Europe’s political chaos February 24, 2017 In a fit of pique at the Brexit vote, the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told MEPs last July that Britain had “collapsed – politically, economically, monetarily and constitutionally”. Embarrassingly for him, events have proven otherwise, with the UK posting the strongest growth in the G7 in the final quarter of 2016, the Bank of England still [...]