So-called fiscal cliff could lead to opportunity November 18, 2012 THE 1987 crash. The Y2K bug. The debt ceiling debacle of 2011. All these events, in the end, turned out to be buying opportunities for stocks. So will the fiscal cliff, some investors say as they watch favourite stocks tumble during the political give-and-take happening in Washington. The first round of talks aimed at avoiding [...]
There is room for two on the US’s east coast November 18, 2012 Hopping over a grate steaming with hot air from the metro system below, I stroll past the gleaming plate glass wrapped around the ground floor of the towering skyscrapers of downtown. As I swing open the door of the city’s chicest fashion boutique, the rooftop bar next door breaks through the traffic noise with an [...]
Forex names foxy winner November 15, 2012 YET more awards on Wednesday night, this time dished out at the Grange hotel by St Paul’s as part of the Forex Summit. Jannick Malling, founder of online trading platform Tradable, brought home the bacon with the Most Innovative Financial Company. When asked about a comparison made between him and Steve Jobs, Malling bashfully replied: [...]
Weak Wal-Mart sales weigh on jittery Wall St November 15, 2012 US stocks were little changed yesterday as the prospect of a drawn-out battle over impending tax and spending changes made investors wary of getting into the water, while retailer Wal-Mart tumbled after disappointing sales. The S&P 500 is down nearly two per cent for the week, adding to last week’s selloff and eroding more of [...]
Scandals have made the UK a dangerously low-trust society November 14, 2012 IN his bestselling book Trust, Francis Fukuyama argued that social capital is an essential prerequisite to prosperity. High-trust societies enjoy complex networks of voluntary associations, and this creates a climate conducive to commercial cooperation, entrepreneurship, the building of large companies and international trade. He warned in the 1990s that trust was in decline in the [...]
What the other papers say this morning November 14, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Government to delay welfare reform The government is prepared to delay its flagship welfare reform amid fears the complex changes may need to be more thoroughly tested before being extended to all benefit claimants. Universal credit, under which six benefits will be incorporated into a single payment, lies at the heart of a [...]
Why Metro Bank is flourishing in the low growth banking business November 13, 2012 WHEN we first opened Metro Bank’s doors in 2010, the prevailing response was that we were a little crazy. “How can you expect to drop into London and do something nobody’s done in more than 100 years: create a differentiated new bank model? It can’t be done!” But we knew that the UK banking market [...]
Research in Motion to unveil latest BlackBerry in January November 12, 2012 BLACKBERRY maker Research in Motion (RIM) will unveil the next generation of its smartphones in January, the troubled Canadian company announced yesterday. The BlackBerry 10 (BB10) software, which has been repeatedly delayed by technical problems, will be a radical overhaul of the operating system used on its phones. RIM is pinning its hopes on the [...]
Chrysan: lost in translation? November 12, 2012 RESTAURANT CHRYSAN 1 Snowden Street, EC2A 2DQ Tel: 020 3657 4777 FOOD **** SERVICE **** ATMOSPHERE ** Cost for two people with drinks: £160 A FRIEND of mine has recently taken up learning Japanese. So, last month, I found myself spending a surreal afternoon watching a Japanese detective drama series, Deka Kurokawa Suzuki, which really [...]
Waiting for a special delivery to bring home the goods November 11, 2012 THE Royal Mail’s privatisation has been lost in the post for too long to get your hopes up right now. But if Royal Mail delivers first class half-year results tomorrow, it will pave the way for an initial public offering (IPO) next year. The state postal giant, which employs 159,000 people in the UK, has [...]