RAPID RESPONSES March 11, 2012 Wilful ignorance [Re: Britain’s war on the aspirational classes, Tuesday] I agree with you about taxes. But I recall, in the run-up to the 2010 general election, listening to a radio show where callers claimed that the UK was a low-tax economy, thinking this was a bad thing. More recently we have seen support for [...]
Disaster stalks triumph for Greece as debt deal leaves Eurozone taxpayers at risk March 8, 2012 THE GREEK private sector involvement (PSI) plan, the process under which banks and other bondholders will take losses, last night claimed sufficient take-up for collective action clauses (CAC) to be triggered, which would force all holders of Greek law bonds into the restructuring plan. If CACs are triggered this morning, where does this leave Greece? [...]
Mortgage time-bomb UK’s top threat March 7, 2012 SOME time-bombs can be defused. Not this one. At some point – in a year, in two, or perhaps even in five – the cost of borrowing for consumers will climb back to the sorts of levels we were used to 15 years ago. Complacent borrowers addicted to rock-bottom interest rates – and for whom [...]
It’s not gold but silver that earns first place February 26, 2012 SINCE the 2008 global recession, an increasing number of investors have moved away from the more traditional equities markets and have begun to consider commodities as a promising substitute. More recently, with the Eurozone crisis and various rounds of quantitative easing, interest in alternative investment options has spiked once again. In fact, from 2010 to [...]
Patron saint of retailers says co-ops won’t work for everyone January 29, 2012 RESPONSIBLE Capitalism. Moral Markets. Whatever you call it, the debate raging around executive pay and “predator” business shows no sign of dying down. All political parties have tried to claim the issue as their own, but they have struggled to articulate what a fairer form of capitalism might look like. Enter John Lewis, the patron [...]
With the Eurozone tottering it may be time we signed up for some Norwegian lessons January 15, 2012 NORWAY is indeed a country of good fortune. Post World War II, the quality of living was relatively poor by Western standards, based upon the proceeds of an old-fashioned primary economy. Since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1960s, this nation of only 4.9m has rocketed to fourth in the IMF’s league table, [...]
NEWS IN BRIEF January 15, 2012 CREDIT CARD SPENDING DOWN According to analysis of customer spending data carried out by Santander Credit Cards, the average credit card spend has fallen four per cent over the past 12 months. The data reveals that while the total number of transactions has increased by one per cent over that time period, the value of [...]
20 of the world’s largest donors December 21, 2011 1 BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION US The William H Gates Foundation was created in 1994 to work to improve global health. Created with an original stock gift of $94m (£60.5m), the foundation merged with the Gates Learning Foundation in 2000 to create the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The largest philanthropic organisation in the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 15, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES CVC STRUGGLES WITH TERRIBLE RESULTS IN ASIA When CVC raised a $4.12bn Asian buy-out fund in 2008, Marc St John, its head of investor relations, referred to the private equity group’s record in the region when he said investors “like what they see”. A few years and a financial crisis later, investors are [...]
Three myths that require a rebuttal December 8, 2011 Myth number one: Tesco is becoming larger and larger. Fact: it is (very) gradually losing market share in the UK grocery market, according to Kantar. Its share peaked at 31.2 per cent in December 2007 and is now back at 30.5 per cent, a market share last seen in 2006. When it comes to UK [...]