Alexis Tsipras defiant despite growing anger on talks March 18, 2015 Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras sent a strong anti-austerity message to the country’s parliament yesterday. However, in a blow to Syriza’s solidarity, the party’s chief economist Yiannis Milios left his post. “People have asked us to put an end to austerity and bailout agreements, to begin the process of reclaiming the dignity of the nation,” [...]
Vaping bars, e-commerce hubs and charity shops on the rise in the Great British high street as pawnbrokers, video libraries and clothing shops decline March 16, 2015 Our online shopping habits – and the rise of e-smoking – are changing the face of the Great British high street. In the last year, huge numbers of mobile phone shops, pawnbroker and cheque cashing businesses, clothes stores, travel agents and recruitment agencies have closed down up and down the country. In their place vaping [...]
Horner: Cap engine costs or risk further F1 team departures March 3, 2015 FORMULA One must agree measures to reduce the cost of engines if it is to head off the threat of further teams falling into financial difficulty, according to Red Bull principal Christian Horner. The insolvencies of Marussia and Caterham blighted the end of last season, while monetary turmoil is also casting a shadow over the [...]
Valley of death: How we can close Britain’s dire SME funding gap March 2, 2015 George Osborne should be satisfied with progress in driving forward the British economy, which the OECD applauded last week for its outperformance against other Western countries and its textbook economic reforms. As part of its package of initiatives to ensure momentum is maintained and growth accelerates, the UK government recently announced a new Help to [...]
Wasps: from the brink of extinction to biggest in Europe March 2, 2015 Exclusive: rugby’s sleeping giants may have struck gold but want to keep the salary cap, their new chief excutive ANYONE in rugby who predicted, during the bleakest moments of Wasps’ flirtation with insolvency in 2012, that the club were set to be transformed into the biggest earners in the European game would have been suspected [...]
Capital Markets Union: Europe’s bid to reboot lending to businesses February 18, 2015 Creating large-scale, US-style capital markets in the EU could boost lending to businesses by hundreds of billions of euros, providing a vital boost to its struggling economies, European Commissioner Lord Hill said yesterday. The vast majority of small firms in the EU rely on bank lending for finance, a dependency which became a serious weakness [...]
Europe unlikely to pull plug on Greece’s banks February 17, 2015 The European Central Bank (ECB) is unlikely to end emergency lending to Greek banks today despite a standoff between Europe and Athens. Only last week, the ECB extended the cap on emergency funding (ELA) to Greece by €5bn (£3.7bn) to €65bn. “There is no sudden end of ELA expected this week,” a person familiar with the [...]
Q and A: A struggling Eurozone state, its debt, and its banking system February 17, 2015 Q What will happen if Greece and its creditors are unable to reach an agreement? A Since 2010, Greece has been on a bailout programme which has allowed its government to borrow €125.3bn (£93bn) at cheap interest rates, so long as it went through with reforms and austerity measures. More money will be available to [...]
Birmingham owners call in the receivers amid internal dispute February 17, 2015 BIRMINGHAM City chiefs have moved to appease fears for the future of the Championship club after their parent company Birmingham International Holdings Limited was placed into receivership yesterday. The Blues said they wanted “to reassure supporters and staff most emphatically that no winding up petition has been filed against the company (BIHL) and that it [...]
Greece banks on 11th hour Eurozone deal February 16, 2015 Greece’s maverick finance minister Yanis Varoufakis remains adamant a deal with creditors will be struck on the country’s finances today despite farcical negotiations last week ending without even an agreement on a joint statement. “Our resolute stance on totally logical matters will, in the final analysis, lead to a mutually beneficial convergence, even at the [...]