This year’s Nobel economics laureates have made the world a better place October 16, 2019 This year’s Nobel Prize in economics, announced on Monday, was a ray of sunshine amid the prevailing media gloom. The Prize was awarded for the work the new laureates had done on the alleviation of global poverty. This is one reason to be cheerful about it. Another is that Esther Duflo became only the second [...]
London’s creative industries provides £40bn spending boost to economy: new report October 15, 2019 London’s creative industry sector adds £40bn a year to its various supply chains, according to a new report. Previous figures from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport indicated that creative industries boosted London’s economy by £52bn. Read more: Anna at the National Theatre review However, a new report – commissioned by mayor of [...]
England v Australia: Hooper and Pocock can benefit at breakdown with Jerome Garces as referee October 15, 2019 The sign of a good refereeing performance tends to be that they have gone unnoticed throughout the match. But so far at this Rugby World Cup, officials have been in the spotlight more often than organisers would have desired. Referee Jerome Garces and television match official (TMO) Ben Skeen are two figures to have been [...]
Musical shares: Why Merck Mercuriadis believes the old ones are always the best October 14, 2019 Merck Mercuriadis has a party trick. If you tell the veteran music mogul-turned City slicker your favourite band, he’ll name an older band that influenced them. Like a Spotify algorithm, but in real life. Mercuriadis’s encyclopedic music knowledge is hardly surprising. Over his career he has managed artists including Morrissey, Beyonce and Elton John, and [...]
Takeover titan and Blackstone boss Steve Schwarzman talks charity, business and life advice October 14, 2019 Private equity does not have a reputation for giving away money: on the contrary, it is an industry known for its hard-headed obsession with turning a profit though buying companies and selling them on. So it comes as something of a surprise to find that the boss of the world’s biggest private equity company, Steve [...]
It’s up to businesses to make sure no one gets left behind in the digital revolution October 14, 2019 The digitisation of the global economy is transforming the way we communicate, work and live. Today, you can transfer money to the other side of the world in the blink of an eye, pay for a coffee by tapping your phone, and open a bank account in minutes. The startling growth of the UK’s innovative [...]
Mastercard and Visa join Paypal and others in abandoning Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project October 12, 2019 Mastercard, Visa, eBay and Stripe have all pulled out of Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, Libra. It comes a week Paypal announced they were withdrawing from Libra and is a huge blow to the social network’s plans to launch what it envisioned as a global currency. Read more: Paypal become first firm to drop out of Facebook’s [...]
Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One deepens losses days before £3.3bn Hasbro merger vote October 11, 2019 Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One has revealed a £43.9m loss in the first quarter of the year, just days before Hasbro puts a massive takeover offer to a shareholder vote. The media firm posted a £43.9m loss, up from a £6.8m loss this time last year, blaming higher debt and its acquisition of Audio Network. [...]
Taking a stand is easy when it doesn’t cost you anything October 11, 2019 DOWNING Street is busy trying to get FTSE chiefs to sign a letter in support of the government’s Brexit position, whatever it may be. Enthusiasm is apparently in short supply, and who can blame business leaders for steering clear of this polarising topic? In this day and age, publicly backing Boris Johnson will trigger a [...]
Rory walks on with a campaign to spice up the race for London mayor October 11, 2019 Watch out London, your favourite selfie-taking, tie-rejecting, accidental-opium-smoking, politician/rambler is coming to a Tube station near you. Yes, it’s Rory Stewart time once again. For those of us who were mesmerised by the former international development secretary’s short-lived sensation of a campaign to be Tory leader, now we get to enjoy the sequel, after Rory [...]