A big week ahead for Portugal and the Euro January 9, 2011 WILL this be the week that Portugal becomes the latest Eurozone country to call in the EU and the IMF to bail it out? The answer to that question will become clear on Wednesday when Lisbon taps the bond market for the first time in 2011. If last weeks T-Bill auction is anything to go [...]
Price hike Britain January 18, 2011 Fears were growing last night that Britain faces an explosion in the cost of living, with spiralling inflation threatening to erode savings and squeeze households already facing higher taxes. The consumer price index (CPI) shot up in December at the fastest rate since the Office of National Statistics (ONS) began reporting it in 1996, the [...]
Yet again, we are reminded of our extreme frailty March 13, 2011 HUMILITY is the only appropriate response in the face of the horrendous human tragedy, grief and destruction unleashed on Japan. We are fortunate to be living in Britain, a temperate country largely immune from the destruction regularly unleashed by natural forces on the rest of the world. With the death toll mounting towards ever-more horrific [...]
Yet again, we are reminded of our extreme frailty March 13, 2011 HUMILITY is the only appropriate response in the face of the horrendous human tragedy, grief and destruction unleashed on Japan. We are fortunate to be living in Britain, a temperate country largely immune from the destruction regularly unleashed by natural forces on the rest of the world. With the death toll mounting towards ever-more horrific [...]
Lacklustre earnings send Wall St lower January 20, 2011 US stocks fell yesteray as lacklustre tech and materials earnings failed to live up to heightened expectations, threatening to short-circuit a seven-week run. Declines were milder than on Wednesday, when a sharp drop pulled the market off two-year highs. Morgan Stanley posted stronger-than-expected revenue to help the banking sector rise modestly, and rose 4.6 per [...]
UK time bomb as population grows older December 9, 2010 TWICE as many “very old people” (aged 85 and over) are living in Britain compared to 25 years ago, government figures revealed yesterday. And there are now more pensioners than children (under 16), as population ageing takes it toll. Since 1984 the proportion of British people under 16 fell by two per cent, and the [...]
UK time bomb as population grows older December 9, 2010 TWICE as many “very old people” (aged 85 and over) are living in Britain compared to 25 years ago, government figures revealed yesterday. And there are now more pensioners than children (under 16), as population ageing takes it toll. Since 1984 the proportion of British people under 16 fell by two per cent, and the [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 16, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES RBS DIRECTOR TO STEP DOWN FROM BOARD One of the last Royal Bank of Scotland directors to remain on the bank’s board from the days of Sir Fred goodwin is poised to step down from his role. Colin Buchan, 56, a former UBS investment banker who until recently was chairman of RBS’s remuneration [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 16, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES RBS DIRECTOR TO STEP DOWN FROM BOARD One of the last Royal Bank of Scotland directors to remain on the bank’s board from the days of Sir Fred goodwin is poised to step down from his role. Colin Buchan, 56, a former UBS investment banker who until recently was chairman of RBS’s remuneration [...]
Legal eagle: how London’s top law firm retained its grip on the City February 20, 2011 The head of law firm Slaughter and May is two minutes late for his interview with City A.M., for which he immediately apologies. The first thing is surprising; the second is not. The partners in this blueblooded City institution have spent a lifetime doing things correctly. Even among other Magic Circle outfits, this firm manages [...]