Big guns fire their fury
29 Jan 2010 [0 Comments | 377 views]
Well, it is Davos, so it should come as no surprise, but yesterday and Wednesday were days of extreme activity. Greece is in trouble. Is this the beginning of the great sovereign debt crisis we have been warned to expect? No wonder gold is riding so high. But not so fast – George Soros reckons [...]
Apple wonder machine biggest threat to traditional book industry
29 Jan 2010 [0 Comments | 288 views]
Every year the most powerful man in American makes his big speech. It happened again on Wednesday, and the media flocked to hear his words. The world once again tuned in. “Yes we can,” he said, or at least he uttered words to that effect. That’s right, Steve Jobs was revealing another world changing product [...]
Recession is over – but only just
26 Jan 2010 [0 Comments | 174 views]
The recession is over, but only just. Well, that’s what the first stab at officially estimating GDP in the final quarter of last year says. Alas, the growth rate was a mere 0.1 per cent, compared to a consensus expectation of 0.4 per cent. Earlier in the week, Howard Archer at IHS Global Insight, said: [...]
Apple profits surge again as Microsoft comes within sights
26 Jan 2010 [0 Comments | 276 views]
Well, you can run out of superlatives eventually. Apple has done it again. For the second quarter in a row it has enjoyed its highest profits ever. Sales in its Q1 hit $15.7 billion, 32 per cent up on the same quarter a year ago, and profits surged 50 per cent on last year to [...]
Do we really need growth?
26 Jan 2010 [0 Comments | 403 views]
The UK left recession in the final quarter of last year. Should we all go out and celebrate? Of course, some economists argue that it will be a hard climb back, and it will be years before the economy is back to where it was. Others say that in order for the UK to repay [...]
Jobs: flexibility has changed the rules
25 Jan 2010 [0 Comments | 341 views]
From a jobs point of view this has been a funny recession. Not funny haha, of course, losing your job is never funny; but funny peculiar. Whichever way you look at it, job loses have been less than we were expecting. A lot less. Now a report from The Chartered Institute of Personnel has thrown [...]
Obama hits bankers, but is he right?
25 Jan 2010 [1 Comment | 311 views]
The great and the good of the banking world will descend on London today. Under discussion will be no less a topic than how do we stop it all from happening again. Meanwhile, in the US, Barack Obama has already laid down his plan for making the banks behave in future. So is the most [...]
Investors give UK thumbs down as US enjoys best quarter in four years
25 Jan 2010 [1 Comment | 376 views]
This is the week we will know. The first official estimates of GDP for the final quarter of 2009 will be published both here, in the UK, and in the US in the next few days. For the UK it seems the recession surely ended, but in the US something far more interesting may have [...]
Are Apple and Microsoft siding together against Google?
21 Jan 2010 [0 Comments | 283 views]
In the world of geeks, it would be akin to Yoda and Darth Vader joining forces. Now there is this rumour going around that Microsoft and Apple are in talks over the possibility that Apple will use Microsoft’s rival product to Google, Bing, as the default search engine for the iPhone. According to Bloomberg “A [...]
Why Sudoku explains what’s wrong with the economy
21 Jan 2010 [0 Comments | 422 views]
The world it seems is like a game of sudoku. You known how in the numbers puzzle there has to be a different number in each row. Well, Mervyn King has invented his own version. It looks like this: Okay, it is not exactly Sudoku. Maybe Mervyn had hours of fun putting the table together, [...]
