Sarkozy calls for Tobin tax
26 Jan 2011 [1 Comment | 30 views]
Nicholas Sarkozy’s rise to power seems to have reached a new peak, for now our Nick is the most powerful man in the world – or sort of, anyway. He is the chairman of the G20. And he has a cunning plan to curb the power of banks. Nearly headless Nick Sarkozy wants to see [...]
Scientists give food warning
26 Jan 2011 [1 Comment | 10 views]
A new report compiled by taking the views of 400 people apparently in the know and from across the world, should be enough to scare the willies out of you. The report is called The Future of Food and Farming, and was put together by the Government Office for Science in London. It pretty much [...]
Money illusion, myths, inflation and interest rates
24 Jan 2011 [0 Comments | 24 views]
The pound has been creeping up. Talk that interest rates will soon be rising is hitting a crescendo. They are connected, but the real danger right now lies with an illusion about money. Back in October there were 1.13 euros to the pound. Over the last few day the exchange rate has been rotating around [...]
UK retail sales tumble
24 Jan 2011 [0 Comments | 5 views]
It was a bad, bad month for retail land in December. Sales at all retailers fell 0.8 per cent in December on the month before, and annual growth was a big fat nothing – or zero. Poor sales of fuel helped to distort the picture. It is not hard to see why. After all, when [...]
Apple and Google profits come in at almost four times profits at Goldman Sachs
24 Jan 2011 [0 Comments | 21 views]
Time was when dotcoms sold vapourware, and enjoyed enormous valuations based on naive hope. They didn’t make money, they just sold a dream built on foundations of sand. Banks, on the other hand, were the definition of solid. That’s all quite ironic, for these days banks seem to be the ones selling vapourware, and it [...]
UK jobs market, the race heads down
20 Jan 2011 [0 Comments | 32 views]
As you probably know, the UK jobs market is in something of a race at the moment. The public sector is losing jobs, the private sector is putting jobs on. The fortunes of the UK jobs market this year will depend on which of the two will be the greater. The latest data from the [...]
Is Steve Jobs the core at Apple
20 Jan 2011 [0 Comments | 139 views]
One assumes you didn’t miss the latest results from Apple. To be honest, it is getting hard to keep track. Every year the company seems to set a new record, and we all know Apple’s growth has been extraordinary, but after a while you just get bored with using words like remarkable and stunning. Revenue [...]
House prices: has the pendulum switched?
18 Jan 2011 [1 Comment | 307 views]
Something quite significant in the UK housing market may have happened in December. For the first time since December 2009, it appears new enquiries, that’s people coming in to estate agents and expressing an interest in buying, rose at a faster rate than new instructions, or so says the latest report from the Royal Institution [...]
Globalisation: How can the UK compete?
18 Jan 2011 [1 Comment | 290 views]
We are taking a sideways look at the economy today. China is rising, or is that risen? India is following in its wake. By 2050, PwC reckons the total GDP of the so-called E7, that’s Brazil, Russia, India, China, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey, will be half as much again greater than the total GDP of [...]
Inflation sees its biggest monthly increase in 8 years
18 Jan 2011 [0 Comments | 111 views]
CPI annual inflation – that’s the version of inflation the Bank of England is supposed to target and maintain at around 2 per cent, hit 3.7 per cent in December, up from 3.3 per cent in November. RPI annual inflation was 4.8 per cent, up from 4.7 per cent in November. Is it time for [...]
