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 | 288 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 [...]
The three BPs: British Petroleum, Bolshoi Petroleum and British pensioners
17 Jan 2011 [0 Comments | 359 views]
You have to feel for Vlad Putin. You can imagine this issue has upset him so much that he is getting sleepless nights. Poor old Vlad, he was really upset over the way BP was treated in the US. Well, he can sleep better, because he has done his level best, in that philanthropic way [...]
Inflation fears rise, as economist tells Bank of England to hold its nerve
17 Jan 2011 [0 Comments | 199 views]
There was bad news on inflation last week, pretty much across the board. There was bad news in Europe, the US and the UK. David Cameron seems to have signed up to the hawk camp, fretting about rising prices and the plight of savers. But the fearmongering is Mickey Mouse economics. In the US, data [...]
Tunisia: where were the warnings from the IMF?
17 Jan 2011 [0 Comments | 144 views]
We all know economic forecasting, or is that economic guessing, is tricky. Economists are especially bad at predicting political turmoil. You may recall, back at the end of 1989 The Economist produced a one-off edition looking at the state of various economies at that time. The issue was published towards the end of the year, [...]
Intel breaks record, but is this its last hurrah?
14 Jan 2011 [1 Comment | 412 views]
Only one word will do: impressive. But what is truly head turning about the latest figures from Intel isn’t that it merely posted its best year ever. No, what stands out is that the company broke its record at a time when its core market was in trouble. In other words, Intel seems to have [...]
