Sage announces chief financial officer leaving today August 16, 2013 Software company Sage Group has said that chief financial officer and board director Paul Harrison is leaving today, having previously not disclosed a leaving date. Harrison announced his resignation on 8 May 2013, and will be joining California-based WANdisco in the same role. He will join the new company on 1 September 2013. His pay [...]
BHP reveals more details of corruption investigation August 16, 2013 Multinational mining company BHP Billiton has released a statement regarding the potential legal action it is facing from US authorities over a possible breach of anti-corruption laws. BHP has previously disclosed it is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding now-terminated exploration and development efforts, as well as hospitality provided as part of [...]
Housing bubble threat underscores pressing need to revise Help to Buy August 16, 2013 HELP to Buy has been widely criticised by experts, academics and journalists as a dangerous policy. In the long term, in a supply constrained system, simply increasing lending does not build a single extra house. And due to the planning system’s failures, we have an incredibly supply constrained system. From 2000 to 2007 lending doubled, [...]
The French build three times more new homes than we do August 16, 2013 THERE is a first time for everything. Today, I’m going to praise something about the French economy – well, sort of, at least. This year is proving to be “bad” for housebuilding in recession-hit France, so there were “just” 342,000 housing starts in the year to June 2013, down 14.2 per cent on the previous [...]
London housing bubble inflates further August 16, 2013 LONDON house prices soared to more than 12-times the average income in June, official figures showed yesterday, as economists warned the boom could prove unsustainable. Government policies to keep interest rates low and help first time buyers onto the property ladder are pumping up a bubble, analysts said. The average price in London shot up [...]
Billionaire’s tweet adds $17bn to Apple August 16, 2013 APPLE’S shares rocketed last night after legendary investor Carl Icahn tweeted his support for the company, adding tens of billions to its market value. The activist shareholder sent markets wild with a pair of tweets during afternoon trading yesterday, telling over 40,000 followers that he owns a large amount of Apple stock – which he [...]
Bizarre bequest results in funding boost for coalition August 16, 2013 Eyebrows were raised this morning when it was revealed that the top individual donor to political parties in the second quarter of the year was one “Ms Joan L B Edwards” who gave the Conservatives £420,576 and the Lib Dems £99,423. Ms Edwards has not shown any particular interest in politics in the past so [...]
Today’s key US news from the Live Blog August 15, 2013 Speaking earlier today, St Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard said the Fed would need more data before it could make a decision about whether or not to taper off the asset purchasing programme. Well he certainly received lots to ponder. Perhaps the most important figure was US initial jobless claims, which fell nearly to [...]
S&P and Dow Jones sell-off follows tapering fears August 15, 2013 US share indices have followed the path of Treasuries as investors sell from fear of an imminent tapering of the Federal Reserve's asset purchase programme. A reduction in the number of people signing up for unemployment benefits and the number of people currently on them at the start of August suggests that official unemployment figures [...]
US manufacturing conditions improve less than expected August 15, 2013 The US Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said manufacturing activity grew by less than expected in July The survey index fell to 9.3 from its two-year high of 19.8 seen the previous month. Analysts had predicted to see an index reading of 15.0. Earlier today, the Fed announced that industrial production remained unchanged over the [...]