DEBATE: If Theresa May’s deal fails to pass, is another referendum the best way to break the stalemate? January 15, 2019 If Theresa May’s deal fails to pass, is another referendum the best way to break the stalemate? Jo Swinson MP, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, says YES. Brexit has become a national embarrassment. In the last few weeks, the Conservative government has lost control in parliament, and the Labour frontbench – supposedly the official [...]
Eager for a house price fall? It’s time for a lesson in economics January 15, 2019 Would it be a good thing if house prices in the UK fell? The British public, a host of commentators on Twitter, and even some economists seem to think so. A recent YouGov poll asked Britons whether a 30 per cent fall in property values after Brexit would be a “bad thing”. Just 32 per [...]
Eurozone industrial production suffers sharpest fall in almost three years led by Germany’s slowdown January 14, 2019 Eurozone industrial production suffered its sharpest fall in almost three years in November led by Germany’s economic slowdown, as the single currency bloc’s woes continued. Euro area production fell 1.7 per cent in November compared with the previous month, the EU’s statistical office Eurostat said, the sharpest monthly drop since February 2016. Read more: Eurozone sentiment [...]
US inflation falls for first time since March as petrol prices drop January 11, 2019 Cheaper prices at the pumps pushed down US inflation for the first time in nine months in December. Statistics released today show the country’s consumer price index (CPI) dropped 0.1 percentage points last month to 1.9 per cent, making December’s fall the first since March. However, when stripping out changes to the price of food [...]
UK economy posts slowest growth in six months but beats lower expectations January 11, 2019 The UK economy grew at its slower rate in six months between September and November, data released today shows, but still managed to beat lower expectations. GDP grew by 0.2 per cent in November compared to the month before, and by 0.3 per cent in the 12 weeks to the end of the month, the [...]
The key to improving our dismal productivity? Reignite the UK’s competitive instincts January 11, 2019 The dismal productivity results out this week should cause alarm for anyone who cares about UK prosperity. And we need to talk about it. Productivity – the cumulative output of our workers per hour – is the critical indicator of how competitive we are as a nation, and the surest way of delivering sustained wage growth. [...]
Stop being defeatist, Britain is still a geopolitical powerhouse January 10, 2019 Over the past few years, the drumbeat of British declinism has grown steadily louder. Last year, former Prime Minister Sir John Major claimed that the UK was going to become a “middle-sized, middle-ranking nation”, while Sir Simon McDonald, the head of the diplomatic service, described the country as “medium-sized”. True, the declinist rumble has haunted the [...]
Digital finance technology is wonderful, but we must design it with consumers’ best interests at heart January 10, 2019 Every morning, I browse my phone as I commute to work. I check my emails, the news, Twitter, and increasingly I open my various finance apps. I recently logged into my investment platform app and made a new investment – £1,000 in a startup Swedish retailer. Once the money was invested, I was applauded with [...]
Mifid II launched one year ago and financial brokers are embracing the opportunity January 10, 2019 A year ago, the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II, commonly referred to as Mifid II, came into force. Arguably the most ambitious and wide-sweeping regulatory reform of the financial services industry in the last decade, it was touted as the death knell of sell-side equity research. Mifid II’s aim was to enhance transparency and [...]
Behavioural science at work: The logic of being illogical January 10, 2019 In real life, imagine if everyone we met was like Jordan Belfort from The Wolf of Wall Street. Unlike for TV, it wouldn’t make for very interesting watching. Why? Because in the real world, we are all united by our differences, as well as our similarities. In an age of personalisation, understanding how individuals react [...]