Financial news

• The Guardian view on the productivity puzzle: blame low pay | Editorial

  29-10-2017 20:28 via theguardian.com
  The head scratching over the failure to raise productivity is ignoring the real problem: cheap labour is a disincentive to investmentTheresa May originally wanted her purpose in power to be defined by improving the wellbeing of the less well-off. Despite all that has happened since, she has not, apparently, given up: with the gender pay gap in mind, at the weekend she pressed even those smaller firms not legally required to publish the difference between their male and female employees’ ea
  
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• Monarch owner accepts 'moral obligation' over repatriation costs

  29-10-2017 18:45 via theguardian.com
  Private equity firm Greybull Capital agrees with transport secretary it should help if left with profit after administration processThe owner of the collapsed Monarch airline has said it has a “moral obligation” to help meet the costs of flying holidaymakers back to Britain after taxpayers footed the £60m bill.In a letter to the chairman of the Commons transport select committee, the private equity firm Greybull Capital indicated that profits recovered from the failed firm coul
  
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• To cure affluenza, we have to be satisfied with the stuff we already own

  29-10-2017 18:00 via theguardian.com
  If people maintained and repaired their possessions, the world economy and the impact of human activity on the environment would be transformedAffluenza has not just changed the world, it has also changed the way we see the world. Short of money? Borrow some. Caught in the rain? Buy an umbrella. Thirsty? Buy a bottle of water and throw the bottle away. Our embrace of “convenience” and our acceptance of our inability to plan ahead is an entirely new way of thinking, and over the past
  
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• BBC pay gap: women working with lawyers on potential legal action

  29-10-2017 17:24 via theguardian.com
  At least 10 senior BBC figures including presenters could take legal action if talks with the broadcaster fail to resolve issueAt least 10 senior women at the BBC are working with lawyers about the gender pay gap at the corporation and could take legal action if talks with the broadcaster fail to resolve the issue.The women are being advised by the City law firm Mishcon de Reya but other law firms are also understood to be working with BBC employees about pay. Continue reading...
  
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• UK most attractive European country for employers and staff

  29-10-2017 16:38 via theguardian.com
  Talent, quality of life, location and cost put London ahead, with Edinburgh and Bristol in top 20 despite BrexitThe UK is still the most attractive European country for employers and staff, despite the uncertainty created by the Brexit vote, according to a report by Colliers International.A combination of talent, location, quality of life and cost puts Britain ahead, the commercial property company said. London ranks first in the league table of 50 European cities, with Birmingham, Edinburgh, Ma
  
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• Bank of England poised to push interest rates back up to 0.5%

  29-10-2017 15:40 via theguardian.com
  With the economy sluggish, Thursday is expected to bring reversal of emergency action taken following Brexit vote The Bank of England is poised to raise interest rates this Thursday for the first time in more than a decade, raising the cost of borrowing for British households already hurt by an earnings squeeze. Threadneedle Street is expected to reverse emergency action taken following the EU referendum, when it cut rates from 0.5% to 0.25% to avert a recession. While a slump has not materialis
  
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• Bookmakers braced for fixed-odds betting terminal restrictions

  29-10-2017 14:47 via theguardian.com
  Government review this week is expected to propose three options – from £2 to £50 – for reduced maximum stake on FOBTsBookmakers are bracing for restrictions on fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) and a new requirement to fund a problem gambling awareness campaign, as part of a government review to be published early this week.The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is preparing to publish a narrow range of options for reducing the maximum stake on FOBTs, which allow
  
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• Indian official reportedly dismisses fraud allegations against Adani Group

  29-10-2017 12:31 via theguardian.com
  Siphoning allegations against company and Adani family are third set KVS Singh has dismissed in recent months An Indian customs official has reportedly dismissed allegations that the Adani Group illegally siphoned nearly 15bn rupees (£176m) into overseas tax havens.It is the third set of siphoning allegations against the Adani Group and key figures in the Adani family to be dismissed by the official, KVS Singh, in recent months. Continue reading...
  
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• Sparkling employment figures mask real picture of UK economy

  29-10-2017 12:27 via theguardian.com
  Not only are most new jobs low-skill and low-wage, but the total number of ‘hidden jobless’ remains highFalling unemployment has been the one bright spot in what has been a distinctly mediocre year for the economy. Harold Wilson was prime minister the last time Britain had a jobless rate as low as 4.3%.When the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee meets this week to discuss interest rates, the state of the labour market will feature prominently. Many of the members think
  
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• Heathrow launches investigation after confidential security plans found in street

  29-10-2017 11:16 via theguardian.com
  USB stick containing 2.5GB of data, reportedly including locations of CCTV cameras, tunnels and access to restricted areas, was found in west LondonAn investigation has been launched at Heathrow airport after a memory stick reportedly containing confidential security information was found in the street.The Sunday Mirror says the USB stick – which was not encrypted and contained 2.5GB of data – was discovered by a member of the public in Ilbert Street in Queen’s Park, west Londo
  
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• Hertz drives up the cost of car rental for US holiday

  29-10-2017 07:01
  We arrived late to drop off the vehicle and were charged more than £500 extraIn August I rented a car from Hertz through Holiday Autos. We collected the car at Memphis airport and arranged to return it in Brooklyn, New York, eight days later. The cost was £548, paid upfront. We were two hours late arriving at the drop-off location and found it had closed at noon. The Hertz helpline told me to take the car to another location – West 34th Street. The staff at the drop-off locatio
  
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• Wheels come off my travel policy as Amex refuses to pay for bicycle damage

  29-10-2017 07:00
  ‘Comprehensive cover while cycling’ didn’t refer to bikes apparentlyI was wondering if you could help me with my American Express/Axa travel insurance policy.Before going on a recent cycling trip to Spain I took out a policy advertised on the Amex website as “automatically providing comprehensive cover while cycling”. The website could not have been clearer. To cut a long story short, I had a serious accident and my bike was damaged. When I got back to the UK I made
  
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• Keep spending? Seems UK shoppers aren’t sold on the idea

  29-10-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  One retail survey suggests we are dropping the shopping habit in uncertain times. More results to come next week…What’s happening on the high street? Last week’s retail survey by the CBI painted a grim picture, showing sales falling at their fastest since the 2009 recession. The CBI’s survey is small but it fed into broader concerns about consumers’ willingness to keep spending as wages are squeezed and Brexit uncertainty looms.We may get some more clarity when Nex
  
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• British Airways pays compensation at last – but sends it to wrong bank account

  29-10-2017 07:00
  We still have not got our dues for cancelled flight in MayBack in May we were caught up in a British Airways fiasco – our flight to Ibiza was cancelled, forcing us to buy alternatives with Monarch. I have been locked in a battle ever since to get the airline to pay the compensation due. We were given a phone number to call that wouldn’t receive calls. It was only on the final day of our curtailed trip that our luggage, which we’d checked into BA and had left with it, arrived in
  
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• Consumers appear loth to spend. Is it a blip, or Brexit beginning to bite?

  29-10-2017 06:59 via theguardian.com
  Usually dire retail predictions turn around by Christmas, but this year things feel different, with real incomes falling, prices up and borrowing highEconomists tend to be sniffy about the CBI’s distributive trades survey – the one that this week reported the “steepest drop” in retail sales since the depths of the recession in 2009. The report describes only a two-week snapshot of trading, they say, and thus is volatile and unreliable. The size of the sample is too small,
  
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• Now it’s time for a crackdown, as ombudsman service labelled ‘a shambles’

  29-10-2017 01:05
  This week Moneysavingexpert’s Martin Lewis is presenting his review of the services to parliament. Anna Tims reports on his concernsM ichael Hernon was startled to be told that his British Gas account was £896 in the red. His statement the previous month showed that he was £306 in credit. British Gas explained that the sum related to an earlier bill which, because of an error, had never been sent. Hernon asked to see the bill and when British Gas failed to oblige, he turned to
  
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• Mystery landlord collects our rent in cash from our bedroom

  29-10-2017 01:05
  We have no proof we’re living here ... is this legal?I am 18 and have just moved into a houseshare where the landlord asks for the rent in cash. All bills are included and I was wondering if this is legal. I consequently have no proof I’m living here. I’ve never met the landlord – we leave the cash in our bedrooms and he goes in and collects it. CW, London Continue reading...
  
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• Etihad treated my wheelchair as mere lost luggage when it’s my legs

  29-10-2017 01:05
  I couldn’t get the help I needed although I had notified the airlineLast autumn I booked a round trip from London Heathrow via Abu Dhabi and Tokyo Narita to Sydney with Etihad Airways. During the booking, I notified Etihad, through my travel agent, that I was a wheelchair user, and gave them a detailed description of the type of assistance I required. At the departure gate at Heathrow I found I had not been allocated an aisle chair (a small wheelchair designed to transfer passengers with r
  
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• Child support legal loophole is closed

  29-10-2017 01:05
  From early 2018, money held in joint account with new partner can be seized for maintenance paymentsParents will no longer be able to use a legal loophole to dodge paying child maintenance under new rules to be rolled out within months.Ministers are to overhaul laws that mean parents can avoid supporting their child by holding their money in a joint account with a new partner. Current rules mean only money held in a sole account can be seized for payment. Under new rules that will come into forc
  
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