Financial news

• UK Financial Markets: Keep Calm And Carry On? - See It Market (blog)

  16-11-2017 21:17
  See It Market (blog)
  UK Financial Markets: Keep Calm And Carry On?
  See It Market (blog)
  “Before long, we will all begin to find out the extent to which Brexit is a gentle stroll along a smooth path to a land of cake and consumption.” – Mark Carney, Bank of England Governor. In 1939, the British Government, through the Ministry of ...en meer »
  
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• The Guardian view on the austerity budgets: end the social and economic failure | Editorial

  16-11-2017 20:44
  Labour successfully made the case that tax-and-spend policies will revive the UK’s flatlining economy – and even some Tories now agree. Unfortunately the Treasury remains wedded to a failed ideology of spending cutsWhen Philip Hammond stands up to deliver his first autumn budget next week, he will be acutely aware that it could also be his last. Recent chancellors bestrode the political scene and their colleagues were in no doubt that their fortunes rested on the whims of Treasury. T
  
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• This budget is the Tories’ big chance. Watch them waste it | Martin Kettle

  16-11-2017 19:45 via theguardian.com
  Theresa May’s party remains shackled to deficit reduction. As a result, her chancellor’s job is impossibleHistory has few iron laws. Yet a reading of British history suggests at least one exception. Those who are at first described as mutineers invariably win the argument. Mutinies happen because a system has reached breaking point and cannot continue.The 15 Conservative MPs whom the Daily Telegraph dubbed “The Brexit mutineers” this week can therefore take comf
  
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• World’s biggest sovereign wealth fund proposes ditching oil and gas holdings

  16-11-2017 18:52 via theguardian.com
  Energy industry jolted by advice to Norwegian government from its central bank, which runs $1tn fundThe Norwegian central bank, which runs the country’s sovereign wealth fund – the world’s biggest – has told its government it should dump its shares in oil and gas companies, in a move that could have significant consequences for the sector.Norges Bank, which manages Norway’s $1tn fund, said ministers should take the step to avoid the fund’s value being hit by a
  
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• No wonder the north is angry. Here’s a plan to bridge the bitter Brexit divide | Larry Elliott

  16-11-2017 18:21 via theguardian.com
  This could be a moment to radically reboot the country. But the left must develop a gameplan to address Britain’s stark regional imbalances.Britain is a broken country badly in need of a plan to piece it back together. It is now almost 18 months since the vote for Brexit exposed the deep schism between leavers and remainers, but there is one thing on which both sides should be able to agree: the status quo is not an option. Related: We’ll never stop Brexit or Trump until we
  
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• Ditch tax cuts to fund universal credit, says Iain Duncan Smith's thinktank

  16-11-2017 18:00
  Centre for Social Justice urges chancellor to row back on manifesto pledge to reduce income tax and invest in benefits insteadIain Duncan Smith’s thinktank is calling on the chancellor to renege on promised Tory tax cuts and instead plough billions of pounds into universal credit if he wants to help families that are just about managing.The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), founded and chaired by the former Conservative leader, said that Philip Hammond should cancel plans to raise the thres
  
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• Goldman Sachs boss calls for second Brexit referendum

  16-11-2017 17:54 via theguardian.com
  New Lloyd Blankfein tweet says lots of CEOs wish for new vote to confirm support is still there for such a ‘monumental and irreversible’ decisionThe boss of Goldman Sachs has suggested a second EU referendum to confirm there is a consensus in the UK on the “monumental and irreversible” Brexit decision.Lloyd Blankfein, in his latest intervention via Twitter on Brexit, said there was “lots of handwringing” from chief executives about Brexit and the “tough
  
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• The super-rich are trying to exploit human rights law to dodge tax | Robert Verkaik

  16-11-2017 17:22 via theguardian.com
  A powerful alliance of tycoons and billionaires is cynically arguing that the Human Rights Act means tax havens must keep their identities secretIf the Paradise Papers have taught us anything, it is that the world’s super-rich will move heaven and earth to stop the public from finding out how they dodge tax. Related: UK is subsidising Isle of Man to be tax haven, say campaignersContinue reading...
  
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• UK Financial Lobby Pushes For Brexit Free Trade Deal - Law360

  16-11-2017 16:18
  UK Financial Lobby Pushes For Brexit Free Trade Deal
  Law360
  Law360, London (November 16, 2017, 2:42 PM GMT) -- One of Britain's largest financial trade bodies made the case on Thursday for an "ambitious and credible" free trade agreement between the U.K. and the EU that would allow reciprocal cross-border ...
  
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• '£90k is a lot of avocados': Javid defends millennials who can't afford a home

  16-11-2017 16:08
  Communities secretary criticises baby boomers who have long paid off their mortgages for saying young people are too profligate to own propertyThe communities secretary, Sajid Javid, has lambasted baby boomers who believe young people could afford a home if they cut back on nights out and avocados, saying such critics were out of touch with a broken housing system.Javid warned that without urgent action to make homes more affordable, an entire generation could becomes rootless, and resentful of
  
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• Joseph Stiglitz on why Trump is unfit to be US president - video

  16-11-2017 15:30 via theguardian.com
  The economist and author of Globalisation and its Discontents talks to the Guardian's Larry Elliott about why he considers Donald Trump unfit to be US president. He says stagnant incomes, the opioid crisis and falling life expectancies all pointed towards a political problem in the US but no one imagined it leading to a Trump presidency Continue reading...
  
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• Joseph Stiglitz: 'Trump has fascist tendencies'

  16-11-2017 15:29 via theguardian.com
  The Nobel prize-winning economist on the threat from the US president, fairer globalisation – and whether Bernie Sanders would have wonHarry Truman once demanded to be given one-handed economists because he became so frustrated with his advisers meeting every demand for answers with “on the one hand, on the other hand”.Truman would have liked Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prize-winning economist who worked for a later Democratic president, Bill Clinton, and who does not mince word
  
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• Number of untaxed vehicles in UK trebles after tax disc abolition

  16-11-2017 14:16
  Around £107m a year in road improvement revenue is being lost after DVLA reveals untaxed cars and vans on UK roads has surged to 700,000The number of untaxed vehicles on Britain’s roads is now three times the level it was before the paper tax disc was abolished three years ago.Department for Transport figures show that owners have failed to pay or renew vehicle excise duty for 1.8% of vehicles – almost 700,000, mostly cars and light goods vehicles. The numbers mean the Treasury
  
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• SSE merger with npower should be blocked by government, says union

  16-11-2017 12:36
  Proposed deal will lead to private cartel and more needless price hikes, says GMBThe business secretary, Greg Clark, has been urged by the GMB union to block the merger of two of the UK’s biggest energy companies over fears the plan would create a private cartel and reduce competition.The proposed merger of npower and SSE would see the “big six” that dominate the energy market shrink to the big five, a move the GMB said would exacerbate the market’s current failings. Cont
  
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• GKN drops incoming chief executive before he takes up role

  16-11-2017 12:29 via theguardian.com
  Aerospace and automotive firm says Kevin Cummings will leave board immediately as it warns of further US writedownThe chief executive designate of GKN has been ousted from the FTSE 100 company weeks before he was due to take up the top job at the aerospace and engineering firm.Kevin Cummings, whose appointment was announced in September, had been due to take over from Nigel Stein on 1 January, but will now leave the board and the company immediately, the firm said. Continue reading...
  
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• UK Financial Watchdog Issues Cryptocurrency Derivatives Warning - CryptoCoinsNews

  16-11-2017 12:21
  euronews
  UK Financial Watchdog Issues Cryptocurrency Derivatives Warning
  CryptoCoinsNews
  The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has warned of investment risks in cryptocurrency contracts-for-differences, a type of financial derivative. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK's primary financial regulator and watchdog, has issued a ...
  UK Financial Watchdog To Regulate Binary Options, Warns Of RisksGamblingCompliancealle 5 nieuwsartikelen »
  
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• UK retail sales fall year on year for first time since 2013

  16-11-2017 11:59 via theguardian.com
  Rising food prices and economic uncertainty are making shoppers cautious about spending, say analystsRocketing food inflation and uncertainty about the outlook for the UK economy have sent retail sales tumbling to their first year-on-year fall since 2013. Food prices, which were 3.5% higher than a year earlier, helped push the volume of goods bought in shops and online down by 0.3% from October 2016. Continue reading...
  
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• Raze, rebuild, repeat: why Japan knocks down its houses after 30 years

  16-11-2017 08:29
  Unlike in other countries, Japanese homes become valueless over time – but as the population shrinks, can its cities finally learn to slow down and refurb?In the suburban neighbourhood of Midorigaoka, about an hour by train outside Kobe, Japan, all the houses were built by the same company in the same factory. Steel frames fitted out with panel walls and ceilings, these homes were clustered by the hundreds into what was once a brand new commuter town. But they weren’t built to last.
  
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• ECB criticises banks' relocation plans after Brexit

  16-11-2017 08:13 via theguardian.com
  Central bank warns against setting up ‘empty shell’ operations in euro area without adequate staff
  The European Central Bank has warned banks that some of their Brexit plans are inadequate as they involve setting up “empty shell” operations in the EU that are not properly staffed.The Frankfurt-based institution said “elements in a number” of relocation plans submitted by banks that use the UK as their gateway to the EU “did not fully meet” its expe
  
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• We should all be working a four-day week. Here’s why | Owen Jones

  16-11-2017 07:00
  Ending life-sapping excessive hours was a pioneering demand for the labour movement. For the sake of our health and the economy we need to revisit itImagine there was a single policy that would slash unemployment and underemployment, tackle health conditions ranging from mental distress to high blood pressure, increase productivity, help the environment, improve family lives, encourage men to do more household tasks, and make people happier. It sounds fantastical, but it exists, and it’s o
  
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