Financial news

• Planning ahead can reduce the cost of Christmas

  10-12-2017 16:40 via feedproxy.google.com
  CHRISTMAS is the most wonderful time of the year but it is also one of the most expensive, so you need to plan carefully to keep the cost down.
  
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• Traders brace for bitcoin futures launch after wild week for currency

  10-12-2017 16:20 via theguardian.com
  While some welcome regulated way to bet on or hedge against bitcoin, others warn risks remain to more than just investorsThe newest way to bet on bitcoin will be available later on Sunday when futures in the wildly fluctuating cryptocurrency start trading. The first bitcoin future trades are set to kick off at 6 pm local time on a Chicago exchange. Continue reading...
  
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• easyJet's new chief has a a daunting task ahead, says GEOFF HO

  10-12-2017 16:20 via feedproxy.google.com
  TAKING over from a successful leader is a daunting task and, more often than not, those that do so end up getting blamed for things that actually started to go wrong under their illustrious predecessor.
  
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• Equitable Life to ‘double the 35 per cent bonus’ its customers receive

  10-12-2017 16:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  EQUITABLE LIFE wants to double the 35 per cent bonus its with-profits fund customers now receive when their policies mature or transfer out, chief executive Chris Wiscarson says.
  
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• EIB accused of marring EU climate goals with €1.5bn gas pipeline loan

  10-12-2017 14:56 via theguardian.com
  European Investment Bank expected to approve loan on day of summit to mark second anniversary of Paris dealThe EU’s bank has come under fire for moves towards approving a €1.5bn (£1.3bn) loan for a gas pipeline from Azerbaijan to western Europe as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, prepared to hosted a climate change summit in Paris.Campaigners said the European Investment Bank, which is expected to support the transadriatic pipeline (TAP) with one of its largest ever loans
  
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• Urgent talks over future of Four Seasons care homes in UK

  10-12-2017 14:08 via theguardian.com
  Creditor H/2 makes concessions amid crisis at health firm caring for 17,000 elderly and vulnerable peopleThe care homes operator Four Seasons Health Care is on course for a stay of execution before a crunch debt deadline, after its major creditor offered to drop demands rejected by directors.Last-ditch talks aimed at staving off the worst care homes collapse since Southern Cross were continuing on Sunday. Continue reading...
  
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• Attacks on McDonnell a sign Tories know stance on borrowing is defunct | Larry Elliott

  10-12-2017 14:01 via theguardian.com
  Obsession with debt reduction has been disastrous and arguments against a borrow-to-invest approach no longer pass muster Rarely has a chancellor had to publish economic forecasts as downbeat as those in last month’s budget, but so far the political fallout has been minimal. Philip Hammond has had a good couple of weeks. That is partly explained by the focus on other matters, such as the investigation into Damian Green and, of course, Brexit. An added bonus for Hammond is that the post-bud
  
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• BAUBLES come top of the festive glitterati at John Lewis

  10-12-2017 11:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  TINSEL can go hang! Baubles have triumphed as the best selling top twinklers this Christmas, according to John Lewis.
  
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• San Francisco sours on rampant delivery robots: 'Not every innovation is great'

  10-12-2017 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Lawmakers pass regulations to cut down on delivery robots as pedestrians tire of sharing sidewalks with ‘aggressively entrepreneurial wet dreams’In something of a reversal for San Francisco, a city that has served as a petri dish for disruptive innovations in recent years, lawmakers this week passed strict regulations to reduce the number of delivery robots that technology startups have introduced to the city’s sidewalks.“Not every innovation is all that great for society
  
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• The brothers, the board, and £11m in back pay at Sports Direct

  10-12-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Shareholders are poised to vote on whether John Ashley, brother of Mike, will receive payments frozen over PR concernsAll the talk is about back pay in the Shirebrook offices of Sports Direct at the moment. This week, the independent shareholders of the Derbyshire-based company will vote on whether to pay the older brother of founder Mike Ashley £11m in back pay. Related: Sports Direct criticised over plan to pay £11m to Mike Ashley’s brotherContinue reading...
  
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• Liam Fox seeks to spearhead tech giants’ grab for ‘digital oil’

  10-12-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Britain’s trade secretary says he wants to discuss rules on customs duties at WTO summit, but campaigners allege a broader agendaBritain’s trade secretary, Liam Fox, will be a star of this week’s meeting in Buenos Aires of the World Trade Organisation. This won’t be for anything he has to say so much as for being the representative of the UK as it nears the European Union’s exit door.Most economists expect that a hard Brexit – which Fox prefers to a deal that
  
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• Burning issue with Allianz as it rejects modest claim for travel essentials

  10-12-2017 08:00
  Our hotel in Gran Canaria was engulfed by a forest fire, but the insurer refuses to reimburse usIn September my partner and I went on holiday to Gran Canaria. On the second day, while we were out walking with only minimal belongings, our hotel was engulfed by a huge forest fire. We were unable to return as the police had closed the roads, or to contact the hotel by phone (the line was down). We managed to get through to the hotel group headquarters in Madrid, which told us to go to another hotel
  
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• Bitcoin exchange CEO warns of 'extremely volatile' currency as he tells customers of risk

  10-12-2017 07:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  CEO of one of the cryptocurrency's most popular exchanges has pleaded with people to invest responsibly after its price soared last week.
  
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• Hamilton hysteria starts war with touts as tickets for West End musical hit £6,000

  10-12-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  Amid huge demand for new production of US show, producers have banned resales and warned buyers they will be turned away from theatreMichelle Obama is said to have described it as “the best piece of art in any form that I have ever seen in my life”. Now Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Pulitzer prize-winning hip-hop musical Hamilton, based on the turbulent life of one of America’s founding fathers, has arrived in London. And such is the frenzy the show is generating that tickets are
  
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• As corporate goliaths grow ever larger, Britain looks increasingly exposed | Will Hutton

  10-12-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  A handful of companies now wields massive global power. Outside the EU, we will be their preyWe live in a world of corporate goliaths and the trend to gigantism is accelerating. The new era of hi-tech data capitalism has an embedded proclivity to monopoly. The bigger the network, whether Facebook or Google, the more valuable it is to be connected. Big is good in the digital universe, while even bigger is better.Meanwhile, analogue capitalism, confronted by the challenge of the new, is reacting b
  
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• Small firms miss £84bn tax cashback: 1.9m don’t know they can claim state relief

  10-12-2017 01:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  BRITAIN’s army of small businesses are unwittingly missing out on more than £84billion in tax credits for the research and development they carry out, according to consultant Catax.
  
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• Property news: Banking on buy-to-let

  10-12-2017 01:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  THIS HAS been another tough year for buy-to-let investors who are reeling following the latest wave of stringent tax and regulatory changes.
  
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