Financial news

• Bank of England 'dangerously ill-equipped' for next recession, says IPPR

  22-04-2018 18:00 via theguardian.com
  Thinktank warns of a ‘car crash’ as low interest rates mean further cuts to stimulate demand would not be an option The Bank of England is “dangerously ill-equipped” to avert the next recession and remains mired fighting the last downturn, according to a report calling for the introduction of radical new policy tools. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), the odds of a recession once every 10 to 15 years mean Threadneedle Street needs additional fi
  
  Read more

• Head of EBRD hopes to expand into sub-Saharan Africa

  22-04-2018 17:29 via theguardian.com
  The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development keen to work with countries committed to market economicsA bank originally set up to help countries of the former Soviet bloc is poised to extend its operations into sub-Saharan Africa in order to speed up progress in meeting ambitious development goals set by the United Nations.Sir Suma Chakrabarti, president of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said his organisation had the money and the expertise to stimulat
  
  Read more

• Labour to seek local support for £250bn 'regional renaissance'

  22-04-2018 15:19 via theguardian.com
  Party to court regional mayors and councils over transport and infrastructure spending plansLabour is to begin courting regional mayors and councils over its plans for £250bn of transport and infrastructure spending, promising to prioritise projects that boost productivity and help the rest of the country catch up with London. Speaking to the Guardian, Peter Dowd, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said the party would open a series of consultations with local leaders over the com
  
  Read more

• City faces corruption crackdown as IMF investigates wealthy countries

  22-04-2018 15:00 via theguardian.com
  G7 nations plus Austria and Czech Republic face tests to prevent money launderingThe City of London will come under the spotlight of the International Monetary Fund as part of a crackdown on corruption that will investigate whether Britain and other rich countries are taking tough enough action against bribery and money laundering.In a hardening of its approach, the IMF said it needed to look at those giving bribes and financial centres that laundered dirty money as well as improving the existin
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 'Nut rage': Korean Air boss apologises as daughters resign

  22-04-2018 14:52 via theguardian.com
  Cho Yang-ho sorry for ‘immature actions’ including disruption on flight in 2014 over a bag of nutsThe chair of Korean Air, Cho Yang-ho, has apologised for the “immature” behaviour of his two daughters and said they would both immediately resign from their company posts following separate controversies.Cho Hyun-min, the younger daughter, who is marketing executive at the South Korean flag carrier, is under police investigation for assault after she was accused of throwing
  
  Read more

• The Sunday Essay: Britain, headquarters of fraud | Oliver Bullough

  22-04-2018 13:13 via theguardian.com
  The UK is at the centre of global corruption: shell companies that launder dirty money can be set up with ease. But when a whistleblower showed just how easy it is, he faced the full force of the lawOfficials get fed up with accusations that Britain is a cesspool of dirty money; that they do too little to check the wealth hidden behind shell corporations. They grouse among themselves that their critics overlook the work they’re doing to expose the money flows and to drive out the corrupt.W
  
  Read more

• Could Donald Trump's lone ranger approach provide the silver bullet? | Larry Elliott

  22-04-2018 12:30 via theguardian.com
  The president’s rejection of multilateralism is risky but our 70-year-old rule-based system is far from perfectDonald Trump is playing with fire. That thought permeated last week’s spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington.The US president’s go-it-alone approach – especially in the field of trade – has certainly shaken things up. It is not just the threat of tariffs, nor that the US has brought the dispute settlement system at t
  
  Read more

• Why is a top mattress firm giving me a bumpy ride?

  22-04-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Simba has a ‘no-quibble’ guarantee but it hasn’t fixed a ridge running down the middleI bought a Simba mattress in March 2017, and at the beginning all was good and we were happy with it. However, within six months it developed a serious problem – a big ridge that runs from top to bottom in the middle. It is causing me bad back pain, and I have had to be treated by an osteopath. When I lie in bed with my two small children, I am higher than both of them, in the middle.I c
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Starbucks needs more than racial bias training after men's arrest, experts say

  22-04-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Company urged to see training plans as just a first step after Philadelphia incident: ‘You can’t train bias out of people’Opinion: Starbucks shouldn’t be praised for its racism workshopsDays after two black men were arrested at a Starbucks store in Philadelphia, the company announced a drastic response.Related: A Starbucks arrest shows how black Americans are robbed of their power | Rochaun Meadows-FernandezContinue reading...
  
  Read more

• Shakespeare’s sceptr’d isle has always been a part of Europe | William Keegan

  22-04-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The inspiration the bard drew from the continent emphasises, whatever Brexiters might say, the inseparability of our historyWe know that the Brexiters want to recapture a lost Britain; and few Britons can rival William Shakespeare in the patriotism stakes.It intrigued me, therefore, to hear the following from a Shakespearean scholar who recently delivered a Bardic talk in – where else? – Stratford-upon-Avon. Stratford-upon-Avon is as near to Middle England as any Brexiter could wish.
  
  Read more

• Abellio, NS and why the Amsterdam express always goes via Dublin

  22-04-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The Dutch state railway is under serious fire for leasing its trains in low-tax Ireland. And it’s not the only operator to do soThe sleek intercity train connecting Amsterdam to Rotterdam zips between the two cities in just 40 minutes and, with a walk-up price of just €15.40 (£13.50), puts our fares to shame. The Dutch railways are still nationally owned, operated by Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), and the route between the two cities claims a 100% punctuality record. But the Dutch
  
  Read more

• Construction industry needs a watchdog to stand guard over the little builders

  22-04-2018 07:59 via theguardian.com
  A new bill aims to ringfence payments to small contractors and stop the practice of ‘subbie-bashing’The concept of dominant forces in the construction industry snatching some readies off folk less powerful in the supply chain sounds a trifle Dickensian. Literally so, in that this is precisely what the odious Sam Pecksniff, the obsequious architect in Martin Chuzzlewit, did by trousering his students’ tuition fees and passing off their work as his own.But it is also quite obviou
  
  Read more

• Mortgage costs hit two-year high as lenders anticipate rise in UK base rate

  22-04-2018 01:05 via theguardian.com
  Average homeowner with a typical loan of £175,000 is now paying £44 a month more than last autumnRates on the most popular mortgage deals have reached their highest levels in two years as lenders increase prices in advance of an expected interest rate rise next month.The average mortgage rate has gone up by 0.25 percentage points since last month. This follows a previous mortgage rate rise by lenders around November when the base rate moved up by a quarter of a per cent. The average
  
  Read more

Follow @financialnwsUK on Twitter!