Financial news

• Bank of England’s Andy Haldane to chair UK industry council

  07-10-2018 22:20 via theguardian.com
  New strategic body will try to improve Britain’s chronically low productivityThe Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, is being appointed to chair the government’s new industrial strategy council, and help improve Britain’s low productivity.The Industrial Strategy Council is being created to advise the government on industrial policy, and assess and evaluate its industrial strategy. Continue reading...
  
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• Bank of England’s Andy Haldane to chair industry body

  07-10-2018 22:20 via theguardian.com
  Industrial Strategy Council will try to improve Britain’s chronically low productivityThe Bank of England’s chief economist, Andy Haldane, is to be appointed to chair the government’s new industrial strategy council, and help improve Britain’s low productivity.The Industrial Strategy Council is being created to advise the government on industrial policy, and assess and evaluate its industrial strategy. Continue reading...
  
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• Tesco chief calls for 'Amazon tax' on goods sold online

  07-10-2018 19:10 via theguardian.com
  Lethal cocktail of pressures in retail means 2% charge should be imposed – Dave LewisTesco’s chief executive, Dave Lewis, has called for the introduction of an “Amazon tax” on online sales to prevent more high street chains from going to the wall.The boss of the UK’s largest retailer said the chancellor, Philip Hammond, should impose a 2% charge on goods sold online and said the failure to tax digital firms properly was now an “industry” issue. Continue
  
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• The party's over for Club 18-30 as Thomas Cook retires the brand

  07-10-2018 18:31 via theguardian.com
  Last trip for holidaymakers will be from Manchester to Magaluf on 27 OctoberIn its prime the drunken trysts of Club 18-30 holiday reps and revellers provided the action for a fly-on-the-wall TV series so debauched the then Tory MP Ann Widdecombe labelled it “moral anarchy”.However, the party’s over and 2018 will be the last summer of love for Club 18-30: its owner Thomas Cook is retiring a brand that once attracted hundreds of complaints after using the advertising slogan &ldqu
  
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• Second Pret customer died after allergic reaction to sandwich

  07-10-2018 18:27 via theguardian.com
  Sandwich chain in escalating row with ex-supplier after blaming death on ingredientPret a Manger has been hit by further controversy over the weekend, as it emerged that a second customer had died after eating one of its sandwiches in 2017.The sandwich chain found itself in a escalating row with a former supplier, after it blamed the second death on an ingredient supplied by the vegan brand CoYo, a claim the yoghurt company said was unfounded. Continue reading...
  
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• 'Fog of Brexit has had massive bearing on energy bills' – supplier

  07-10-2018 17:46 via theguardian.com
  Consumers face further price increases if the pound falls further, says Pure PlanetBrexit has had a “massive bearing” on UK energy bills and consumers face further price rises if the pound falls further, according to a BP-backed energy startup.Steven Day, a co-founder of Pure Planet, an app-based renewable energy supplier, warned that the UK’s departure from the EU was the biggest political issue facing the energy sector at the moment. Continue reading...
  
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• Austerity is the wrong prescription for the world's wellbeing | Larry Elliott

  07-10-2018 12:20 via theguardian.com
  Findings about the impact of a course of heavy-duty cuts on life expectancy make grim readingThe quack doctors rolled into town just as the global economy had come off the critical list. It was 2009 and the message from the austerity medicine show was simple: the only way back to full health was a course of heavy-duty cuts.Expert opinion was divided. There were other diagnoses available. There were economists who said austerity was the equivalent of going back to the days of blood-letting &ndash
  
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• Is Amazon’s $15 minimum wage raise ‘bad’ for small business? | Gene Marks

  07-10-2018 12:00 via theguardian.com
  Amazon has been the primary reason why companies – large and small – have gone out of business. But it has also helped a new group become entrepreneurs This week, Amazon announced that it was raising its minimum wage for all workers to $15 an hour. The move will affect more than 250,000 of their employees, as well as more than 100,000 seasonal workers. Related: Don't thank Bezos for giving Amazon workers a much-needed raise | Matt StollerContinue reading...
  
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• Drivers fume as breakdown firms put up premiums and slow down help

  07-10-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  More and more motorists are reporting long waits, sometimes overnight, for help from RAC and AAWhen Jim Shirley, 76, was on his way home from a Welsh camping holiday one morning, he disappeared. Concerned friends set out from Bristol at 5am the following day to search for him. “We saw him from half a mile away at the side of the A44,” says Mari Martin. “He had broken down at 1pm the previous afternoon and the RAC had told him it would send a recovery truck since it could not re
  
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• China pumps $109bn into economy as trade war bites on growth

  07-10-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Central bank slashes the reserve requirements for banks, freeing extra cash for infrastructure and businessesChina has slashed the amount of cash some of its banks must hold in reserve as Beijing’s leadership seeks to bolster a flagging economy.As higher US interest rates and fears of a trade war piles pressure on economies around the world, China’s central bank said on Sunday that it was cutting the reserve requirement ratios (RRRs) by one percentage point from 15 October to lower f
  
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• Shadow banks, trade wars, Trump … clouds gather over the IMF’s paradise

  07-10-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  In Bali this week, the mood of the world’s gathered finance ministers will be darker than a year agoThe alarms bells have already started to sound. And this week it is expected to be announced formally that the global economy is running out of steam.As finance ministers, central bankers, academics and other delegates prepare to travel to Bali for the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), optimism about the future is at a low ebb. Continue reading...
  
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• An end to austerity? Little hope, but more cuts could upend Tory election prospects

  07-10-2018 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Tory delegates breathed a sigh of relief at Theresa May’s conference speech, but the chancellor has a rather different attitude to the country’s purse stringsTory cheers during Theresa May’s conference speech when she declared the end of austerity were an audible cry for freedom. The party faithful who attended last week’s annual bash in Birmingham wanted to break the chains of spending cuts that could deny them victory whenever the next general election comes along.The p
  
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• Top-flight venture or relic of the past. Thanet must decide on Manston airport

  07-10-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  A plan to reopen the site as an air cargo hub has split the communityOn a sunny lunchtime, diners pack the outdoor tables of the cafe at the Spitfire Museum in Manston, Kent, where memories of Britain’s finest hour are lovingly preserved. Settling down to a menu of Hurricane rolls and Merlin baps, one visitor asks her companion about the abandoned buildings in the distance, behind the wire fence. “I think that used to be an airport,” he replies.This is Manston – no second
  
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• Macron makes overtures to UK car firms as Brexit talks enter critical week

  07-10-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  French leader hosts dinner for British-based auto bosses and offers a more business-friendly environmentPresident Macron has stepped up attempts to attract UK-based carmakers to France with a private dinner at the Elysée Palace, following their growing concerns about a botched Brexit deal.The heads of Renault Nissan, Vauxhall and Jaguar Land Rover are understood to have been among executives invited to a dinner last week, where the president warned against growing nationalism around the w
  
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• Electric car prices to soar as axe falls on green subsidies

  07-10-2018 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Pressure on Philip Hammond for extra money to save grants for low-emission vehiclesThousands of pounds will be added to the price of some electric and hybrid vehicles as one of the government’s main green initiatives falls victim to cuts, the Observer can reveal.The Treasury is being warned that emergency funds will be needed to avoid an imminent cut in the subsidies given to people buying plug-in cars, which some fear will dent Britain’s green credentials. Continue reading...
  
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