Financial news

• Is it time to trim the UK Treasury? | Larry Elliott

  13-01-2019 16:14 via theguardian.com
  Harold Wilson was right: we need a separate department for the economy to boost growthThe Treasury is the most powerful institution in Whitehall. It is actually a super-ministry combining functions separated in many other countries: management of the economy and control of the public finances.These two functions are not accorded equal weight and never have been. The Treasury has always been primarily a finance ministry that views its main task as ensuring the nation’s budget arithmetic add
  
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• Intruder alert! The best smart home security cameras

  13-01-2019 09:30 via theguardian.com
  A new generation of devices featuring a host of clever features will make conventional alarm systems obsolete. We review four of the bestThe days of alarms and floodlights being the only choice for home security are behind us with the growing availability of more intelligent and flexible options, such as smart cameras.Placed outside or within the home, these internet-connected cameras offer a live view of what’s happening from practically anywhere, send alerts when they detect motion &ndas
  
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• ‘Sitting duck’ eBay sellers take a stand against the scammers

  13-01-2019 09:00 via theguardian.com
  It’s a matter of principle as they fall victim to the auction site’s lavish ‘buyer protection’Vishal Vora used eBay to auction a £115 BabyBjörn bouncer when his children had grown out of it. He washed it, listed it as used and accepted an offer of £56 plus £5 postage from an expectant mother. As soon as it was delivered the buyer complained that it was “literally covered in faeces” and demanded a £20 reduction in the price. Vora of
  
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• It’s mortgage payback time now savings rates are grim

  13-01-2019 09:00 via theguardian.com
  More young people are opting to overpay, cutting the term of their house or flat loanIt has been a grim decade for savers and it now appears younger people are looking closer to home in an attempt to make their money work. Consumer group Which? has found that well over half of young homeowners are overpaying on their mortgages, cutting the length of time they will have to pay back their house or flat loan.It is little surprise, with high street rates at rock bottom after a dismal decade for save
  
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• On Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn only listens to the Leavers. Why? | William Keegan

  13-01-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Labour’s leader stands on the principle that members make party policy – and the majority of them are Remainers‘So what,” the schoolboy son of a friend asked, while being forced to listen to the Today programme on the school run, “was politics before Brexit?”This brought back memories of my own naive inquiry of my father at the end of the second world war: “Will there be any more news, Daddy?” Not too enlightened for an embryonic journalist, but yo
  
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• Can Persimmon start building a better reputation?

  13-01-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The construction firm is about to publish its first results since boss Jeff Fairburn left. It could be a good time to clean houseWhen the racehorse Persimmon retired in 1897, the future Edward VII’s brilliant thoroughbred was packed off to Sandringham with his stud fee set at 300 guineas a pop.That’s about £40,000 a try in today’s money, which instinctively feels like decent work if you can get it. That is, of course, until your thoughts turn to the nag’s corporate
  
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