Financial news

• Pressure mounts to strip Green of knighthood

  09-02-2019 23:39 via theguardian.com
  Labour chair joins calls following allegations of sexual and racial abusePressure was mounting on Saturday for the businessman Sir Philip Green to lose his knighthood following allegations that he had sexually and racially abused his staff.“If the allegations are true, then Philip Green should be stripped of his knighthood,” said Ian Lavery the Labour party chair.Continue reading...
  
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• Ocado prays warehouse blaze won’t douse its hopes for a hi-tech future

  09-02-2019 20:00 via theguardian.com
  The grocer was riding high on a US deal for its robotised logistics system. Then came a fire at its state-of-the-art depot•Shopping, songs, TV, transport … new tech has many sectors in disarrayLast Tuesday morning Tim Steiner, the boss of Ocado, was brimming with his usual confidence as he told City investors how its robotic warehouses had the potential to revolutionise grocery shopping and transform the way baggage carousels, car parks and even ports operate.However, as Steiner was
  
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• Japan seeking big concessions from Britain in trade talks

  09-02-2019 19:31 via theguardian.com
  Lack of clarity about UK-EU trading relationship after Brexit also holding up progress Japan is seeking tougher concessions from Britain in trade talks than it secured from the EU, while negotiations between London and Tokyo are also being slowed by the looming risk of no-deal Brexit.Japanese trade negotiators are confident they can extract better terms, the Financial Times reported, in a sign of the mounting difficulties facing UK officials as they attempt to line up post-Brexit trade deals aro
  
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• I’ve covered nine financial crises since the 1960s. Here’s what I learned

  09-02-2019 14:00 via theguardian.com
  From the devaluation of sterling in 1967 to Brexit uncertainty, our economics commentator reflects on how Britain has diced with fiscal catastrophe
  I wanted to be a journalist from an early age – the age when most of my (male) contemporaries out there in west Wimbledon had set their sights on becoming footballers or engine drivers.At Wimbledon College I produced an underground (handwritten) newspaper and dabbled in undergraduate journalism at Cambridge in the early 1960s. In those days, al
  
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• Brexit: Netherlands talking to 250 firms about leaving UK

  09-02-2019 13:07 via theguardian.com
  Dutch government says it has already gained 1,900 jobs from Britain in bid for Brexit spoilsThe Dutch government has said it is in talks with more than 250 companies about moving their operations from the UK to the Netherlands before Brexit.The economic affairs ministry said it had lured 42 companies or branch offices and 1,923 jobs from the UK last year, as it increases its efforts to gain Brexit business. Continue reading...
  
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• Can 'agritecture' make cities self-sufficient? – in pictures

  09-02-2019 10:00 via theguardian.com
  Roca London Gallery’s latest show explores real-life projects and products helping city buildings grow food and reuse waste. The exhibition runs 9 Feb to 18 MayAll images courtesy of Roca London Gallery Continue reading...
  
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• Mother hit with £4,500 tax charge for child benefit

  09-02-2019 09:30 via theguardian.com
  Reader angry that HMRC must have known about her liability for two years, but said nothingAre you at risk of being landed with a bombshell bill for child benefit you shouldn’t have received? A mother of two was stunned to be hit with a demand from the taxman for almost £5,400 – the vast majority of which was child benefit to which she apparently wasn’t entitled, and must now pay back.Sarah Harris* isn’t the first person to be caught out by the government’s &ld
  
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• ‘Stress-related illness has wrecked my financial plans’

  09-02-2019 08:45 via theguardian.com
  Carol O’Halloran, 48, on how illness has changed her life – and her hopes for the futureName: Carol O’Halloran
  Age: 48
  Income: £60,000
  Occupation: PR consultantBefore my divorce I earned at the highest £144,000 but regularly above £75,000, plus pension, medical and other benefits. I was the main wage earner in our marriage and, as part of the divorce, I had to give my ex-husband a high payout so that I could keep the house. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Our MDF furniture brought toxic fumes into our home’

  09-02-2019 08:45 via theguardian.com
  A couple paid £16,000 for high-end wardrobes, only to discover high levels of formaldehydeA science journalist is warning others to beware of the risks of MDF after her new bedroom furniture appeared to produce toxic fumes that were 13 times the World Health Organisation’s limits.Tracey Logan, who lives in Chiswick, west London, says she and her husband Richard Szwagrzak could not spend more than a minute in the room without their eyes stinging after new wardrobes and shelving were i
  
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• Energy bills: are your cuppas costing more than you thought?

  09-02-2019 08:30 via theguardian.com
  The UK uses more electricity on kettles that we do an oven. We could cut the cost in halfHere’s a trick question for a quiz: which uses the most electricity every year? An electric oven, hob, microwave or kettle?The answer? The humble kettle, which eats up about 6% of all the electricity supplied to British homes. Continue reading...
  
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• US billionaire's London property splurge spurs calls to keep tax local

  09-02-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Ken Griffin spent almost £200m on two houses, but will pay only £3,000 in council tax
  The body representing regional government in England and Wales has called for more taxation to be retained by local councils in the wake of two huge London property purchases by a US hedge fund billionaire.Three of the most expensive homes in the world have been sold recently to one man, American financier Ken Griffin, who has become known for spending his fortune on lavish properties in some of th
  
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• Is money to go travelling a suitable 21st birthday present?

  09-02-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  He’s asked for cash, but we’re not sure whether relatives will think it’s rudeEvery week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.My son turns 21 in a few weeks and would like cash for his birthday so he can go travelling. Relatives have started asking what he would like. Can we just tell them to give him money, or would that be rude? Would it be
  
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• ‘Buy your wine now’: the Bordeaux vineyards bottling before Brexit

  09-02-2019 06:00 via theguardian.com
  Nobody knows if wine will still flow freely across the Channel if the UK crashes out without a deal They are bottling early this year at Château Bauduc. The shining, million-euro, steel-and-glass mobile bottling plant and its six-strong crew have arrived and are hard at work in a thin late-January sun: rinsing, drying, filling, capping, labelling.“Last year, we didn’t bottle till March,” says Gavin Quinney, who with his wife, Angela, has been producing a range of critical
  
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• Goldman Sachs plans to cut bonuses as 1MDB scandal deepens

  09-02-2019 05:22 via theguardian.com
  Investment bank might withhold cash from former boss Lloyd Blankfein over firm’s involvement in Malaysian affairGoldman Sachs’s decision to potentially cut bonuses for top executives over the 1MDB scandal reflects an acknowledgement of shareholder and public outrage over the debacle.The prestigious investment bank has announced that it could withhold millions of dollars in bonuses to former chief executive Lloyd Blankfein and two other retired executives depending on the outcome of o
  
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