Financial news

• How will British museums survive if they subject every donor to an ethical audit? | Mark Lawson

  23-03-2019 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Nan Goldin’s opioid protest campaign means Sackler money is no longer welcome at the Tate, and the National Portrait Gallery is now poorer by £1mConsumers of culture will have been aware of the name “Sackler” above the frame of rooms and galleries in artistic institutions around the world. I remember once briefly wondering, when ducking under such an arch, how they had made the money that permitted such extensive philanthropy.Now everyone knows. The photographer Nan Goldi
  
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• Why the road to full employment is lined with food banks

  23-03-2019 17:00 via theguardian.com
  Economists say a low joblessness rate is not necessarily a sign of a healthy economyBritain’s unemployment rate fell to 3.9% in January, the lowest level in more than 44 years. Is the return to levels of employment last seen in the 1970s a sign that the economy is more robust as Brexit approaches than many feared? We asked three eminent labour market economists. Continue reading...
  
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• Italy and China in plan for new Silk Road-style trade network

  23-03-2019 15:21 via theguardian.com
  Xi Jinping visits Rome as Italy becomes first G7 country to back Belt and Road initiativeItaly has become the first G7 country to endorse a contentious plan by China to build a Silk Road-style global trade network, irking its EU and US allies.The prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) that could lead to Italy’s participation in China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI), an ambitious project that
  
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• '‘We built an eco-house for £10,000 and grow our own food'

  23-03-2019 09:30 via theguardian.com
  Cassandra Lishman on how she is trying to avoid draining the planet’s resourcesName: Cassandra Lishman
  Age: 49
  Income: £20,000
  Occupation: Farmer and weaverI live in a pink roundhouse made out of straw bales in Pembrokeshire. It’s very hobbit-like. There’s one big living space with an office, kitchen, living room, and a bedroom for my husband and I. As our kids have grown older – they’re 25, 16 and 13 now – we’ve created bedrooms for our two sons i
  
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• 'A family against a billionaire': twist in battle over Zuckerberg's Hawaiian estate

  23-03-2019 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Parcels near Facebook CEO’s property auctioned off amid lengthy fight over Native Hawaiian land rights
  Amid angry shouts of “hewa!” (wrong!) and “illegal sales”, four parcels of land surrounded by the 700-acre estate of the Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, were auctioned Friday on the island of Kauai.But in a surprise twist, the bidder backed by Zuckerberg won only three of the parcels, while a rival group prevailed on the fourth. Continue reading...
  
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• Retirement interest-only mortgages offer lifeline to older borrowers

  23-03-2019 08:30 via theguardian.com
  Demand is growing for a new type of home loan that helps the over-55s facing a shortfall at the end of their existing term
  A new breed of interest-only mortgage for older people is starting to take off. These deals could throw a lifeline to thousands of people who have an interest-only home loan that’s coming to an end, but don’t know how they are going to pay back what they owe.Interest-only mortgages became virtually extinct following the credit crunch and were once branded a ticki
  
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• Single women are paying thousands to freeze their eggs – but at what cost?

  23-03-2019 08:15 via theguardian.com
  One cycle means paying up to £8,000 and the birth rate is just 18%. Despite this, women are increasingly choosing this route Growing numbers of women are choosing to freeze their eggs because they haven’t found the right partner yet – but with the odds of conception so low, is it a waste of money?Egg freezing is a method of preserving a woman’s fertility so she can try to have children at a later date. It involves collecting her eggs, freezing them and thawing them later
  
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• Tottenham Hotspur station? Some hate it, but branding the railways is nothing new | Ian Jack

  23-03-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  From Daimler Halt to Singer station, corporate giants of the past left their imprint on the transport networkNames that were once freely chosen – so freely that you hardly gave them a thought – now come with sums of money attached. Market principles operate. In north London, for example, Tottenham Hotspur FC has reportedly gone to considerable trouble and expense to persuade Transport for London to rename the local railway station after the club. The station, White Hart Lane, has bee
  
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• Is it worth getting a coach rather than the train to save money?

  23-03-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  I need to travel travel from London to Durham – a rail ticket will be £70 but the bus costs £12Every 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.I have to travel from London to Durham on Good Friday and am so broke I’m considering ditching the train in favour of a coach. A lack of planning means the three-hour train trip is £70. The
  
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• Cashless Britain: over-55s and low earners at risk of being left behind

  23-03-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Study warns banks to adapt offerings to help consumers to use mobile or online banking
  With Britons increasingly turning to digital payments, consumers aged over 55 and those on low incomes “risk being left behind” by banks, according to new research.The findings come in the wake of a major report earlier this month that says more than 8 million UK adults would struggle to cope in a cashless society. Continue reading...
  
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• Cancelling services: why is leaving so hard to do?

  23-03-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  You sign up online, but when you try to cancel, it’s not so easy Fans of the TV series Friends will remember when Chandler wants to quit the gym. He goes to the health club to cancel his membership, but they bring out “Lycra/Spandex-covered gym treat, Maria”. Chandler then agrees to the gym taking $50 from his account each month for ever, and Ross signs up, too.But this fictional gym isn’t the only membership tricky to cancel. A whole raft of companies, from insurers and
  
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• Pension CRISIS: How would the UK solve a retirement TIME-BOMB?

  23-03-2019 07:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  PENSION savers are being caught short by not saving enough to retire comfortably, but does the UK have the capability to solve a pensions crisis?
  
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• RBS to wind down £1bn worth of contentious local council loans

  23-03-2019 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Campaigners say early repayment of lobo loans will end up saving taxpayers £16bnRoyal Bank of Scotland is aiming to wind down the remainder of about £1bn in controversial bank loans held by local authorities across the country, after criticisms that high payments have diverted cash from council services.Campaigners have welcomed the move, which followed similar efforts made by Barclays in 2016 and comes as both lenders face a string of lawsuits. Continue reading...
  
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• Down and out at House of Fraser

  23-03-2019 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Dismal scenes at stores taken over by Sports Direct’s Mike Ashley raise questions over his ambition to turn it into the ‘Harrods of the high street’Everlast sports socks at “mega value” prices jostle for space amid dozens of rails of Lonsdale tracksuit bottoms and Karrimor waterproofs. No, this is not a branch of Sports Direct but House of Fraser in Richmond, one of the wealthiest suburbs of London.Just over six months after Mike Ashley’s retail group bought t
  
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• The hunt for black gold: is California the world's next truffle hotspot?

  23-03-2019 06:00 via theguardian.com
  For decades, enthusiasts have hoped truffles can follow wine’s path to success in the state. Charlotte Simmonds joins a search for the delicacyStaci O’Toole is lying face down in the dirt. “I can smell it!” she cries, nose to the roots of a hazelnut tree.A funky, fungal odor emanates from a shallow hole in the ground of this Sonoma Valley orchard. It hints at a hidden treasure many years in the making: a French Périgord truffle, grown right here in California. Cont
  
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