Financial news

• Tax system doesn’t help cut inequality | Letters

  29-05-2019 19:02 via theguardian.com
  The UK taxation system is not progressive for households, says David Byrne. And David Redshaw asks why don’t inequality reports include profits from unearned incomeOne of the authors of the report discussed in your article (Tax system helps cut gap between rich and poor, says IFS report, 27 May) states that “contrary to the ONS claim, taxes do also reduce inequality”. No they don’t! The IFS study is a study of individuals, not of households. Households are the significant
  
  Read more

• Boeing 737 Max won't fly again before August, says airline trade body

  29-05-2019 18:33 via theguardian.com
  Plane grounded after two crashes likely to remain grounded into peak seasonThe Boeing 737 Max aircraft will not return to the skies before August, according to the head of aviation’s main trade body.The 737 Max was grounded by regulators in the wake of two crashes, and although manufacturer Boeing has been working on a fix to allay safety concerns, it is likely to remain out of service for another 10 to 12 weeks, into peak season for many airlines. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Netflix and Amazon score billion pound revenue in battle with UK broadcasters

  29-05-2019 17:04 via theguardian.com
  Without a major British rival, TV and film fans are turning to the Silicon Valley giants Netflix and Amazon made £1.1bn in revenues from UK streaming customers in 2018, double the amounts the UK’s biggest broadcasters were able to make from their own streaming services. The figures have highlighted just how much the absence of a true British rival to the Silicon Valley giants is a missed opportunity. Netflix is estimated to have made £693m in revenues from its 10 million UK sub
  
  Read more

• Boss of UK’s largest gambling firm GVC takes £150,000 pay cut

  29-05-2019 16:25 via theguardian.com
  Kenny Alexander’s basic salary is reduced from £950,000 after ‘feedback’ from investorsThe boss of the UK’s largest gambling company has taken a £150,000 pay cut in an effort to stave off a shareholder rebellion at next week’s annual meeting over his £19.1m pay package.GVC, which owns the bookmakers Ladbrokes and Coral as well as multiple online betting brands, said its chief executive, Kenny Alexander, had volunteered to have his basic salary redu
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Malaysia cracks down on imported plastic – video

  29-05-2019 16:06 via theguardian.com
  The Malaysian government says the country has become a dumping ground for rich nations as it announces it will send as much as 3,000 tonnes of plastic waste back to the countries it came from. Malaysia became the world's main destination for plastic waste after China banned its import last year. 'We will fight back,' Malaysia’s environment minister, Yeo Bee Yin, said. 'We will fight back. Even though we are a small country, we cannot be bullied by developed countries'Malaysia to send up to
  
  Read more

• US-China trade: what are rare-earth metals and what's the dispute?

  29-05-2019 14:37 via theguardian.com
  The metals are used to produce a number of goods, including mobile phones and camerasWhat are rare-earth metals?
  Rare earths refer to a group of 17 elements that are prized for their unique magnetic and electrochemical properties.They include elements such as gadolinium, lanthanum, cerium and promethium, and are vital in the production of cancer treatment drugs, smartphones and renewable energy technologies. Continue reading...
  
  Read more

• Turning Pacer trains into village halls? Send them down south instead

  29-05-2019 13:11 via theguardian.com
  Plans to repurpose these rusty old trains isn’t even a bad joke. Where’s the focus on decent rail services in northern England?
  It was one of those press releases so silly I had check I wasn’t about to fall for some ridiculous prank: could the department for transport (DfT) really be heralding an “exciting” new plan to offer northern towns the chance to bid for a knackered old Pacer train to turn into “a community space, cafe or new village hall”?I refre
  
  Read more

• Bernanke, Paulson and Geithner: revisiting the 2008 financial crisis | Howard Davies

  29-05-2019 12:47 via theguardian.com
  Three of the key players co-author a book about lessons of the past and make proposals for the futureJournalists, the adage goes, write the first rough draft of history. It’s a grand claim but perhaps the best of them achieve something close to that. In the case of the great financial crisis of 2008, Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times did so in his book Too Big to Fail, which remains a useful description of how it felt on Wall Street when the markets began to collapse. Sorkin had goo
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• We were put in an unsafe hotel, but Tui won’t listen

  29-05-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Power sockets weren’t secure and electric cables and pipes were coming out of the wallsI booked a four-star package holiday for my young family in Montenegro with Tui. Our return flight was delayed by 23 hours. After more than 10 hours at the airport, we were given emergency accommodation 50 minutes drive away. The rooms were dirty and full of mosquitoes. Power sockets were not secure and electric cables and plumbing pipes were coming out of the walls, so we did not risk the shower. There
  
  Read more

• 'A white-collar sweatshop': Google Assistant contractors allege wage theft

  29-05-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Interpreting a spoken request isn’t magic, rather it has taken a team of underpaid, subcontracted linguists to make the technology possible“Do you believe in magic?” Google asked attendees of its annual developer conference this May, playing the seminal Lovin’ Spoonful tune as an introduction. Throughout the three-day event, company executives repeatedly answered yes while touting new features of the Google Assistant, the company’s version of Alexa or Siri, that can
  
  Read more

• Retirement should be a right. But it’s in danger of becoming a privilege for the rich | Dawn Foster

  29-05-2019 07:00
  The number of working over-70s has more than doubled. Older people shouldn’t have to choose between work and povertyIf, like many people, you dread your daily commute and the early mornings associated with work, why do it for more years than you have to? But for a lot of older people, that prospect is fast becoming reality – more than twice as many people over 70 are working now than a decade ago. Some people will naturally want to remain in the workplace on a full- or part-time basi
  
  Read more

• Redcar: how the end of steel left a tragic legacy in a proud town

  29-05-2019 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Employment figures look good on paper – but most ex-steelworkers have taken big wage cuts, and home repossessions are rifeIt was deja vu for Brian Dennis last week when British Steel went into administration, putting 5,000 jobs at risk and endangering 20,000 in the supply chain, after failing to secure emergency government funding.Back in September 2015, Dennis had taken a day off from Redcar’s steel plant to attend the Labour party conference when his phone started buzzing. It was t
  
  Read more

• European Central Bank: contenders to replace Mario Draghi

  29-05-2019 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Germany’s Weidmann in the frame, as well as Claudia Buch and other female economistsThe head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, will step down later this year after the most turbulent period in the history of the single currency bloc.Credited as the man who saved the euro in 2012 by declaring he would do “whatever it takes” to preserve the single currency amid the sovereign debt crisis, replacing the Italian in one of the EU’s most powerful jobs comes at a crucia
  
  Read more

• What happens to a place when its steel industry collapses – podcast

  29-05-2019 04:00 via theguardian.com
  The announcement that British Steel was entering insolvency came as a hammer blow to Scunthorpe, where it employs 5,000 people. It has become a familiar story in recent years, and Helen Pidd returns to Redcar, which lost the majority of its steelworks in 2015. Also today: Rory Carroll on the case of Ian Bailey, on trial in France for murder in his absenceThree years after British Steel appeared to have been saved by a private equity group, it collapsed into insolvency last week. Greybull Capital
  
  Read more

• WH Smith rated UK’s worst high street retailer in Which? poll

  29-05-2019 01:01
  Chain came last in survey asking customers to appraise their shopping experienceWH Smith has been rated the UK’s worst high street retailer for the second year in a row, as shoppers criticised its untidy stores and poor value for money.The books and stationery store came bottom of a survey of Which? readers, who marked it below the ailing Homebase/Bunnings DIY chain and Sports Direct. The best-ranked chains were the electrical goods store Richer Sounds, the clothing business Rohan and the
  
  Read more

• Council spending on local services down 21% over past decade

  29-05-2019 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Drop in finances is a reflection of austerity drive imposed by Tory-led governmentsCouncil spending on local services has fallen by more than a fifth since 2010, according to a report from Britain’s leading independent economics thinktank.In a reflection of the austerity drive imposed on local authorities by Conservative-led governments during the past decade, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said spending on services in England had fallen by 21% between 2009-10 and 2017-18. Continue readi
  
  Read more

Follow @financialnwsUK on Twitter!