Financial news

• Federal minimum wage sets record with no increase since 2009

  16-06-2019 20:16 via theguardian.com
  Baseline wage has remained unchanged at $7.25 an hourInflation has raised cost of living by 18% since last raiseThe US federal minimum wage has gone a record length of time without an increase, with the $7.25-an-hour base, remaining unchanged for nearly a decade as of Sunday.For minimum-wage workers who have a 40-hour work week, and work 52 weeks without having any unpaid time off, this equates to just $15,080 annually, according to a CNN calculation. Continue reading...
  
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• Boeing Max 737 jet crisis: we should've been more open, says CEO

  16-06-2019 19:20 via theguardian.com
  Boss says aircraft maker failed to communicate properly with regulators and customersThe head of Boeing has admitted the company made communications errors in its dealings with regulators and airlines in the wake of the 737 Max jet crisis that grounded the entire fleet.Speaking on the eve of the Paris air show, the Boeing chief executive, Dennis Muilenburg, said the company’s communications were “not consistent” and that was “unacceptable”. Muilenburg added that the
  
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• Major global firms accused of concealing their environmental impact

  16-06-2019 19:13 via theguardian.com
  More than 700 companies, including Amazon, Tesco and ExxonMobil, lack transparency, campaign group claimsA $10tn (£7.9tn) investor alliance has accused more than 700 companies, including Amazon, Tesco and ExxonMobil, of failing to reveal the full extent of their impact on the climate crisis, water shortages and deforestation.The major global companies, with a combined worth ofmore than $15tn, lack transparency over their effect on the environment, according to the intervention by some of t
  
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• Cash-starved Patisserie Valerie 'stopped using butter in puff pastry'

  16-06-2019 17:40 via theguardian.com
  New owners say firm back on track after takeover unearthed butter ban, broken ovens and unpaid suppliersPatisserie Valerie’s new owner has laid bare the desperate state of the business it bought in January, including a cost-cutting approach so severe that managers stopped using butter in the cake chain’s puff pastry.The private equity firm that bought the company out of administration for just £5m described its shock at finding broken ovens, unpaid suppliers, and a leak in the
  
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• Council staff pensions at risk from Woodford investments

  16-06-2019 12:51
  At least three local authorities have put in up to £10m in sister scheme hit by suspension of flagship fundCouncil workers have been left exposed to the underperformance of Neil Woodford’s stock market-listed fund, with a £10m investment by council pensions schemes at risk from the fund’s declining share price.Shares in the Woodford Patient Capital Trust Fund have tumbled 25% to 58p since 3 June, when Woodford made the shock decision to suspend his flagship Equity Income
  
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• The Bank of England's biggest problem? The City of London

  16-06-2019 11:44 via theguardian.com
  Governor Mark Carney should use his Mansion House speech to tell the Square Mile it must stay on a short leashWhen the Bank of England’s governor, Mark Carney, addresses City grandees this Thursday at Mansion House in London, he could step outside his usual comfort zone and make his thoughts on Donald Trump’s trade wars and their dampening effect on global growth more explicit.Closer to home, he could document the impact of Brexit and the danger from a Conservative party that insists
  
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• Is the global economy in for a new oil shock? | Larry Elliot

  16-06-2019 11:41 via theguardian.com
  Trump’s hawkish stance with Iran could prove too much for an already fragile world economyAn oil price surge prompted by trouble in the Middle East inevitably conjures up memories of late 1973, when a dramatic rise in the cost of crude ended the long postwar global economic boom.No question, the embargo organised by Opec during the Yom Kippur war was a game changer. The west had got used to oil prices of around $2 a barrel; within weeks it was paying $11 a barrel. Inflation soared, growth
  
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• Travel insurance: why cheap policies can cost you dearly

  16-06-2019 09:17
  As insurers compete to offer the lowest prices, fees and exclusions have been risingRachel Taylor had booked a holiday cottage in the Lake District as a treat for her mother. Two weeks before their holiday her father became seriously ill and she had to cancel. He died soon afterwards. Since the payment was non-refundable, Taylor claimed the £646 cost on her travel insurance. To her astonishment, she was told that she was only entitled to half that. “I was told it was because there we
  
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• Why cruises float the boats of the Instagram generation

  16-06-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Millennials become the biggest market for luxury liners as they share holiday moments using onboard wifiWhen Emma Le Teace, 25, tried to get her boyfriend to go on a cruise with her, he didn’t want to go. She booked it regardless – and he loved it. “I think he’s been on five now.”She has been on 21 cruises, and is planning three more this year. “I love visiting new places and, with a cruise, you know your view is going to be completely different each morning w
  
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• Millions at risk of retiring on incomes below living wage

  16-06-2019 08:00
  Campaigners urge the pensions industry to do more to encourage people to savePensions providers have been called on to do more to encourage people to save for their retirement as estimates suggest millions of people are at risk of retiring on incomes far less than the current “national living wage”.Since the introduction of automatic enrolment in 2012, which obliged employers to auto-enrol qualifying staff in workplace pensions, some 10 million people have started saving, many of who
  
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• Crypto is coming: get ready to spend Facebook’s money

  16-06-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The social network is likely to release details of its cryptocurrency this week: and it won’t be much like BitcoinFirst it had your friends, then it had your pictures, then it had your diary. Now, in the latest effort to entwine its systems still further into the everyday lives of its users, Facebook wants to get into your wallet.On Tuesday, the social media behemoth is expected to reveal its own cryptocurrency, which has variously been called Libra and GlobalCoin. However, unlike other cr
  
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• Bosses pocket Trump tax windfall as workers see job promises vanish

  16-06-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  AT&T, General Motors and Wells Fargo vowed to use tax cuts to create jobs. In fact, they did the oppositeStephen Smith worked at an AT&T call center in Meriden, Connecticut, for over 20 years before the giant telecoms company announced it was closing the city’s three call centers in February 2019.“At 46 years old, I’m looking for a new job,” Smith said. “They basically told us we either need to move south or lose our job. It was out of the blue. We had no id
  
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• Adding Boris Johnson to Brexit is pouring fuel on to the fire | William Keegan

  16-06-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  As investment nears collapse, the last thing Britain needs is a PM so contemptuous of business and so fiscally heedlessI have been critical, I hope with good reason, of Jeremy Corbyn’s equivocation over what is rapidly becoming a pressing need to call another referendum. But credit where credit is due: at least the Labour leader attempted in the Commons last week to block the possibility of a no-deal Brexit – alas, without success.In common with this year’s Reith lecturer, Lord
  
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• How Silicon Valley’s whiz-kids finally ran out of friends | John Naughton

  16-06-2019 07:59 via theguardian.com
  The tech founders said they were not like the evil capitalists of old. We should have known betterRemember the time when tech companies were cool? So do I. Once upon a time, Silicon Valley was the jewel in the American crown, a magnet for high IQ – and predominately male – talent from all over the world. Palo Alto was the centre of what its more delusional inhabitants regarded as the Florence of Renaissance 2.0. Parents swelled with pride when their offspring landed a job with the Go
  
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