The taxi drivers’ guide to recession
You can tell when times are tough because you can hail a taxi. But there is more to this model of supply and demand than meets the eye. (more…)
BLOGS
The Edge
Richard Northedge takes on corporate finance
Archive for the ‘Employment’ category
Who are the housebuilders fooling by refusing to cut prices?
There is a small oasis in the housing market where prices have not fallen. New homes. While other property prices plunge, builders refuse to cut theirs. Perhaps that’s why they’re not selling?
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Should the Olympians get money as well as Gold?
Would the Olympic athletes run faster or jump higher if paid? Would they train more intensively for a cash reward? There is a suggestion Britain should pay its medal winners money, with £20,000 for a gold.
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If inflation seems high now, look what’s coming
The target for UK inflation is 2 per cent. In June it was admitted price rises had reached the 3 per cent trigger that requires a Bank of England letter. The July consumer prices index annual change exceeded 4 per cent.
Inflation above 5% before interest rates below 5%?
It was only in June 2008 that the governor of the Bank of England had to write his grovelling letter to the chancellor explaining why UK inflation was above 3 per cent when the target is 2 per cent. But inflation is galloping ahead so quickly that July’s figure will already be over 4 per cent - and it is heading quickly towards 5 per cent.
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MBAs: Ethics versus enterprise
It is an irony of MBAs that those who have one fear these qualifications are being made worthless because these once-rare degrees are now being handed out by confetti, while those without one will do anything to obtain what they still think is a holy grail.
74 per cent of statistics are dangerous
Some 74 per cent of the British people think we are set for a serious and prolonged economic downturn according to a poll. Some 61 per cent think it likely someone they know will lose their job within the next year.
A stamp duty cut would boost the economy – but wait
With public finances collapsing, the chancellor may think this the last time to give away money. But it is because tax revenues are falling that he can afford to waive the taxes he is not receiving anyway.
Business and politics shouldn’t mix
Once companies gave money to the Conservative party as freely as trade unions funded Labour. But whereas workers could opt out of their political donation, investors’ only choice was to vote out the motion at the annual meeting or to sell out of the shares.
Squeezing the supplier is easy credit
One of the symptoms of a credit squeeze is that credit is squeezed. This statement of the obvious is suddenly becoming evident to several parties who thought the crunch did not apply to them.
