Amid all the chaos and damage there was good news for those who believe that the ‘market’ is the panacea of all good things, the Lebanon’s stock exchange reopened for business this morning, amid speculation that Israeli attacks would intensify against Hezbollah in the south and lead to more bombings in Beirut itself. Trading...
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Is it too easy to get out of paying your debt? Or more to the point, are independent advisors dangling the carrot of bankruptcy or Individual Voluntary Arrangements making it too easy? Michael Geoghegan, the chief executive of HSBC, thinks so. Yesterday he said – ‘We are concerned that independent advisers, who are not...
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When all around they have been saying their free service is the cheapest, BT has been sitting on the sidelines, talking about quality. For BT, the snag with using price as a key marketing tool is this: the regulator. While competitors offer free services, and slash prices, the regulator has forbidden BT to follow...
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Anyone investing in Nortel over the last few years and hoping for some respite would be less than pleased as the company plunges into seemingly inescapable spiral of death. It seems that Nortel is unable, no matter who is running the ship – and there have been many – to fix the downward march...
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History tells us that the housing market cycle begins in London. Last year, while London and the South East saw only modest prices rises, areas such as the North East enjoyed a boom – classic final throws of a bull run. Now, it’s gone the other way. Is it possible, that this time, we...
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Inflation in the Land of the Rising Sun seems to be settling in nicely. It seems strange to celebrate rising inflation, but in Japan, prices going up is like a breath of fresh air – after a decade of deflation. In all, consumer prices rose 0.6 percent in June, from 12 months ago. It...
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