Battle of the Nigels: Farage vs Askew as Ukip to take on the Reality party in South Thanet November 5, 2014 Russell Brand has been making the headlines as a pop culture icon-cum-political revolutionary lately, but he certainly isn’t the only one. Let’s not forget Bez from the Happy Mondays and his Reality party. Someone who is unlikely to forget is Ukip’s Nigel Farage, as he’ll be up against one of its candidates in [...]
Barack Obama faces the press after Republicans triumph over Democrats in US midterms November 5, 2014 President Obama has finished his first press conference since his party's shellacking in America's midterm elections. Republicans strengthened their control over the House of Representatives gaining ten seats. However, the big story of the night was the GOP takeover of the Senate going from 45 to 52 seats so far. Furthermore, Republicans won governors' races [...]
Why Draghi may opt against full QE – CNBC Comment November 3, 2014 As one major central bank – the US Federal Reserve – closes the quantitative easing door, markets are hoping that another – the European Central Bank (ECB) – will throw it wide open again. Many economists now expect that ECB president Mario Draghi will usher in a quantitative easing policy, involving buying up countries’ debt, [...]
Boris Johnson welcomes report calling for more Commonwealth immigration November 3, 2014 The UK is missing a huge economic and cultural opportunity because of anachronistic and counterproductive restrictions on immigration from the Commonwealth, easing pressure created by its ageing population. So concludes a new report published today by think tank the Commonwealth Exchange, with a foreword written by London mayor Boris Johnson. Johnson wrote: We should welcome [...]
Mike Ashley positions former Newcastle United MD Derek Llambias as Rangers director November 3, 2014 Former managing director of Newcastle United Derek Llambias has been appointed non-executive director of Rangers, after being nominated by Mike Ashley's venture Mash Holdings. Llambias, who is a long-time associate of Ashley, had been acting as a consultant for the club after the sudden departures of chief executive Graham Wallace and finance director Philip [...]
US elections: Obama can only salvage his failing presidency if his party loses November 2, 2014 There is a lovely story about how the administration of US President John F Kennedy – for all its intellectual glitter and panache – managed to get Vietnam so wrong. Coming back from his first cabinet meeting, vice president Lyndon Johnson told his mentor and great friend Sam Rayburn, a crafty giant of the House [...]
Virgin Galactic crash: Richard Branson says “Space is hard… We will persevere” after space test flight accident November 1, 2014 Richard Branson has said Virgin Galactic will continue with its space tourism venture after the fatal crash of one of its spaceships during a test flight. “Space is hard – but worth it. We will persevere and move forward together,” Branson wrote in a blog post as he headed to the crash site in the Mojave [...]
ECB council member Ewald Nowotny: We cannot rule out quantitative easing in the Eurozone October 31, 2014 We cannot rule out quantitative easing in the Eurozone: that was the message European Central Bank governing council member Ewald Nowotny gave CNBC today. "I think that we have all learned in life that we should never say 'never',” Nowotny told the channel. Nowotny is generally considered a hawk, preferring the austere German methods of [...]
Eurozone inflation hits expectations – but it’s still in the ECB’s “danger zone” October 31, 2014 Inflation in the Eurozone ticked up a tenth of a percentage point in October, which will do little to allay fears about the state of the economy in the single currency zone. According to the latest flash estimate (which will be confirmed next month) the rate was 0.4 per cent in October, compared with 0.3 [...]
Bullish US outlook helps Janet Yellen win over Charles Plosser and Richard Fisher to interest rate pledge October 29, 2014 Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen persuaded two hawkish colleagues to join her pledge yesterday to keep interest rates low for a “considerable time”, winning them over by sounding an optimistic tone on the US job market and inflation. Immediately after the announcement, the dollar surged to a three-week high. The Fed announced the end of [...]
