The Independent - Business Analysis & Features RSS Feed

Investors await sign it is safe to go back into stock markets

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

With stock markets in the doldrums, a period of stability and some sign of economic encouragement at the very least are needed before they start to recover. Both the FTSE Eurofirst Index, which monitors major stocks across Western Europe, and the US's S&P 500 indices are trading at less than half the values of their highs reached late last year. The FTSE 100, the UK's benchmark index, meanwhile, this week hit a more than five-year low after losing about a tenth of its value. It has now wiped out all gains since mid-2003, when it was still digesting the implosion of dot.com boom.

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Chas faces a lonely evening with Orange

How India caught the world's cold

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

House prices are plummeting, credit markets have become frozen, business and consumer confidence are collapsing, the auto industry is at a standstill, and the stock market is off more than 50 per cent.

The end of Woolies?

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Ardeshir Naghshineh, the commercial property investor who owns a 10 per cent stake in Woolworths, is thought to be in talks with another entrepreneur to make a joint bid to buy the high-street chain.

Yahoo faces up to life after Jerry

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

After a turnaround plan that never got off the ground, falling profits and a disastrous reaction to his rejection of Microsoft's advances, Yahoo chief executive and founder Jerry Yang has fallen on his sword after 18 months at the helm.

Yahoo faces up to life after Jerry

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Motor City: From Motown to no-hope town

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

It is the same odd realisation that overwhelms you at the great ruins of Central America or ancient Europe, the pyramids of Teotihuacan in Mexico or the labyrinthine streets of Ephesus in Turkey – the sense that a bustling civilisation, a hive of industry, need not even be destroyed to fall into ruin. It can just be abandoned.

Is this the end of the mega bonus?

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

With banks going into the remuneration-setting period for 2009, having a chief executive forgoing their bonus seems to be the new black for this year's Christmas party season. But banks and other City institutions will continue to try paying bonuses to their other staff and management, although they should not expect much next year.

G20 Summit Communiques in full

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:33 GMT

1. We, the Leaders of the Group of Twenty, held an initial meeting in Washington on November 15, 2008, amid serious challenges to the world economy and financial markets. We are determined to enhance our cooperation and work together to restore global growth and achieve needed reforms in the world's financial systems.

The Canine credit crunch starts to bite

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

They are the forgotten victims of the credit crunch. As money becomes tight in millions of homes throughout the country, it is the four-legged members of the household that are most likely to feel the chill wind of recession.

The Canine crunch

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Man behind the putsch: 'I'm the forward guard for a much bigger machine'

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Stefan Allesch-Taylor left school at 18 and entered stockbroking. It was Black Monday in 1987 and he admits that for five years he thought he had caused the stock market crash. Now he is advising the would-be managers of HBOS on how they can help the bank survive an even greater crash.

The car club that's joined the fast lane as drivers go without their own set of wheels

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Brett Akker is trying not to look too pleased. But there is no skirting round the point that the economic downturn is proving rather good for business.

The mission impossible to keep HBOS independent

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Victory for the Scottish National Party (SNP) at the Glenrothes by-election was to have been the springboard for two fiercely patriotic Scottish grandees, Sir George Mathewson, formerly the chief executive at Royal Bank of Scotland, and Sir Peter Burt, who filled the same role at Bank of Scotland in the 1990s, to begin their campaign to wrestle Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) from the clutches of Lloyds TSB.

'I used my City skills to become a highly efficient house husband'

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

These days, working for an investment bank is akin to being labelled a child molester. Bankers walk around in public with their heads bowed to avoid meeting new people and facing that dreaded question: "So, what line of business are you in?"

The Big Question: Why is General Motors in such trouble, and can it be saved?

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

British business: Over to you, Chancellor

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Miles Shipside, Commerical director, Rightmove

G20 summit: New world order?

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

For the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, it is a "new Bretton Woods", as important as the 1944 convention that established the modern financial world order. For Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, it is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to remake the global financial architecture and usher in an era of "regulated capitalism". But beware the headlines that these leaders try to manufacture when they assemble for their credit crisis summit in Washington this weekend.

China's New Deal

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

The Chinese have been called many things in recent years, but until now no one has tried to pin the label "Keynesian" on them. Like most things in China – the Beijing Olympics, industrialisation, cultural revolutions – when they decide they want to do something, they do it big. So it is with their Keynesian boost to the economy: some 4 trillion yuan, over $500bn. It is the equivalent of 7 per cent of China's GDP; adjusting for the size of our relative economies, it would be as if Alistair Darling was to get up in the House of Commons and announce that he had abolished VAT and stamp duty in the name of getting the economy moving.

'Once we got a dozen propositions a week – we get that a month now': John Bowmer, recruitment tycoon

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

How about this for a credit-crunch conundrum? In an economic climate where cash isn't just king, but emperor of all it surveys, John Bowmer has lots of money to spend – and a list of potential target companies to spend it on. But he still isn't happy.

The American dream shudders to a halt in Motown

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

The men and women who built this Buick in 1954 really need you to go out and buy a new Vauxhall this weekend. Why? Well, the Detroit workers who bent the Buick's fenders, placed its windscreen, polished its mirrors and sent it out into a decade obsessed with the motor car – they are retired now, old and frail, drawing their pensions from Buick's parent, General Motors, and relying on the healthcare plans that this employer-for-life promised them until the day they die.

John Maynard Keynes: Can the great economist save the world?

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Some years ago, I was present when Bill Clinton visited Warwick University, during the dying days of his presidency. The faculty were awkwardly lined up, each of them holding a book as a gift. I noticed that Big Bill wasn't excessively interested in geology, and he didn't do much better with Germaine Greer and her volume of women's poetry. Things were different when he encountered Robert Skidelsky, author of the definitive Maynard Keynes biography. "Keynes!" the President exclaimed, as if recalling a long-lost crony. He told us all how he had always loved the boldness of the man.

How will you be affected by the lowest interest rates since 1955?

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

As many as one in four mortgage borrowers stands to make a hefty saving after yesterday's 1.5 percentage point cut in the Bank of England interest rate. Anyone with a tracker mortgage will feel the full benefit from as early as next month but, for millions more, it may take much longer before any positive effects are felt.

Across the economy, the news just gets worse

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Motor industry: New car sales worst since 1996

Shipping: Holed beneath the waterline

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Hold on to your hat: the Baltic Dry Index was down at 826 points yesterday, a shattering drop from its high of 11,793 in May.

The Independent - Business Analysis & Features RSS Feed

Investors await sign it is safe to go back into stock markets

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT Chas faces a lonely evening with Orange

How India caught the world's cold

The end of Woolies?

Yahoo faces up to life after Jerry

Yahoo faces up to life after Jerry

Motor City: From Motown to no-hope town

Is this the end of the mega bonus?

G20 Summit Communiques in full

The Canine credit crunch starts to bite

The Canine crunch

Man behind the putsch: 'I'm the forward guard for a much bigger machine'

The car club that's joined the fast lane as drivers go without their own set of wheels

The mission impossible to keep HBOS independent

'I used my City skills to become a highly efficient house husband'

The Big Question: Why is General Motors in such trouble, and can it be saved?

British business: Over to you, Chancellor

G20 summit: New world order?

China's New Deal

'Once we got a dozen propositions a week – we get that a month now': John Bowmer, recruitment tycoon

The American dream shudders to a halt in Motown

John Maynard Keynes: Can the great economist save the world?

How will you be affected by the lowest interest rates since 1955?

Across the economy, the news just gets worse

Shipping: Holed beneath the waterline

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:00:01 GMT

Chas faces a lonely evening with Orange