Business and Economics

By Josh Black  Does it matter whether the Co-Op saves its troubled bank? In 2011, Britain’s Co-Operative Group unveiled a new marketing campaign inviting consumers to “Join the Revolution” – a movement billed as “the most radical sustainability programme in UK corporate history” designed to “spearhead its membership drive and help build a more sustainable economy.” Coming as it did in the wake of a financial crisis, just months before the country’s first ‘double-dip’ recession since the 1970s, there was a...

By Valentina Magri In the 1950s a group of post-World War II writers came together to establish a youth movement known as The Beat Generation. They rejected standards and materialism and appreciated style, innovation, drugs and Eastern religion. In today’s world, the beat generation has been replaced by The Beaten Generation. According to ILO figures cited by IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde at Stanford University last February: There are over 200 million people looking for work across the globe, 75 ...

By Adam Walker, Economics Correspondent On and off the pitch, there is a sense that Liverpool is undergoing a revival. The port city, famed for innovation, industry and a certain musical export, was for centuries the economic powerhouse of Britain, home to a diverse population who fuelled the engine of the north. In the Shankly era the red side of the town enjoyed unparalleled football success, winning silverware at home and abroad. But its fortunes faded on the pitch as the town...

By Jack Gilbert  The former BP man is now set to take over another massive corporation In April 2010 millions of gallons of oil seeped into the Gulf of Mexico, killing off nearly everything in its path. Birds encased in oil desperately wrestled to escape their imminent death. Dolphins were washed ashore panicking and struggling to breathe. Local children in Louisiana and Florida complained of unexplained symptoms such as bleeding ears and nose bleeds. The then Chief Executive of BP, Tony...

By Artur Salles Lisboa de Oliveira Petrobras has been a symbol of Brazilian pride since its foundation back in the fifties. The state-owned oil company attracts all sorts of investors ranging from small time backers pursuing gains by investing their savings for the education of their children to big time players interested in having a say in the decisions of the corporation. However, in the past few years the government has wilfully overlooked rising indebtedness and plunging shares which has created...

By Max J Freeman  My father’s father, Jack Wall, I am told, was a short man.  Not skinny, but not a big man either.  A sinewy man not hewn from rock, but hewn from hard work and relative poverty.  He and his wife Katherine had six boys, only three of whom survived to adulthood. A Liverpool man from Irish stock, with gentle but blistered hands, unskilled but not without intelligence, and a hard-worker. Jack was a Coal-heaver, a Tobacco-turner, and...

By Alex Vasili   Residents of Balcombe Move to Make Community Self-sufficient in Energy The supporters of fracking make an argument that is difficult to refute. They say shale gas is essential to the UK's energy needs, that it will give us security from troublesome oil barons and gas czars, and that nothing else will do until we have nuclear power stations, and lots of them. So try this as a counter-strategy. Make your community self-sufficient through the clean, green power...

By Adam Walker, Economics Correspondent  The Two True Stock Market Forces The behaviour of the stock markets and the speculation surrounding them has been a source of debate for decades. Corporations have gained and lost millions in hours due to shifts in trends and demand with a variety of experts claiming to recognise patterns and forecast behaviour changes. There is no doubt that speculation is one of the most powerful forces in financial market behaviour, with events such as the...

By Mary Mellor, Emeritus Professor, Northumbria University author of The Future of Money Pluto 2010 Things have not been going well for the bitcoin experiment recently. There have been accusations of money laundering, enabling the global drugs trade, tax and capital control evasion, fraud and theft (leading to the collapse of the MtGox exchange). Prices have fluctuated wildly and monetary authorities are suspicious, if not actively hostile. What is bitcoin? It is a privately issued digital currency. It can be earned by...