Business and Economics

By Nathan Lee, Finance and Politics Correspondent  Martin Scorsese’s Wolf of Wall Street rubs salt in the wounds of those most affected by the financial crisis and massages the ego of the bankers who allowed it all to happen.   Five years on from the greatest financial crisis in history and it all seems rather like a pantomime. The mountains of sub-prime debt, spiralling consumerism and fragile economics are staged as the audience screams; IT’S BEHIND YOU! The trouble is, it...

By Carlotta Stephens, Commercial Director, Maine-Tucker As a corporate member of the REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation) I recently attended an event at the House of Lords on the topic of youth employment. Staggeringly there are nearly one million young people in the UK who are neither in work, training or education. Statistics point to the fact that if you have a gap in your career early on, you are far more likely to have gaps in employment later in life....

By Adam Walker, Economics Correspondent Politics & Economics: Two Forces Pulling Against Each Other Following the US Government shutdown in late 2013 there has been speculation surrounding the fragility of global economic wellbeing when it is at the mercy of party politics, in particular when a few idealists manage to halt the entirety of a democratic system through a reluctance to compromise. However, the bigger question is whether politics and economics will ever be a successfully functional partnership in a democratic...

By Pieter Cranenbroek – International Politics Blogger The new year has only just begun but whatever optimism people may have had at the turn of the year, it most likely will have vanished into thin air thanks to our wonderful Chancellor, George Osborne. Although Britain is slowly showing signs of economic recovery, the success of the next 20 years highly depends on whether the British government decides to counter the ongoing social polarisation. Overtaking the French and German economies will be...

By Drew Nicol  The US state of Colorado has taken centre stage for the first controversy of 2014 by declaring the legalisation of cannabis for recreational use. The decision has followed the new trend of a liberalising of attitudes towards cannabis, which began when Uruguay became the first country to legalise the full cycle of cannabis production and use in December 2013.  In the US, the successful launch of this reformed drugs policy has led other states, such as Washington...

Four ways in which the digital stratosphere will be altered by business in 2014. By Adam Walker 1) Businesses will Continue to Ruin Social Media (particularly YouTube) In a similar way to how Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are now stuffed full of advertising, the same destiny is awaiting this year’s trending platforms. Vines are already being mass produced by corporations and businesses looking to shove their brand name in your face in all aspects of your online journey. YouTube estimate...

By Valentina Magri Signs of life are stirring from Britain’s labour market after several years of stagnant growth. That’s the conclusion of the latest CBI-Accenture employment trends survey, conducted between September and October 2013. The respondents - senior executives from firms of all sizes and sectors - reported there is light at the end of the tunnel for the jobs market, with 51 per cent of employers expecting their workforce to be larger this year and only 12 per cent...

By Valentina Magri Languages and China European languages are no more rewarding than those from further afield. At least, that’s the opinion of prime minister David Cameron, who said on his return from the trip to China: “By the time the children born today leave school, China is set to be the world’s largest economy. So it’s time to look beyond the traditional focus on French and German and get many more children learning Mandarin”. The reason is simple: Britain...

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic Twenty fourteen has begun with a shameful dose of xenophobia as 'floods' of Romanian and Bulgarian immigrants 'invade' British shores, pillaging our lax benefits system and 'robbing' hard-working Brits of much-needed employment. Scaremongering and sensationalism are commonplace in the dark corners of the British media, particularly among publications which use it as a life line to dupe those with more fear than sense to disperse with their 50p pieces. As economic uncertainty...