Business and Economics

By Adam Walker, Economics Correspondent A Northerner’s Perspective London is an economic powerhouse, a hub of global headquarters and a melting pot of cultures, but is it a drain on the rest of the UK? Recently there has been a lot of speculation and debate surrounding the question of whether London has a positive or negative influence on the overall UK economy with heavyweights such as The Times’ David Smith and Vince Cable contributing their own analysis. Research by the Centre for...

By Adam Walker, Economics Correspondent Since the financial crisis hit in 2007 there has been a great deal of debate concerning the culture of big business capitalism and the demonisation of the financial industry. The elitism associated with the banking industry, coupled with accusations of political bias, immunity from punitive action and excessive bonus schemes has been the main target of people’s anger, many claiming that the financial sector is out of control when compared with other industries. However, are these...

By David Dumeresque of Tyzack Partners The Art of Survival: Adapting to Change in the Digital Era Fifty years ago, Leon Megginson, Professor of Management and Marketing at Louisiana State University wrote in the Southwestern Social Science Quarterly: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” What Professor Megginson was referring to, in a business sense, was that those who survive are the...

Kerry Lister-Pattinson – 28, founder Making Winter Warmer I'm the type of person who really feels the cold. One especially freezing November night in 2013 a thought popped into my head; 'what must it be like for people living on the streets?' It was that thought that led me on to launch Making Winter Warmer for those Without. My idea was simple, to collect warm clothing that my friends no longer needed and to get them to the people who do....

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...