The contrast between stock markets and what is going on in the real economy of output, trade and jobs could not be more stark. Equity indexes, as the late Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Samuelson observed, are not the best of economic indicators. He famously quipped ‘the stock market has predicted nine of the past … Read more
ALEX BRUMMER: Debt-aholics like Liberty Global need to be weaned off a system destabilising the global economy By Alex Brummer for the Daily Mail Published: 22:15 BST, 11 May 2020 | Updated: 08:35 BST, 12 May 2020 John Malone’s Liberty Global is nothing if not brave. Unveiling a £31 billion merger between Virgin Media and … Read more
Grim economic news is something we have had to get used to in the past two months but yesterday was something of a body blow. Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s announcement that he was extending the jobs retention scheme until October is the most ominous of all the amendments and additions to the bailout for the economy … Read more
A West End landlord recalled the other day that he feared his career in retail, which started during Ted Heath’s three-day week in the 1970s, might be over before it had begun. The response of his boss was that the firm survived the Blitz and would see off Heath. Similarly, in this landlord’s view, the … Read more
As a vital part of creative Britain, the potential damage being done to ITV by the Covid-19 lockdown should be deeply worrying. ITV’s chief executive Carolyn McCall has done the right things to limit the scarring. Some 800 workers have been furloughed, the dividend and executive pay have been cut, and costs pruned. Studios are … Read more
ALEX BRUMMER: As debt bubble fears mount the sooner the UK gets back to work the better By Alex Brummer for the Daily Mail Published: 22:53 BST, 5 May 2020 | Updated: 23:39 BST, 5 May 2020 When Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party were proposing to go on a government spending spree ahead of … Read more
Lord Blackwell is not known as the most activist chairman of a High Street bank. But as someone who once worked in Downing Street under the gaze of Margaret Thatcher, the Lloyds Bank boss has well-tuned political antennae. By the time be had succeeded Win Bischoff as chairman in 2014, the bank’s chief executive Antonio … Read more
Savers who placed their trust in Neil Woodford’s fund management empire, many on the recommendation of broker Hargreaves Lansdown (HL), now know the scale of the damage done. The wind-up of the better, more liquid part of the portfolio will result in heavy losses. The best that can be expected is the return of 59p … Read more
ALEX BRUMMER: Government’s dire error in leaving Britain’s leading-edge life sciences firms out of the virus fight By Alex Brummer for the Daily Mail Published: 21:50 BST, 1 May 2020 | Updated: 21:50 BST, 1 May 2020 Having set itself the arbitrary target of 100,000 Covid-19 tests a day, the Government reached it with hours … Read more
Oil deals a cruel blow: Shell’s decision to slash dividend and suspend share buybacks hurts investors, says ALEX BRUMMER By Alex Brummer for the Daily Mail Published: 22:00 BST, 30 April 2020 | Updated: 22:26 BST, 30 April 2020 For everyone managing a pension or investment fund, Shell’s decision to slash its dividend by two-thirds … Read more