Business and Economics
Business and Economics News
Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?
Do you have what it takes to start up a new business? - Try our quiz below. These top 20 challenges that a study of 500 entrepreneurs found were the toughest to conquer for a new business. Nearly one-fifth of those polled said they worked a minimum of 13-hours every day in their first year of setting up their business, with seven per cent slaving away for 16 hours or more every day. One entrepreneur confessed the hardest thing about...
Jaguar Land Rover to shed 1,000 jobs because of Brexit and diesel “headwinds”
Britain’s biggest car manufacturer, employing 40,000 people in the UK is set to lose 1,000 temporary contracts. The job losses according to reports are due to cuts in production at Jaguar Land Rover’s Solihull and Castle Bromwich plants in the Midlands, where Range Rovers and the Land Rover Discovery SUV are built. The jobs of 1,000 agency workers will be hit. The carmaker now owned by Indian Tata Motors is set to make an announcement to staff on Monday...
Trump Steps into Amazon and UPS Feud
American President Donald Trump has recently posted several tweets that outline his concerns about the Amazon business model. The concerns have led to more news concerning Amazon and the parcel delivery company UPS, who, it has been revealed, have been feuding about Amazons use of the United States Postal Service (USPS) for the past few years. Trump’s first tweet read “I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election,” and this tweet was shortly followed by, “Unlike others,...
3 Ways Which Brexit will Impact Supply Chain Operations
While there are many things that he we still don't know about Brexit, we can be sure that it remains a cause of great economic and social uncertainty. It is particularly concerning for businesses that operate cross border, as the nature of the relationship that the UK and the EU ultimately enter into will have a significant bearing on commercial costs, recruitment and the supply chain into individual businesses. In this post, we'll explore this in further detail, and ask...
Murdoch’s Fox offices raided by EU antitrust watchdog over broadcast “cartel”
The European Commission (EC) have confirmed that they raided UK offices of Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox Inc as part of an investigation into "companies involved may have violated EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices.” The raid could not come at a worse time for the Murdoch group which for a long time has been trying to take over European broadcaster Sky Plc. Bloomberg report that the media mogul “has offered to spin off Sky...
Banks commit to launching new European Union hubs in Frankfurt as Brexit looms
Nearly 20 banks have committed to launching new European Union hubs in Frankfurt since the Brexit vote with a further 60 firms still in the decision process. According to the economy minister for the state of Hesse, where Frankfurt is situated, the city is confident it will become home to many financial institutions fleeing Britain in the wake of the Brexit vote. Several big banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs have already made their location decisions, with a swathe of...
Everyone should read the Migration Advisory Committee’s first report into the UK labour market and Brexit to dispel some dangerous myths
Despite the atmosphere of fear created in the Brexit debate: European workers in general do NOT take British jobs. They do NOT drive down wages or undercut minimum wages. They are less inclined to come to the UK in the current climate. Our economy is set to suffer if fewer arrive to work here. This could also lead to shrinking populations in some regions of the UK. The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) interim report into the effects of Brexit on...
50,000 UK importers have seen profits fall by an average of 12% since EU vote
An estimated 50,000 importing businesses across the UK were negatively impacted when the pound dropped 20 per cent against the euro in the aftermath of the EU vote – with the average importer seeing their profits fall by 12 per cent over the past year, new research has revealed. With this week marking one year to go until ‘Brexit Day’ (when Britain ends its membership of the European Union at 23:00GMT on Friday 29 March 2019) a study from global...
Former Greek finance minister makes appeal to humanise economics, saying “the strong do as they will and the weak suffer as they must”
Former Greece finance minister Yanis Varoufakis used the madness and conflict of Shakespeare's characters to demonstrate how we can humanise economics in a powerful speech delivered at the Rose Theatre. The leading economist highlighted the seminal influence Shakespeare has had on his thinking as he took centre stage following an invitation from Kingston University. A committed Europeanist but outspoken critic of the European Union, Varoufakis explored how the complexities and contradictions of the Bard's characters have shaped his own take on...