Business and Economics

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...

By Adam Walker, Economics Correspondent Are Academic Attitudes Degrading The Manufacturing Industry? Over the past 30 years the UK has gone from housing a manufacturing industry to being an almost entirely service-based economy with a particular emphasis on the financial sector. On The London Economic we have discussed this in a number of articles including Jack Peat’s article on 3D printing aiding British manufacturing and one of my previous articles on whether London’s service sector is draining the UK. Regardless of the...

By Valentina Magri A missed goal and a missing report. They are the main drivers of a revitalised debate over immigration in the UK. The missed goal concerns net flow of migrants. According to recent data over migration in the UK, David Cameron is unlikely to meet his migration target of under 100,000 migrants by 2015. The Office for National Statistics estimated a net flow of 212,000 migrants to the UK in the 12 months to September 2013 (compared to...

By Artur Salles Lisboa de Oliveira, writer for Exame The Brazilian economy benefited significantly from the commodities boom throughout the 2000’s, allowing it to keep a strong inflow of capital which led to rising reserves and currency stability. Despite these favourable conditions, authorities didn’t succeed in promoting economic growth by addressing crucial issues such as infrastructure bottlenecks, high energy costs and excessive bureaucracy. Instead of tackling these aspects, the government exhibits a strong inclination to replicate the failing policies of...

By Jack Peat, Editor  We looked into the internet phenomenon known as Clickbait; we didn’t expect to uncover this mindblowing secret! Ten reasons why posting content to an online audience differs from attracting readership in the real world. Ok, perhaps we don’t have ten, but we do have one thing; your attention. You see, the internet is like a vast ocean home to a unique ecosystem of animals without properties of the material world. In the same way marine creatures...

By Adam Walker, Economics Correspondent  Since the global recession struck we have cut society into two vastly unequal groups as a means of pigeon holing blame. The one per cent - those with a total household income that exceeds £300,000 annually – have become targets in the financial downturn. The credit crunch in 2007, the Icelandic Banking crisis in late 2008 and the Eurozone Sovereign Debt crisis in 2010 have all at one point referred back to this section of...