Business and Economics

By Mary Mellor, Emeritus Professor, Northumbria University George Osborne’s Autumn Statement was a classic espousal of handbag economics, so named after the saint of the handbag, Mrs Thatcher. Handbag economics is the common sense of our age.  Public sectors are like households, they must live within their means, balance their books, cut their coat according to their cloth. Britain is to face more years of austerity, not because it is in recession, but in pursuit of the handbag ideal. According to...

By Malcolm Henry, Author of Views From The Boatshed There’s a debate going on in some nerdy corners of the internet about negative interest rates, which sounds like a desperately dull thing to be wasting time on, but it could be the spark that lights the lamp that leads us out of the economic gloom into a bright and prosperous future. A negative interest rate is being considered by some as the only plausible way to stir the economy out of the...

By Nathan Lee, Financial Analyst In 2007 Brazil was awarded the football World Cup with the backdrop of a strengthening economy and the prospect of social change. As it prepares to host the finals, the South American powerhouse lays dormant. There’s a subdued atmosphere surrounding Brazil in the run up to the football World Cup and 2016 Olympics. The cost of shining a spotlight on South America’s economic powerhouse has pushed the country to breaking point. Brazil’s economy contracted by...

by Simon Middleton of Watershed  Bernard Marr, author of Enterprise Performance Expert, recently wrote quite a heated blog outlining why he believes Human Resources departments have had their day. According to Marr, HR departments no longer add value and demean human talent. While his views strongly resonate, there is a sense that he is responding to a view - often perpetuated by HR - that HR has always been the place where the challenge of organisational and personal performance is...

By Tom Lowenstein  Follow @stoopnik Save the Children's annual Christmas Jumper Day aims to 'make the world better with a sweater', but could it be doing more harm than good? People up and down the country will be pulling garish knitted garments over their heads next week, with Friday 13th December the date for Save the Children's now annual 'Christmas Jumper Day'. Much like Jeans for Genes Day, the nationwide event asks people to wear a Christmas Jumper for the...

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic Watch Shop is symbolic of how evolutionary pressures on the ecommerce market could manifest themselves in the future. It wasn’t until a recent musing on the London Underground that I realised the potential of specialisation on the web. An advert for Watch Shop - a specialised ecommerce store operating within a hugely diverse market - had me pondering how the ecommerce market is likely to look in the future. It seems probable...

By Adam Walker, Economic Correspondent   Is the Video games industry our Christmas Saviour? As the Christmas season begins to move into its busiest period the commercial world’s focus has been firmly fixed on the videogames industry. With a multitude of Triple A game titles being released across 2013 and one of the most highly anticipated console wars heating up, the holiday period is sure to see soaring demand from consumers. However, the importance of this games war goes beyond...

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic Practising exclusivity whilst preaching connectivity is an expensive mistake to make, particularly as competitors start to offer the same level of functionality without mandatory membership to 'the club'. Throughout its lucrative history, Apple has relentlessly raised the technological bar by consumerising software and hardware that has fundamentally changed the fabric of society. Forest Gump and many others have made their fortune from investing in "some fruit company", but as they continue to...

Britain's interpretation of a McDonaldized society. The effects of globalisation will result in the world becoming wedged between a bread bun and cheese-coated garnish - was my cursory understanding of George Ritzer's vision of a McDonaldized society. As panic spread across my face over the cosmological effects of such a bizarre looking planet, I decided to forgo contemporary reading habits and actually open the book – which got me thinking about a few British high street staples, and how they...