Finance

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The City of London has more than three times as many multi-millionaire bankers as the rest of the European Union combined. The number of bankers with a take home pay of over one million Euros (£800k) per annum rose to almost 3 thousand in 2014, one of which made an astonishing €25 million. The UK, which houses Europe’s biggest financial district in London, dwarfs the rest of the EU bankers in terms of large salaries,...

By Prof Mary Mellor The justification for austerity is that the public sector must live within its means. There is a plausibility in the claim that the state is like a household that should not spend more than it earns. This kind of ‘handbag economics’ draws its analogy from a mythical household. Real households do not live within their means. If they did the economy would grind to a halt. Modern prosperity is built upon debt and the main aim...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The global stock markets have had a tough time of late and the largest corporations in the world dwarf some countries stock market valuation. For example Google and Amazon have a combined worth of $747bn, Netflix is $40bn and McDonald’s is around $109bn. These figures are pretty hard to get your head around, so Bank of America Merrill Lynch has created a map to help illustrate the size of these companies compared to stock markets...

Lynda Thomas, chief executive at Macmillan Cancer Support, shares her thoughts on the financial impact of cancer and why the charity is launching a guide for the banking industry to help their most vulnerable customers. The cost of cancer Cancer is an expensive disease. Four in five (83%) patients are hit with an average cost of £570 a month as a result of their illness, the same as the average mortgage. This is due to having to take time off...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor The number of UK workers on zero-hour contracts is now at 801,000 up 104,000 in only a year. The Labour party tried to outlaw these types of employment deals, but instead they have increased sharply. It could be seen as a blow to job recovery, as verging on a million people are on contracts that don’t necessarily guarantee even one hour’s work in any given week, and can have hours taken away or added at...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor A report says cutting huge salaries would not hurt the economy as analysis reveals top CEOs earn on average £4.6m per annum. The groundbreaking study by top headhunters has shown that Britain’s chief executives are grossly overpaid, and there would be little impact on the economy if their salaries were cut, which disproves the fear of a “brain drain,” if pay were to be slashed. The report by the London School of Economics report bring...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Since July 2015 fourteen MPs have had their credit cards suspended for not providing evidence of their spending on time or making the repayments. In total a debt of £27k has led to the blocking of their credit cards. Ipsa (Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority) issues MPs with credit cards to pay for a variety of items such as travel, accommodation and stationery. The politicians then have to prove the spending was allowable within a month,...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor As of yesterday afternoon (Tuesday 6th Jan 2016) business executives have made more money than the majority of people will make during the whole of this year according to the High Pay Centre. The research has discovered that fat cats have already passed the average UK salary of £27,645 a mere two working days into the New Year. The High Pay Centre, an independent think tank, reported that FTSE 100 chief executives receive an average...

The New Year can be an expensive time, especially if you’ve overspent during the festive period. It’s also the time of year when many of us put in place resolutions to change our lives. If you want to start lowering your energy usage in the New Year, either to save money or reduce your impact on the environment, the expert team at Pump Sales Direct have a few simple tips to help you.   1. Switch Off One of the...