Civil servants’ contract skills ‘lacking’; Almost two-thirds of British companies believe civil servants’ ability to negotiate public sector contracts is lacking

February 18, 2014 11:29 pm

Civil servants’ contract skills ‘lacking’

By Gill Plimmer

Nearly three years since David Cameron called civil servants the “enemies of enterprise”, British business says the government’s commercial skills have failed to improve or deteriorated.

Almost two-thirds of British companies believe civil servants’ ability to negotiate public sector contracts is lacking, according to a survey by the CBI employers’ group. They also say work is being awarded to the cheapest bidder, at the expense of quality and long-term costs. Read more of this post

It’s time US adopts global accounting standards

It’s time US adopts global accounting standards

Business Times

19 Feb 2014

David Mason

ACCOUNTING is the art of telling people what has happened in the past and what the value of something was at a specific date. Sounds very simple, but if it was, there would be little need for accountants. Read more of this post

Story stocks tell tall tales; Better yarns than at any time since the dotcom bubble

February 18, 2014 7:52 pm

Story stocks tell tall tales

By James Mackintosh

Better yarns than at any time since the dotcom bubble

Wall Street broking is based on the idea of telling stories to sell stocks. Depending how you measure it, the Street is spinning better yarns than at any time since the dotcom bubble. Read more of this post

Deputy PM: next 3-4 years last chance for S. Korean economy

Deputy PM: next 3-4 years last chance for S. Korean economy

2014.02.19 16:37:20

South Korea needs specific action plans in order to improve economic fundamentals, noted Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok, adding the next three to four years will be the last chance to determine whether the nation’s economy will take another leap forward.  Read more of this post

Big-name funds fall behind smaller counterparts as assets swell

February 17, 2014 12:31 pm

Big-name funds fall behind smaller counterparts as assets swell

By Emma Dunkley

Investors seeking safety in large funds risk portfolio underperformance as the biggest products on the market lag behind their smaller peers.

New research by FE Trustnet shows that investors would have been better off buying an average-sized fund instead of a large one over the past five years in the equity income sector. Read more of this post

Oversupply forces aluminium industry cuts

Last updated: February 18, 2014 10:56 pm

Oversupply forces aluminium industry cuts

By Xan Rice

Two of the world’s three biggest aluminium producers have announced cuts to production in the latest sign of how weak prices and oversupply are weighing on the industry. Read more of this post

Nespresso has shot at larger coffee sale

February 19, 2014 12:01 am

Nespresso has shot at larger coffee sale

By Shannon Bond in New York

Nespresso is betting that a new machine that brews larger coffees will help double its US sales to $600m in the next two years as the single-serve coffee maker seeks to boost its international growth.

The subsidiary of Swiss food group Nestlépioneered single-cup machines using coffee capsules nearly three decades ago, but the category’s trajectory has lifted in recent years. Read more of this post

Why the ‘Penfolds curse’ could strike again; A succession of six corporate owners of Australia’s most famous wine brand over the past three decades have either been taken over or run into financial strife

Why the ‘Penfolds curse’ could strike again

February 19, 2014 – 3:29PM

Simon Evans

Is there a Penfolds curse at work? A succession of six corporate owners of Australia’s most famous wine brand over the past three decades have either been taken over or run into financial strife, and the prospect of it happening again remains high.

It’s as if the ghosts of the founders Dr Christopher and Mary Penfold, who started Penfolds in 1844, are wreaking their revenge because the wine brand has strayed so far from its original purpose of being a medicinal benefit for patients of Christopher’s medical practice. Read more of this post

Australian treasurer warns world must be weaned off QE ‘morphine’

Last updated: February 18, 2014 7:39 pm

Australian treasurer warns world must be weaned off QE ‘morphine’

By Jamie Smyth in Sydney

Australia’s finance chief has hit out at the US, Europe and emerging market economies, calling for the latter to wean themselves off the “morphine” of easy money and embrace reform, days before he is due to host his global peers at this weekend’s G20 talks.

Proving egalitarian in his criticism, Joe Hockey, the Australian treasurer, also took a swipe at the US Congress for blocking budget increases and reforms to the International Monetary Fund, and warned Europe against trying to sideline the G20 as the world’s premier troubleshooter. Read more of this post

Brazilian companies face heavy fines with new corruption law; Country worse than Namibia and Ghana for fraud

Last updated: February 18, 2014 6:52 pm

Brazilian companies face heavy fines with new corruption law

By Joe Leahy in São Paulo

The period before Brazil’s annual carnival in late February is normally short of news. But this month, the nation’s media has been buzzing with the case of a man who fled the country after being convicted in Brazil’s biggest corruption case.

Henrique Pizzolato, the former marketing director of Banco do Brasil, the state-controlled bank, was allegedly found living in his nephew’s apartment in Maranello, Italy, by Italian police and is facing possible extradition. Read more of this post

Minimising currency risk is key to finding EM bargains; Risk is that everyone seeks to devalue in response to outflows

February 18, 2014 8:18 am

Minimising currency risk is key to finding EM bargains

By John Plender

Risk is that everyone seeks to devalue in response to outflows

Is the emerging-market scare already a thing of the past? Certainly the level of redemptions has abated from emerging-markets equity funds that are tracked by data provider EPFR Global.

Last week investors redeemed $3bn, halving the $6bn in the previous two weeks, while some markets even saw capital inflows. More importantly, the past month has not produced anything equivalent to the near-collapse of the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund that followed Russia’s default in the earlier emerging-market panic of 1998. Read more of this post

Philistines may carp but scientists should reach for the sky

February 18, 2014 3:43 pm

Philistines may carp but scientists should reach for the sky

By John Kay

Anthropology helps us understand the world, such as the pathologies of financial crises

In 1969 Robert Wilson, director of the National Accelerator Laboratory, was testifying before the US Congress. He sought funding for a particle accelerator (forerunner of the Large Hadron Collider at Cern where the Higgs boson was discovered in 2012). Asked by Senator John Pastore how his project would help defeat the Russians, he responded: “It only has to do with the respect with which we regard one another . . . are we good painters, good sculptors, great poets . . . new knowledge has nothing to do directly with defending our country except to help make it worth defending.” Read more of this post

India must tackle manufacturing malaise; Weak industry is the greatest challenge facing India

February 18, 2014 9:17 am

India must tackle manufacturing malaise

By James Crabtree

Weak industry is the greatest challenge facing India

The world’s largest carmakers gathered for New Delhi’s auto expo earlier this month, as the likes of Ford and Volkswagenparaded their latest wares. But the gathering showcased another and sadly rather rarer phenomenon: an Indian manufacturing success story. Read more of this post