This document summarises evidence recently presented to a parliamentary committee. http://www.vmine.net/scienceinparliament/sip66-4.pdf Pages 30-31 talk about the British Indian Ocean Territories, containing 20,000 square km of coral reefs — around half the coral reef in the Indian Ocean. The reefs there are in good condition because the islands have remained almost uninhabited (apart from one military …
Continue reading “An opportunity to save or destroy our last remaining coral reefs”
Bank of America is to charge $5/month for use of its debit cards. Wells Fargo and JP Morgan are testing similar fees, at $3/month. The economic system must be winding itself tighter and tighter if they are having to resort to this kind of action to stay afloat. http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2011/09/29/boa-announces-5-debit-fee.html
Unsecured debt has traditionally been a core part of the business of many european banks. In the face of the eurozone crisis, and looming new regulation, those banks are shifting to secured debt (“covered bonds”) but also new financial instruments that sit somewhere between ‘covered’ and ‘uncovered’.
Brazil’s inflation is above target. The central bank cut interest rates by 0.5% at the end of August, on the expectation that slower global growth would hurt Brazil’s exporters. That may well happen, but the immediate impact has been a rise in domestic inflation, to just over 7%.
Projetions for US inflation over the next 30 years have fallen to just under 2%. You might say that growth expectations are similarly low. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cdfa208e-e912-11e0-ac9c-00144feab49a.html
Discussion around the introduction of a ‘Tobin Tax’ is increasing. The tax would benefit long term investors and increase transaction costs of short-term investors. This would bring more (systemic) stability to the markets. The German and French governments are in favour, as is Bill Gates. The UK government wants London to opt out.
As jobs go at BAE Systems, Google has taken out a (minimum) ten year lease on a seven storey building in East London joining Amazon, Intel, and Facebook in the Government’s high tech scheme. Dublin is competing for the same investments, with a Euro cost base and lower tax rates. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/3aa3812e-e929-11e0-af7b-00144feab49a.html
The 3,000 job losses announced by BAE Systems will “devastate” local economies according to politicians and union leaders. Defence budgets are stagnating. As the chief executive of BAE Systems put it, “Our customers are facing huge pressures on their defence budgets and affordability has become an increasing priority.” http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ea51a2ac-e8ea-11e0-ac9c-00144feab49a.html
The Association of British Insurers has in the past criticised the structure of executive pay packages, but for the first time has now criticised the size of such packages. They emphasised the principle of paying for “sustainable long term value-creation”, and warned that shareholders will not tolerate departing executives who have performed poorly. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/366ec3e0-e91d-11e0-9817-00144feab49a.html
The number of people sharing car journeys is increasing, not just for commuting, but more significantly for leisure journeys. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8808ba5e-e435-11e0-b4e9-00144feabdc0.html