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
Category archives: Social
ABI warns on executive pay
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
Ride-sharing increasing in the UK
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
Arab Spring continues
The Yemeni president has called for early elections that would bring stability to the Yemen, transferring power from himself to an elected government. Increasingly, the struggle of pro-democracy activists against the regime is turning into struggle between members of the country’s “political elite” as they jockey for position. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0b10d9e0-e7a6-11e0-9da3-00144feab49a.html King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia says …
Squeezed middle feels the pinch
The phenomenon of the squeezed middle has emerged in most advanced economies, as earnings at the top of the income distribution continue to rise but middling incomes have stagnated and the need for jobs demanding mid-range skills drops. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/89e5a388-d4a3-11e0-a42b-00144feab49a.html
BA returns to an earlier time
A minor story this one, but an important one. British Airways is bringing back a ‘tag line’ invented 90 years ago: “To fly. To serve”. The slogan remained on company uniforms even when advertising told us that BA was “The world’s favourite airline”. It is now being brought back as the core of a new …
US corn crop forecast cut, food prices rising, ethanol top user of corn, stocks near-zero
The US government has again cut its forecast for crop yields this year. This is on top of a forecast already reduced in August. On the one hand this might seem not to matter, since the crop is still expected to be the third largest in US history. But reality is that: Use of corn …
Bank of America plans to axe 10,000 jobs
A brief post this one. Bank of America has said that it will cut 10,000 jobs (10.5% of its workforce) in the first phase of its restructuring plan. This will save the company $5bn per year. Why comment on this? It is surely a normal thing to do? Well, yes. And so it is interesting …