There is carnage in the City of London and across Britain in its regional financial centres. I came across a colleague in Old Broad Street recently who was crying.
Low interest rates will encourage cash to be put to work Photo: Eddie Mulholland
I refer n…
Source: Business Listings
As we know,most of the world’s wealthy have a connection to Bernard Madoff in some way. Alexander Lebedev,the wealthy new owner of the Evening Standard, suggests to us one of his close friends - a well known figure in Hollywood- has lost a large part of his or her fortune to the alleged fraudster.Is it Kevin Bacon or Zsa Zsa we ask? Apparently not. Lebedev confirms it could be an A-lister who hasn’t yet revealed he is a victim - although the Russian refu…
Source: Business Listings
What better way to raise your voice above the cacophony of economic sages and financial doommongers than to take out a full-page newspaper advert in the New York Times instructing US President Obama how to overcome the global financial crisis. This was the inspired idea of Philip Geier, chairman of advertising giant Interpublic, who emptied his piggybank to tell the world that consumers should get universal tax cuts in the form of government coupons redeemable for discounts on household it…
Source: Business Listings
Apparently, the weakness of the pound makes it a perfect time for British singers and bands to export their music abroad - a market worth £1.9bn a year. This is an opportunity being heavily plugged at the moment by the Government quango UK Trade and Investment. “Global demand for UK music sounds positive note in economic gloom,” they trumpet, claiming 46pc of independent record label income is generated overseas. But we think the happiest aspect of the all these statistics is probabl…
Source: Business Listings
The great thing about Davos is the chance to ask some of the world’s smartest/most powerful people the answer to the leading questions/issues of the day.
Other than the obvious - how badly are the world’s leading economies going to suffer this year, how should governments seek to best limit the effects of the recessionary forces, how should the rules governing banks be changed, how to rebalance the global economy so in essence the West saves more and the East spends …
Source: Business Listings
It is only 10.45 in the morning in a bitterly cold Davos, but the conversation has already turned to tonight’s social events in the World Economic Forum village.
The ‘partyocracy’ of Davos is always one of the week’s defining themes - a bit like the Formula One paddock, who you end the evening drinking with is as important as who you spend the day in meetings with, and possibly more so. While the champagne may not be sprayed quite as liberally as usual this year (one needs to keep …
Source: Business Listings
I’ve just come off the phone with Michael Birch the Bebo founder. Nine months after achieving every entrepreneur’s dream - in his case building and then selling his social network for £420m to AOL - and then witnessing the birth of his third child, he has had to undergo open heart surgery.
He tells me here that it took place i…
Source: Business Listings
Whether this is the most gloomy Davos in history is pretty much moot. It would be weird if it wasn’t, really, given the state of the global economy. But what strikes me at the moment is less the sense of misery - palpable as it is - but the feeling among many delegates of helplessness. If there’s one thing Davos has prided itself on it is its can-do attitude. Each session not only mulls over a problem but attempts to provide some solutions. Admittedly I am only one session in (…
Source: Business Listings
So I’m here! Just getting myself organised ahead of a busy first day tomorrow. Having dinner in my hotel and who should be in the hotel restaurant having a fondue but the entire Murdoch clan inc Rupert and James. Cliched, but goes to show this kind of thing really does happen in Davos. Here, in the meantime are a couple of pictures from outside the hotel. Taken with my new Nikon camera which I can’t stop playing with…
<a href=”/edmund_conway/gallery/view_gallery.on…
Source: Business Listings
The days of Egyptian cotton sheets, first class air travel and champagne fuelled excess look to be going the way of the dodo. In short, business travel just isn’t what it used to be. That’s the prognosis of a report put together by Hogg Robinson, the corporate travel specialists.
The company’s snapshot of the global hotel industry in 2008 provides fascinating reading.
I’ve picked out a few of the highlights:
1. Moscow has retained the number one spot but even oligarchs a…
Source: Business Listings
