When the UK’s furlough scheme was announced near the start of the pandemic, Paul Stephenson thought he would be eligible. He was working via a temp agency in a small manufacturing company where other staff were being furloughed. But he wasn’t employed by either the manufacturer or the agency. Instead, his employer was an “umbrella
admin
The US Federal Reserve is expected to accelerate its monetary policy tightening this week with its first half-percentage point rise since 2000 and signal more aggressive action to come until there is clear evidence that red-hot inflation is under control. Mounting inflationary pressures stemming from a tight labour market coupled with price increases extending beyond
The slow build-up towards Simon Rattle’s departure from London seems as drawn-out as the long anticipation of his arrival in 2015. Such is the lead-time involved in the contracts of top conductors, though at least it allows plenty of scope for planning in advance. With a year to go before he steps down as music
The writer is an adjunct lecturer at William & Mary and author of an upcoming book on confidence-driven decision-making “The markets are plotting against me,” an international student told me recently. Between the dramatic rise in US used-car prices, the increase in short-term interest rates and the strength of the dollar, the monthly loan payment
The head of ProSiebenSat.1 has compared merging Germany’s top broadcasters to the futile quest of Don Quixote, as he championed an independent future for his media company. Rainer Beaujean, chief executive of the Bavaria-based ProSieben, queried the consolidation case sweeping Europe’s broadcast sector, arguing it amounted to either commercially unsound cross-border deals or regulatory impossible
A drilling boom in America’s oil heartlands has triggered a sharp reversal of fortunes for the country’s long-suffering oilfield services groups as they reap the rewards of the scramble to pump more crude. Many producers have rushed to open the taps to capitalise on soaring oil prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, ratcheting up demand
Sarah O’Connor was right to hail the success of auto enrolment in transforming pensions saving as a rare British policy success (Opinion, April 26). Before memories fade we should pay tribute to Adair Turner, whose vision it was to promote the idea in 2006, which was then taken on, albeit too slowly, first by the
Your article (“The road to energy independence starts at home”, Opinion, April 29) perfectly defined one of the key steps we should all be taking to limit Russia’s ability to attack in Ukraine — energy efficient consumer behaviour. It is one of the essential ways we all can make a contribution while helping Ukrainians to
In March the co-founder and head of consumer engineering at DoorDash, Andy Fang, could be found dropping off an order from a sushi restaurant to a customer’s apartment in San Francisco. The food delivery app had restarted its WeDash programme that requires all of its salaried employees in the US, Canada and Australia to get
Democrats in Congress sounded alarm bells after a leaked draft ruling indicated the US Supreme Court was set to overturn the landmark Roe vs Wade ruling that has guaranteed abortion rights across the country for almost five decades. The draft opinion, dated February 10 and signed by Justice Samuel Alito, part of the court’s staunchly
Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister who built the foundations for the city-state, was different things to different people. Former British foreign secretary George Brown called him the “best bloody Englishman east of Suez”. The Chinese government described Lee upon his death as a “strategist embodying Oriental values”. Singapore’s next leader will find it
Germany has warned that EU consumers should brace for a big economic hit and higher energy prices as Berlin said it was willing to back an embargo of Russian oil to punish Moscow for its war on Ukraine. Europe was prepared to bear the strain of cutting its use of Russian crude, said Robert Habeck,
At least 350 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel in the past two days, despite the British government’s new plan to fly thousands of asylum seekers to Rwanda. One refugee charity cast doubt on the government’s assertion that its Rwanda plan will deter migrants from making clandestine boat journeys across
Cash can be tight for those start-up companies that have yet to sell any products. Best, then, that managers of those groups avoid unnecessary expenses. Nikola Corporation, the clean-energy truckmaker, violated this principle last year in dramatic fashion. The Arizona-based company agreed to a $125mn settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over charges
The writer is author of ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’ and professor emeritus at Harvard Business School On April 23, lawmakers in Brussels approved the Digital Services Act, a major piece of legislation aimed at curbing the power of Big Tech. The DSA is not just more procedural drudgery on the EU’s conveyor belt of
The great retail trading boom of 2021 is turning to bust. That is the view of Robinhood, the company whose commission-free trading app helped turn millions of people into first-time investors. But it is not the full story. Robinhood’s funded accounts grew by 100,000 to 22.8mn in the three months to the end of March,
Hello from Trade Secrets. In today’s main piece, we look at how the Ukraine war, as well as finally giving the EU some geopolitical backbone (though how firm that will be in the longer run remains to be seen), has helped transatlantic co-operation on trade-related security issues. Charted Waters looks at one of the reasons
The government of China does not have the legitimacy that flows from winning an election. But officials in China often claim that the Communist party benefits from something even better: “performance legitimacy”. The idea that the Chinese government easily outperforms the dysfunctional west has been pushed hard during the Covid-19 crisis. At a ceremony in
The US has held top-level talks with the UK on how the two nations can co-operate more closely to reduce the chances of war with China over Taiwan. It is the first time the countries have explored conflict contingency plans. Kurt Campbell, the White House Indo-Pacific co-ordinator, and Laura Rosenberger, the top National Security Council
The writer is a contributing columnist, based in Chicago It’s a cliché that the US is a nation of immigrants — and a cliché that, for the past few years, has been just plain wrong. This nation of 330mn people managed to resettle a meagre 11,000 refugees in the fiscal year that ended in September
The coronavirus pandemic is creeping closer to the halls of power in Beijing as authorities rush to avoid an uncontrolled Shanghai-style Omicron outbreak in China’s capital. Beijing is tightening coronavirus restrictions after reporting 41 cases on Sunday. Officials in the city of 22mn, which is also home to the ruling Chinese Communist party’s senior leaders,