Author Archive

An IT consultant called Nigel has spent seven years cataloguing the keystrokes necessary to go directly to the correct desk when telephoning a given call centre. On his website “pleasepress1.com” he has published the shortcuts for 130 firms and government departments which, he claims, can save up to eight minutes of listening to recorded options. If,...
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For all those exporters worried that the pound is on its way back to 1.60 against the dollar and 1.30 versus the euro, fear not. Civitas, a well respected think-tank, has published an article by John Mills, an entrepreneur and economist, insisting that sterling needs to devalue by a third to ‘unleash’ a manufacturing boom...
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Gas prices ended higher on Friday for the fourth straight session, backed by chilly weather forecasts for the next 10 days that should underpin heating demand despite early selling on profit taking ahead of the weekend. A US Energy Information Administration report on Thursday showed total domestic gas inventories rose last week by 31...
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Friday’s pop quiz: What have the following people in common (other than that you’ve never heard of them); George Saunders, Jenna Lyons, Jonah Peretti, Matthew Quick, Lena Dunham and Connie Britton? Give in? They are, according to America’s Time magazine, among the world’s 100 most influential people. To be fair, some of the folk on...
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The USD/JPY fell 0.9% from a four-year peak on Friday after dismal data on U.S. retail sales in March reinforced expectations the Federal Reserve will continue buying bonds to support the economic recovery. The yen’s bounce, however, should prove to be temporary given the Bank of Japan’s aggressive monetary easing to fight decades-long deflation. Most...
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Researchers have discovered that “couples who communicate using Facebook could be putting a strain on their relationship”. The ground-breaking discovery was made by Dr Bernie Hogan at the Oxford Internet Institute. He believes that posting and twittering instead of talking to one another could trigger marital disharmony. Could? That’s like saying a North Korean...
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The dollar dropped to a two-week low against the euro, as worse-than-expected US jobs data for March raised concerns that the pace of recovery in the American labour market has slowed. Japan’s yen also extended its downward slide, hitting its worst levels against the dollar since June 2009 and a two-month trough against the...
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Michael Sarris became Cyprus’s finance minister on 28 February. He lasted a little under five weeks in the post, just long enough to oversee the seizure of bank deposits, the imposition of capital and exchange controls and the onset of a lengthy recession. He departed yesterday to be replaced by Charis Georgiades, the former minister...
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In commodities trading news, gas prices were mixed last week sliding from their highest mark in nearly 19 months. Demand was seen waning further with many offices, including the US stock market and energy markets, closed for the Good Friday holiday. Thursday’s gas storage report from the US Energy Information Administration showed domestic gas...
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In FX spread trading, the euro rose against the dollar on Friday, posting its first weekly gain in seven weeks on hopes Cyprus will find a solution before Monday to avert a financial meltdown. Finance ministers of the 17-nation Eurozone held talks on Sunday on the bailout crisis in Cyprus. The meeting was scheduled...
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