Older, less wealthy and “left behind”: What does Ukip’s average target voter look like? October 30, 2014 What sort of voters will Ukip target when campaigning for the general election begins in earnest next year? Analysis of official data by CityAM shows the people in Ukip's 12 target areas tend to be older, less qualified and less wealthy than the national average. Let's start with the seats Ukip is targeting: although [...]
Has Rand Paul’s Silicon Valley charm offensive worked its magic on Peter Thiel? October 30, 2014 "I remain committed to the faith of my teenage years: to authentic human freedom as a precondition for the highest good". So wrote Paypal founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel back in 2009. With its hippie pedigree and laid-back working practices, Silicon Valley may traditionally be a hotbed of leftie activity, but Thiel – [...]
New York Stock Exchange recovers after “experiencing issues” October 30, 2014 The New York Stock Exchange has returned to business as usual after a brief hiccup with posting and receiving trades and quotes. The problems were blamed on an as yet unspecified issue with the National Market System securities information processor, the network that carries trades and quotes. About ten minutes after the problem had been [...]
Let markets work: Uber, Lyft and the benefits of taxi deregulation October 29, 2014 The development of ride-sharing taxi-apps like Uber and Lyft has elicited much controversy. Customers can now have a cab pick them up in minutes with a simple touch of their smartphone. However, these kinds of services have faced fierce opposition from taxi unions and regulators across Europe and the US. A new report from the [...]
Top economists reject Paul Krugman’s call for government intervention to curb Amazon’s market power October 29, 2014 Rarely far from controversy, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman caused quite the stir in his New York Times column a couple weeks back. Krugman argued that e-commerce giant Amazon "has too much power, and it uses that power in ways that hurt Americans". Furthermore, state intervention was necessary to protect the public. Amazon drew Krugman's [...]
Markets keep their cool as Federal Reserve ends quantitative easing October 29, 2014 The Federal Reserve has announced the end of its monthly $15bn bond-buying programme, adding that its intention is to maintain low interest rates for "considerable time". The Fed was more bullish on the state of the US labour market, and all its members with the exception of one voted to draw quantitative easing (QE) to [...]
Facebook beats expectations as mobile grows October 28, 2014 Facebook has posted impressive third-quarter results with growth in both revenue and users. Yet despite beating analysts’ expectations, markets had expected a stronger performance and shares in Facebook dropped eight per cent in after-hours trading last night. The firm also warned of higher costs next year. The multi-billion dollar company grew its daily active users [...]
Drug legalisation: What was learned from Colorado’s marijuana experiment October 28, 2014 It's almost two years since the US state of Colorado voted to legalise the recreational use of marijuana. With several US states set to vote on similar initiatives and the debate surrounding the war on drugs more raging more furiously than, the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank, has released a paper examining the effect [...]
Facebook earnings boom with huge growth in mobile ad revenue after Twitter disappoints October 28, 2014 Facebook has posted impressive third quarter results with growth in both revenue and users. The multi-billion dollar company grew its daily active users by 19 per cent from a year ago, with the number of monthly active users growing by 14 per cent. Wall Street had expected the social media firm to post revenue for [...]
Former head of US regulator lands role advising top Bitcoin companies October 28, 2014 A former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been appointed to the advisory board of the two major Bitcoin companies. Arthur Levitt, who served as chair of the SEC between 1993 and 2001, will advise Bitpay and Vaurum on how to handle future regulatory challenges. Levitt was optimistic about the future of [...]
