Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have found that by thinking in terms of days instead of years, we are more likely to achieve our goals. The simple trick is to think of the future as now. The researchers found participants who thought of their future goal events in terms of days ahead […]
By any measure, today’s debt is cheap if you can get it. Not only cheap, but in many countries the cost of debt, of borrowing money, is tax free. Cheap untaxed borrowing means that equity has comparatively less attraction and companies tend to be more leveraged and thus operate at a higher level of financial […]
Ongoing uncertainty both at home and abroad are causing UK businesses to sit on cash surpluses, according to a new survey from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. ICAEW’s director of business Stephen Ibbotson said: “The results suggest that businesses have learnt their lessons from the 2007 financial crisis. We have seen […]
The latest labour productivity report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) makes grim reading. The ONS report that “…the absence of (UK) productivity growth in the seven years since 2007 is unprecedented in the post-war period…” Put that into context with the head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde’s statement on 9th April that the […]
With the average French worker producing in four days what the average British worker does in five, the productivity of UK business is not helped by excessive government bureaucracy. Confounding stereotypes, Italians are 9% more productive than the British and of the 15 initial members of the EU, only Greece and Portugal now have lower […]
