How internet marketing helped propel Obama to the White House

All of us in the online marketing business have to admire the Obama Team’s mastery of the internet as a campaigning tool for the USA 2008 Elections. “From day one of his bid for the White House, the President-Elect grasped the potential of the web to spread his message and organise party activists in a [...]

George Soros: rocketing oil price is a bubble

Speculators are largely responsible for driving crude prices to their peaks in recent weeks and the record oil price now looks like a bubble, George Soros has warned. The billionaire investor’s comments came only days after the oil price soared to a record high of $135 a barrel amid speculation that crude could soon be [...]

Free enterprise in Europe hangs on Ireland’s EU vote

For 700 years Ireland was Britain’s outer defence – nolens volens – against the great powers of continental Europe. By a twist of fate, the Irish must now cast the ballot on the EU constitution for both islands, since Labour has defaulted on its pledge for a British referendum. Our shared Anglo-Celtic culture has long [...]

New rules to protect consumers against firms

New rules to protect consumers against unfair business practices will come into force today, opening the door for companies to be prosecuted if they treat their customers unfairly. The so-called Consumer Protection Regulations will make it illegal to omit important information from their trading documents, and to make misleading statements. Furthermore, it will ban 31 [...]

Look ahead, not back when investing

Many investors are drawn to buy funds that sit at or near the top of the performance league tables. But as the small print of adverts warns, performance can be a poor guide to prospects. Investors who flocked to buy technology funds in 1999 and 2000 suffered badly as the bubble burst. More recently, savers [...]

Judge allows appeal over bank charges

By Jennifer Hill, Personal Finance Correspondent LONDON (Reuters) – Bank customers could have to wait years to find out whether current account charges are deemed “unfair” after a judge gave Britain’s banks permission to appeal a ruling against them. Five weeks ago, the High Court ruled in favour of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), [...]

Treasury ‘must end fuel tax plan’

Business leaders have called on the Treasury to scrap plans to introduce a 2p increase in fuel tax in the Autumn as the price at the pump surges. The British Chamber of Commerce said businesses were being pushed “to the absolute edge” by the costs. The comments came as the price of a barrel of [...]

Alistair Darling’s peace offer in attempt to halt the tax exodus

Alistair Darling will this week offer an olive branch to multinationals in an attempt to head off a threatened corporate exodus from Britain. He will try to defuse a row over the taxation of foreign profits by insisting Treasury reforms are not intended as a revenue-raising measure. Darling will also indicate that the government is [...]

Mervyn King’s insight on small business

Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King caused much excitement on Tuesday when he attacked the “excesses” of the City of London and its culture of bonuses tied to short-term targets. But in the coverage that followed his statements to the Treasury Select Committee, little has been made of his disclosure that he has [...]

The Future: People Networks

Dave Morgan’s eloquent article on the changes in the online world encapsulates much of what small business worry about on a daily basis asking the questions “will this approach work?” In his article, Morgan traces the evolution of online advertising where you can glean the potential for your specific business requirements. He states that “we’ve [...]