World business, finance, and political news from the Financial Times

The Silver Economy
The birth of a new and powerful consumer class

Edward Luce
A flashback to Jimmy Carter-era malaise

Highlights

Credit: Photo by c.HBO/Everett/REX (1688092u) GAME OF THRONES, Liam Cunningham, 'Garden of Bones', (Season 2, ep. 204, airing April 22, 2012) Game Of Thrones - 2012

©HBO/Rex Features

TV’s big guns take on the disrupters

8:22pm COMPANIES

Companies target the $15tn silver economy

Ford develops seat to detect heart attacks

Analysis Healthier and wealthier
Interactive The aging consumer class
John Kay Live longer — and thank economics

8:32pm

Treasury rules out big election giveaways

Ministers warned of spending squeeze as tax revenues fall short

7:38pm

Abe weighs tax rise against economy

Japan’s PM says consumption levy could be ‘meaningless’

5:26pm

M&A deal failure at highest since 2008

A total of $573bn worth of deals have been withdrawn so far

5:09pm

Banks scale back global ambitions

Failure to achieve scale or profit forces retail withdrawal

A pedestrian attempts to look through the windows of a closed McDonald's Corp. restaurant, the first to open in the Soviet Union, on Pushkin Square in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2014. McDonald's Russian business shut four Moscow restaurants yesterday at the order of a consumer-safety regulator, which said it found multiple violations of sanitary rules. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

©Bloomberg

4:29pm COMPANIES

Russia widens crackdown on McDonald’s

200 investigations under way

epa03809883 The sun shines behind the euro sign outside of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt Main, Germany, 01 August 2013. ECB announced the interest rate has remained at the record low level of 0.5 percent even though there are signs that the economy is improving in the euro zone. EPA/BORIS ROESSLER

©EPA

5:46pm GLOBAL ECONOMY

Weak currency fails to benefit eurozone

Depreciation will only fuel inflation slowly, analysts warn

Lorenzo Bini Smaghi Euro’s low inflation riddle
Mario Monti EU needs shift on investment
Euro weakness strengthens policy makers

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, January 2, 2013. US stocks shot up Wednesday on news of a fiscal-cliff deal in Congress that prevented most tax increases and delayed sharp spending cuts. A half hour into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 263.18 points (2.01 percent) at 13,367.32. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite added 80.27 points (2.66 percent) at 3,099.78, while the broad-market S&P 500 gained 30.24 (2.12 percent) at 1,456.43. In the first trading day of the new year, Wall Street joined a global equities rally celebrating the passage of a bill that avoids the "fiscal cliff" of automatic spending cuts and tax increases. AFP PHOTO/STEPHEN CHERNIN (Photo credit should read STEPHEN CHERNIN/AFP/Getty Images)

©AFP

8:13pm MARKETS

Loans to buy US shares at record levels

Previous peaks have come ahead of stock market downturns

FTFM

No Blofeld behind bond (market) avalanche

The plunge suggested a dynamite cause, yet nothing much had happened, writes James Mackintosh
Will the bond king’s reign benefit Janus?

Questions asked about the long-term future of Bill Gross and if he can repeat his Pimco success
New Fidelity CEO could trigger departures

‘Senior-level departures’ expected as Abigail Johnson takes over

©Getty

3:41pm UK

Barroso says migrant cap against EU law

Free movement regarded as key to internal market

A visitor exits the headquarters of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the Canary Wharf business district in London, U.K., on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013. The FCA is working with regulators including the U.S. Department of Justice and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to investigate the potential manipulation of the foreign-exchange market. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

©Bloomberg

6:46pm COMPANIES

City watchdog in private warnings blitz

Financial Conduct Authority issues 62 so far this year

©Bloomberg

4:52pm UK

Fintech sector complains at bank conduct

British businesses say growth is being obstructed by lack of finance

Cases of Pale Ale cans move along a conveyor belt at the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. facility in Chico, California, U.S., on Tuesday, May 23, 2012. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., founded in 1980, has begun making it's flagship Pale Ale beer and Torpedo beer available in cans. Photographer: Ken James/Bloomberg

©Bloomberg

2:31pm UK

US craft beers hit the spot in Britain

American exports to the UK have increased tenfold in past decade

Comment and Analysis

(FILES) This file photo taken on April 8, 2013 shows a worker leaning to clean glass panels of the Apple store in the central business district in Sydney. US tech giant Apple was on March 6, 2014 accused of shifting nearly 8.1 billion USD in untaxed profits from its Australian operations to Ireland over the past decade. AFP PHOTO / FILES / Saeed KhanSAEED KHAN/AFP/Getty Images

©AFP

6:46pm COMPANIES

To stop ‘deserters’, reform tax system

New rules do nothing to deal with reasons why so many companies try to escape US taxes

©Getty

5:57pm Editorial from COMMENT

Controlling the past and future in Russia

Putin puts the heat on Memorial, a brave human rights group

The new wembley stadium this afternoon, the day before the cup final.

6:58pm WORLD

Too many international wet Wednesdays

The expansion of some fixtures is starting to discredit the beautiful game

Uefa probes 4 football clubs over losses
Chelsea’s loss risked Uefa rules breach
Stefan Szymanski European football’s new era

Best comments from our readers

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