Sunday, August 6, 2023

Forbes.com: Rishi Sunak’s Bold North Sea Energy Stand For Britain Won’t Be An Easy Sell

By SIMON CONSTABLE

At last, Britain is moving towards an energy policy that’s workable.

The country’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he wants to see more drilling in the oil and gas-rich North Sea. The idea is to boost British energy independence and comes more than a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which shone a spotlight on Britain’s lack of domestic supply. Read more here.


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Thursday, August 3, 2023

Korn Ferry: An Alarming Uptick in Turnover

By SIMON CONSTABLE 

In one UK firm after another, workers are discovering an alarming trend: their colleagues from a year ago—or even a few months passed—are no longer there.

Despite some pricey post-pandemic efforts to retain employees, a series of shake-ups continue to plague Britain's labor market, new research shows. Experts say the level is high enough to create disruptions in many businesses and potentially increase staffing turnover costs. "Turnover is much higher than leaders would like," says Rory Singleton, Korn Ferry's head of global industrial markets. "Lots of people I talk with have struggled to find replacements, and it's taking far longer. Read more here.

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#France: Oil climbs, inflation falls, and the climate is perfect in the South of France. John Batchelor @RealConstable Occitane

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Listen here.

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Monday, July 31, 2023

Korn Ferry: A New Look for Apprenticeships

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

The apprenticeships among the job listings seemed normal. They would last up to five years and offer an increasing pay scale. But there was one key twist—beyond trade gigs, they came they came in banking, marketing, even medicine. Read more here.

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Saturday, July 29, 2023

Forbes.com: Britain To Switch Energy Policy, But How?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Not content with green lighting Britain’s first new coal mine in decades, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has a taken a new stance of energy policy.

“I don’t think that we’re going to get to net zero by telling everybody that they can’t fly anywhere or can’t do this or can’t do that. That’s not my approach to it,” Sunak told the BBC.

Instead he wants a pragmatic and proportionate way, while at the same time staying committed to achieving its carbon-emissions goal by 2050. Read more here.

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Forbes.com: Bearish Commodities Investors Should Brace For An Epic Agriculture Rally

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Fund investors are bailing on commodities, and meanwhile the war in Ukraine suggests they should be doing the opposite.

The combination of sustained commodities fund outflows along with a pending disruption to global grain supplies suggest a possible epic rally for the sector. Read more here.

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Forbes.com: Germany Remains In Economic Slump, ECB May Stage A Surprise Pause

By SIMON CONSTABLE 

Germany keeps on delivering bad economic news and its bad for the rest of Europe. The only twinkle of light is that things weren’t as bad as some expected.

The bottom line is that Europe’s largest economy, which is generally seen as the European Union’s engine of growth, shrank in the first half of the year.

“GDP data for Germany showed that the economy stagnated in Q2 and contracted slightly less than previously estimated,” according to a recent report from London-based consulting firm Capital Economics. “The big picture remains that the German economy has shrunk in the past nine months.” Read more here.


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