Paper tiger Mike Ashley needs to explain or face being torn apart by MPs

Sports Direct founder cannot risk carrying on with the bluster when he gives evidence on working conditions for warehouse staff

Mike Ashley is a paper tiger. Having said he would not show up to give evidence to the House of Commons business committee, the Sports Direct boss has changed his mind and now says he will grace MPs with his presence.

In truth, there was never the remotest possibility that Ashley would defy the will of parliament. Rupert Murdoch eventually deigned to make an appearance before a select committee, and to adapt Lloyd Bentsen’s putdown of Dan Quayle, Ashley is no Rupert Murdoch.

Related: Questions Mike Ashley should answer on Sports Direct work conditions

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from Business blog | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/business/blog/2016/jun/06/mike-ashley-face-mps-sports-direct-treatment-of-warehouse-staff

Why the global economy may need to get worse before it gets better

Until governments act collectively to bolster growth, lasting recovery from the 2008-09 recession will remain elusive

A wind of change is howling through the world’s economic institutions. Last week it was the International Monetary Fund saying that austerity could do more harm than good and that neoliberalism was not all it was cracked up to be. This week it is the turn of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to challenge the orthodoxy.

The OECD says governments around the world should consider banding together to spend more on public works, something it deems necessary because lasting recovery from the deep recession of 2008-09 remains elusive.

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from Business blog | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2016/jun/01/global-economy-recovery-growth-governments-keynes

Legal & General understates chief executive's pay in annual report

L&G’s Nigel Wilson paid nearly £5.5m in 2015, rather than the previously disclosed £4.7m

Executive pay can be fiendishly hard to calculate and even harder for the public to comprehend – and now it seems that the same is true for the owners of one of the biggest fund managers in the UK.

Legal & General, the insurance company, has been forced to admit that it made a mistake in the pay of its chief executive Nigel Wilson when it published its annual report almost 10 weeks ago.

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from Business blog | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/business/blog/2016/may/25/legal-general-understates-chief-executives-pay-in-annual-report

Asian stock markets rally ahead of G7 meeting – business live

Brexiters maintain stubborn mood in face of chilling EU warnings

Leave camp must be pretty pleased with how things are going, having positioned themselves as Ealing comedy underdogs

The Ealing comedy Passport to Pimlico is set in postwar London with austerity at its height. Inhabitants find that they can escape rationing because the district was once part of Burgundy during a conflict that has never formally ended. They set up their own kingdom within a kingdom, defiantly resisting attempts by Westminster to bludgeon them back into line.

The mood of stubborn resistance is summed up by one of the characters whose Englishness is called into question. “We always were English and we always will be English and it’s because we are English that we are sticking up for our right to be Burgundian.”

Related: Brexit minister accuses Bank of England of 'dangerous intervention'

Related: Meet the Europeans in Britain's Brexit heartland

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from Business blog | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/15/brexit-maintain-stubborn-mood-chilling-eu-referendum-warnings

Solar has a bright future in the UK despite Tory efforts to cloud the picture

The tough, innovative and resilient UK solar industry can outlast this government’s energy policies

King Canute is alive and well in Britain.

While solar energy has become a global success story over the past few years, with tumbling costs and exploding deployment, Britain, which was keen on the technology, has slammed on the brakes, casting a shadow over a sector which employed more than 30,000 people but is now shedding jobs by the thousand.

Related: Ikea starts selling solar panels in UK stores

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from Business blog | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/09/solar-bright-future-despite-uk-conservative-government

Cornish town bans new second homes to stop wealthy weekenders forcing out locals – but move 'could drive up prices'

from News http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/06/towns-ban-on-new-second-homes-could-drive-up-prices/