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Programmes | Working Lunch | How to read company accounts Every one of us, no matter how mathematically challenged, has the potential to be an accountant. That may delight or horrify you. But, if you're serious about getting the best from the stock market, then it's good news indeed. Crunching a few numbers is still the best way to work out old-fashioned investment indicators like company profitability, viability and whether shares are fairly priced. The place to find this sort of thing out is the company accounts, sometimes called the results or financials. And contrary to what you might think, once you understand what you're looking for, these accounts can make for enthralling reading. To help you we've put together this basic guide to making sense of company accounts. Please note, this is a rough guide (it ignores technicalities in favour of simplicity) and is not exhaustive. Also, there are going to be quite a few financial terms. Most will be explained as we go along, so don't be put off. The Balance Sheet Is the company solvent? Are we there yet?

Debates: Arts funding: Statements How to Check if a Company Is Genuine: 11 Steps Edit Article Edited by StarryNights, Luv_sarah, Alice Morrison, Zach and 8 others Scams are an unfortunate aspect of life. A company may look genuine, but in reality, it could turn out to be a scam. Luckily, there are a few things that can throw up a red flag, and help prevent you from falling for one. Ad Steps 1Check the website for a legitimate telephone number and address. 11Use a company credit report to check the legitimacy of a company. Tips When you look up reviews, be smart about whose reviews you trust. Warnings Be careful with your information. Reuters Institute Digital Report 2012 We are excited to announce our newest Reuters Institute Digital Report for 2012 , revealing insights about digital news consumption across Europe and the United States. The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) , based out of the University of Oxford , was established in fall 2006 and heavily supported by the Thomson Reuters Foundation . The Institute is a testament to Oxford University’s commitment to recognizing the role of independent media in the world, and bringing the depth of academic journalism to the field. The report is based on a survey of online news companies in five countries – UK, US, Germany, France, and Denmark – and is part of an ambitions endeavor to track digital news behavior over the next decade. Some of the key findings in the report range from the significant differences in how people of different nations access their news, how frequently news is switching from print to digital, the rise of smartphone usage, and digital news and the age gap.

Financial Services Register Financial Services Firm Search You might deal with a financial services firm for business relating to banking, investments, insurance, or mortgages, other home finance and credit-related regulated activities. The types of firms most likely to be involved in these activities include: banks and building societies; investment firms; credit unions; mortgage and other home finance providers and brokers, insurers and insurance brokers; stockbrokers, asset managers and financial advisers; Firms providing Personal Loans; Pawnbrokers; Credit brokers; Debt adjusters; Debt counsellors; Debt collectors (in relation to credit or consumer hire agreements); Debt administrators; Firms involved in hire purchase; Firms involved in consumer hire; Credit information services; Credit reference agencies; and Firms operating an electronic system related to lending. Most financial services firms have been regulated under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) since 1 December 2001.

Turkey Fires Back After Syria Shelling Why Turkey Is Responding Cautiously Updated: 3:15pm UK, Thursday 04 October 2012 By Tim Marshall, Foreign Affairs Editor The cross border shelling between Syria and Turkey has brought the two countries closer to conflict, but neither side wants to go to war with the other and are seeking ways to de-escalate the situation. On Wednesday at least one shell fell inside a Turkish town, just a few hundred yards from a border post taken by Syrian rebels last month which the Syrian army is trying to take back. Five civilians were killed, a women, her three children and a friend. It is not yet proven if the shell was fired by Syrian Army forces or Syrian rebels, but the Turkish government held the Syrian Army responsible and began firing at army positions. This might seem an odd way to de-escalate tensions, but the Turkish government is playing a difficult and dangerous balancing act. Ankara has to balance public opinion which is both outraged at the deaths of civilians, but does not want war.

Halifax house price index – February 2014 | Move Worldwide Uncategorized|Be the first to comment! House prices in the latest three months (December 2013-February 2014) were 2.1% higher than in the preceding three months (September 2013-November 2013). This is within the range of 1.8% – 2.2% recorded for this measure throughout the preceding nine months. Prices in the three months to February were 7.9% higher than in the same three months a year earlier. House prices increased by 2.4% in February. Activity on an upward trend. Market conditions adding upward pressure on prices. Commenting, Stephen Noakes, Mortgages Director, said: “House prices in the three months to February were 2.1% higher than in the three months to November. “Several factors appear to have boosted demand, such as the improved economic outlook, unemployment falling faster than expected, improvements in consumer confidence and low interest rates.

Syria | Page 4 OIL RISES ABOVE $106 ON MIDDLE EAST TENSION - Alex Lawler Oil rose above $106 a barrel on Thursday to hit a seven-week high as violence in Syria and an attack on Israeli tourists increased tension in the Middle East, bringing supply concerns back into focus. The killing of top Syrian security chiefs on Wednesday, and the attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, which Israel accused Iran of carrying out, worsened the crisis in the Middle East, the source of more than a quarter of the world's oil. Brent crude gained for a seventh straight day, rising $1.33 to $106.49 a barrel by 1017 GMT and hitting $106.63 earlier, the highest since May 30. U.S. oil gained 98 cents to $90.85. "Within just a week, prices have climbed by more than 8 percent, primarily on the back of geopolitical risks," said Carsten Fritsch, analyst at Commerzbank. Read on...

News - Websites and apps: Homebuying help on smartphones 17 July 2013Last updated at 19:10 ET Money Talk by Henry Pryor Estate agent New technology can be useful for people searching for a new home Looking for a new home can be a traumatic and frustrating business. Along with divorce and the death of a loved one, it ranks as one of the three most stressful events we could experience. Dealing with estate agents, solicitors, mortgage brokers and removal companies is frustrating. Help is at hand from the internet, with apps, shortcuts and software to make the search for a perfect home a little easier. A selection of these tools are listed here, but there are many others available too. Buying a home When you start your search for a new home to rent or buy then the two biggest websites are Rightmove and Zoopla. Unmodernised.com holds details of homes needing work and websites such as PropertySnake.co.uk list homes that have reduced their asking price. Slightly more complicated is PropertyBee, which tracks a listing on a site like Rightmove. End Quote

How the Poor Die In the year 1929 I spent several weeks in the Hôpital X, in the fifteenth arrondissement of Paris. The clerks put me through the usual third-degree at the reception desk, and indeed I was kept answering questions for some twenty minutes before they would let me in. If you have ever had to fill up forms in a Latin country you will know the kind of questions I mean. After the questioning came the bath — a compulsory routine for all newcomers, apparently, just as in prison or the workhouse. The cold air outside had probably lowered my temperature, and I watched this barbarous remedy with detachment and even a certain amount of amusement. During my first hour in the Hôpital X I had had a whole series of different and contradictory treatments, but this was misleading, for in general you got very little treatment at all, either good or bad, unless you were ill in some interesting and instructive way. After some days I grew well enough to sit up and study the surrounding patients.

House prices: What to expect - news and predictions By Simon LambertUPDATED: 14:55 GMT, 17 April 2014 House prices are racing ahead once more, as boom-time conditions in London and the commuter belt drive headline figures up - but figures show rises now spreading across the country. The latest major reports from Halifax and Nationwide put annual house price inflation at 8.7 per cent and 9.5 per cent,while the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has said buyers chasing a short supply of decent homes for sale is driving up prices. RICs forecasts the average UK house price will rise by six per cent a year for the next five years, pushing prices up 35 per cent by 2020. So what will happen next? Widespread: Every region in the UK has seen a rise in average property values The property market snapshot House price rises have spread outside of London and the South East, with major reports showing prices rising across the country. But yet again it was in the capital that prices saw their greatest increase. Enlarge The headwinds facing the market

Could deja vu be explained by grid cells? Could déjà vu be explained by grid cells?—Robyn Ganeles, San Francisco Neuroscientist Edvard I. Moser of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology responds: THIS IS A GREAT QUESTION, because grid cells, which are involved in processing spatial information about our surroundings, are located in a brain region that is part of a larger memory system thought to be responsible for the feeling of familiarity. In any environment, the brain must keep track of the distinct locations within the surrounding area (say, at the kitchen table versus in front of the refrigerator). In contrast, grid cells work in a network to produce a kind of internal coordinate system, noting information about distance and direction. Grid cells are located in the entorhinal cortex, a brain region that processes information before sending it to the hippocampus, the area where place cells are located. Michael V.

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