Finanzas

LARGE food companies have long been among the world’s most solid, with reassuringly consistent returns even in hard times. None would seem steadier than Nestlé, based in the Swiss town of Vevey, on a lake near snowy peaks. For its 150th anniversary in 2016 it opened a new museum filled with corporate heirlooms: the first written notes about a new product called milk chocolate, laid out in black cursive; an old tin of Nescafé, used by soldiers as a stimulant in the second world war; and an early can of Henri Nestlé’s infant formula, which in 1867 saved the life of a premature baby.

It has come a long way since then. It sold goods worth nearly $90bn in 189 countries in 2015. Of the 30,000 cups of coffee sipped around the world each second, Nestlé estimates, one-fifth are cups of Nescafé. But the industry it presides over is in upheaval. On January 1st a new chief executive, Ulf Mark Schneider (pictured), took over. He is the first outsider to get the top job since 1922, and his background—running a health-care firm, not selling chocolate bars or frozen pizza—suggests the main source of worry for the business.

More and more…Continue reading

La petrolera pacta con su exconsejero delegado Rex Tillerson abonarle en metálico el finiquito multimillonario y evitar un conflicto de intereses

Las fiestas pueden ser una buena oportunidad para reflexionar sobre qué tipo de inversor podrías ser

IN THE early days of commercial flight, people would dress up to take to the air and marvel at the fact that they, members of a heretofore land-bound species, were flying through the sky. Nowadays we clamour for the opposite mindset: one in which we do our best to pretend we are not flying at all.

Such denial has moved a step closer. A French startup called SkyLights has produced a 3-D virtual-reality (VR) headset, with noise-cancelling headphones, that envelops travellers in a cinematic world completely removed from their airborne surroundings. In mid-December, XL Airways, a French low-cost carrier, became the first airline to offer SkyLights to flyers. For $16 per flight, travellers can immerse themselves in new Hollywood releases, in their own individual theatres.

For travellers who want to get away from the many annoyances of flying—from the screaming child in the next row, the loud conversation across the aisle, the seatback movie selection that seems to consist entirely of lowbrow sequels—SkyLights and similar technology could be a godsend. And yet there’s something sad, something resigned, about confining oneself to an…Continue reading

La compraventa por Internet crece un 20% en el segundo trimestre de 2016 y supera los 5.900 millones

INDUSTRIAL policy via Twitter is a new development in economics but we may all have to get used to it over the next four (or eight) years. Donald Trump’s tweets on the car industry (and his planned cuts to corporate income tax) may or may not have persuaded Ford to keep a plant in Michigan, creating 700 jobs. But the problem with such headline-grabbing is that there are thousands of companies in the US, and jobs are being created or destroyed every day; intervening in all these situations is impossible. Even in cars, for example, GM has recently announced 3,300 lay-offs, almost five times greater than the Ford additions.  

History suggests that the aim of creating large numbers of manufacturing jobs will be a lost cause. In 1979, the high point for US manufacturing jobs was reached at 19.5m. The subsequent recession of the early 1980s caused that number to fall but there were regularly 17m-18m jobs in the 1980s and 1990s. From the turn of the millennium, however, the total fell pretty remorselessly, with the 2008-09 recession proving the coup de grace. The low was just under 11.5m in early…Continue reading

Tras una sentencia del Supremo, diferentes tribunales condenan a las entidades a devolver lo pagado por los clientes en notarios, registros y el impuesto de actos jurídicos documentados

Five Bowies make a Winston

TUCKED away in a corner of Brixton, in south London, a rainbow-coloured ATM dispenses cash, looking for all the world like any other. But the notes it spews out are not pounds sterling. They are Brixton pounds (B£). Not to be mistaken for silly Monopoly money, the Brixton pound can actually be spent, legally: the currency, which has a fixed one-for-one exchange rate with sterling, is accepted at over 150 local shops and businesses. It can even be used to pay local taxes.

Launched in 2009, this is one of many such initiatives. Local currencies have been adopted in other towns and cities in Britain, such as Bristol, Exeter and Totnes. Elsewhere, examples include the eusko, used in the French Basques; BerkShares, used in western Massachusetts; and the Ithaca Hour, in Ithaca, New York. Barcelona plans an experiment in 2017.

Such schemes aim to boost spending at local retailers and suppliers, by encouraging the recirculation of money within a community. Because the currency is worthless outside its defined geographic area, holders spend it in the neighbourhood, thus creating a “local…Continue reading

2016 was not a great year for business travellers. In Britain, the Brexit referendum and related collapse in the value of the pound made travelling abroad costly; transport strikes meant getting around was an ordeal for those who stayed put. In continental Europe, terror attacks targeted airports and tourist spots, while striking workers blockaded sea ports, grounded airlines and nobbled the air-traffic control system. America, meanwhile, had to deal with mammoth security lines at airports and Asian travellers had to contend with a slowdown in China, the world’s biggest business-travel market.

Sadly, 2017 does not look like it is going to be any better. Indeed, things could get worse. First of all there are oil prices. For travellers, the low cost of fuel was a rare bright spot in 2016. Cheaper flights meant more chance to chip away at the corporate-travel budget. Now the oil price is creeping back up, which means purse-strings may be tightened. Indeed, some airlines are already looking to offset rising costs by charging for drinks on long haul…Continue reading

Japan Tobacco International, Philip Morris, Altadis y British American Tobacco han aumentado el valor de sus cajetillas en el último mes