June 4, 2013
Foreign Exchange for The Month of June
After a rather turbulent month of May, what can those involved in forex trading expect in the upcoming weeks?
Japan’s yen is set to stabilise at around 100 to the US dollar, after deliberate weakening from the Japanese government in an effort to boost the country’s exports. Whilst Japanese exporters have enjoyed the sales boost, they also need the currency to stabilise in order to reassure current and potential investors.
According to the Bank of Japan, they have doubled their operating profit for the fiscal year through March, at 1.132 trillion yen, an 11 year high.
Bank of England
Outgoing Bank of Canada governor, Mark Carney, will be taking over the reins of the Bank of England come July. This is in an effort to boost Britain’s recovery from the recession, which has been sluggish at best. Forecasters predict that Carney may implement some form of quantitative currency easing and devalue the pound, in an effort to increase exports and become less reliant on consumer spending.
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Forex Forecasts
May 27, 2013
Rapid Increase
AXA Business Insurance has just reported a massive 162% increase in deafness claims on commercial insurance policies, over a time period of three years from 2009-2012. This amounts to approximately £26 million, which businesses are subsequently responsible for paying.
Managing Director of AXA, David Williams, said that “The issue for British industry is that, as we have seen with other areas of insurance in the UK, lots of claims inevitably lead to higher premiums in order to cover the cost of payouts”.
Hear Me Out
Whilst many of these claims are genuine, a large amount have also been found to be fraudulent. Insurance companies are concerned that the dramatic increase in deafness claims is also a result of claims management companies and compensation lawyers targeting potential claimants. At a time when British businesses are still trying to recover from the recession, higher insurance premiums will not be doing anyone any favours.
May 23, 2013
Source: Peter Facey
Translators, writers and scholars have until the 15th of June to submit proposals and papers for the 13th Translation Conference which will be taking place at the University of Portsmouth. The theme for this year’s conference is “Translation and Crime”.
The 2013 conference, set to take place on the 9th of November, will focus on translation as it relates to crime: within the justice system, fiction and forensic linguistics amongst other areas.
Two plenary speakers have been confirmed:
Dr Karen Seago is the Director of Translating Popular Culture MA at the University of London. According to the university website Dr Seago holds an MA in English and German, as well as a PGCTS in German. Seago teaches translation theory and sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Specialised Translation.
May 13, 2013
The Sky’s Not the Limit
Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield, concluded his five month stay in space with style – he filmed a music video of himself covering David Bowie’s hit “Space Oddity”. The 53-year old astronaut can be seen floating in zero gravity on the International Space Station, strumming on his acoustic guitar while he sings. The lyrics are, of course, suited to the occasion.
This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I’m stepping through the door
And I’m floating
In a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
For here
Am I sitting in a tin can
Far above the world
Planet Earth is blue
And there’s nothing I can do
Though I’m past
One hundred thousand miles
I’m feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
May 7, 2013
Stock market players could be turning to Google suggest for financial insight in the near future. A recent study conducted by U.S. and UK academics has suggested that there is a connection between the direction of stock market trends and search data.
Can Google Predict Stock Market Trends?
The analysis by researchers from the Universities of Warwick and Boston is the newest attempt to pinpoint online behaviour patterns for the purpose of chartering movements in financial markets. The published results have shown that during the period of the study, Google Trends data was effectively used to gain insight into the current state of the economy. An example given from the findings was the increase of search terms such as “stocks,” “economics” and “portfolios” by individuals during times of global economic stress. The conclusion drawn from the changes in search frequency for the collection of financial terms used (98 in total), is that they could be used as early signals of upcoming stock market trends.
Bank Station is one of the most complex and busiest interchanges of the Tube network system, and the recent proposal for London Underground construction in this section of the tube is aimed at relieving some of the congestion. Recently the City of London released a statement requesting construction firms who believe that they are capable of taking on this project to submit proposals.
London Underground staff say there will be no tube strike over the Christmas period, but warn that strike action could escalate next year. At 6:30 pm on Monday, the latest 24-hour tube strike over job cuts came to an end – but not before millions of London commuters had faced freezing conditions as they tried to get to work without rail transport.
London’s Mayor Boris Johnson was recently asked if he still believes that the London Underground offers a safe service. This query was delivered on the same day that the Northern Line, one of the London underground zones, was out of service due to a broken-down train. 
If you ask anyone what they find most annoying about the London Underground, we doubt that the majority of then will say that it is the limited space or ticket fares, but rather the lack of mobile phone reception on the tube. An 