Updated 10:51am 11 February 2012:

Get involved

RSS news for you
Send your stories

Powered by Google

Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson

These statistics are not so easy to figure out

STATISTICS have an enormous influence, particularly in the realms of business and economics.Read

Are things looking up ... or not?

ACCORDING to George Soros, the billionaire financier, the US economy has hit bottom and the current quarter will see a return to growth.Read

Oil price rise will be good for some

WE ARE thankfully well past the “don’t mention the R-word” phase. Now everybody admits that the recession is an elephant fairly and squarely in the room.Read

Nissan news brings hope of recovery

AT LAST, some good economic news – Nissan in Sunderland is to start producing batteries for electric cars with a £200m investment.Read

BA left itself open to buffeting

BEFORE I went away on my summer holidays last month, I had an inkling all was not well with British Airways.Read

It seems we just can't win with the banks

BANKING staff are giving confusing and inconsistent advice to customers when it comes to cheque clearing times, according to a banking watchdog.Read

Price of gold looking noteworthy

I AM, I can now reveal, a millionaire. In fact, I am a trillionaire, in possession of 300 trillion dollars.Read

No need for euro to alert us to price differences

IN the heady weeks and months following Tony Blair’s 1997 general election victory, a strong head of steam built up behind a campaign for the UK to join the euro.Read

Creativity to the fore on expenses

EARLIER this week I had the unnerving experience of watching a video, posted on Downing Street’s website, of Gordon Brown speaking, punctuating his gurning delivery with random smiles and grins.Read

Maybe there is something they aren't telling us

PERHAPS the only good thing about the credit crunch is that it’s so easy to understand.Read

Cheers for cup that inebriates

I SUPPOSE it was only a matter of time before Professor Sir Liam Donaldson stepped up his efforts to make us all miserable.Read

Running scared of deflation

I HAVE never tried turning round a supertanker, but I gather it’s a long, slow process. The world’s governments and central bankers must feel like supertanker captains at the moment, frantically spinning the wheel, yet still the damned thing won’t answer the helm.Read

Protection of your own is defensible, Mr President

A YEAR ago – give or take a couple of weeks – I wrote in this column about haggis. It was nothing to do with Burns Night, but rather to point to a danger facing the world economy.Read

World has fallen out of love with us

ONCE, business was associated with middle-aged men and golf courses, with pin stripes and Rotary lunches – then it became sexy.Read

Number crunching worthy of depression

I’M not able to predict exchange rate movements and I don’t think many other people are either. If I was, I’d be sitting with a long cool drink somewhere hot; somewhere Gordon Brown’s not prime minister of.Read

It’s not really bad – it’s far worse

IT’S not only generally accepted now that we are in a recession; there’s a growing consensus it’s going to be a bad one.Read

The perfect place to start on tax-cutting

NORTH East businesses need new rates on empty properties like they need the proverbial hole in the head.Read

International rules needed on banking

WE may be facing a run on the banks, but at least we are not threatened by an invasion of kilted Scotsmen. At least not until the next big cross border sporting fixture.Read

Come time to blame, remember this lot ...

WE are now reaching that part of the financial crisis which invariably follows the initial shock of failed banks and collapsing markets.Read

Danger behind rescue

SO everything is going to be all right now. At least that was the reaction of the markets last week after the US government announced its US$700bn rescue package for Wall Street, offering to buy the toxic mortgage-related debt.Read

Author Profile

Peter Jackson is a former business editor on The Journal who is now a director of PR agency Press Ahead. He is a native of Lancashire who worked in the City of London, after graduating from Oxford with a degree in Modern History. He entered journalism, working on papers in the North West, before joining The Journal as a business reporter in 1995. After a spell on features desk, he was business editor between 1999 and 2003. Under his editorship, the paper was names business paper of the year and in his time he won four regional and two national journalism awards, including BT Regional Business Journalist of the Year. He left The Journal to become managing director of Benchmark Media Newcastle and later joined Press Ahead as a director. He is also a non-executive director of Durham FM.

nebusiness.co.uk - business news and financial news from across the UK. Updates on local businesses in Newcastle, Middlesbrough and the North East, farming, technology news and sector reports. For our complaints procedure, click here.