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ECONOMIC REVIEW

Everything seems to be conspiring to depress our economy. The Barclays Purchasing Managers

BUSINESS REVIEW

The dieselgate scandal may result in an arrest in the development of smaller diesel vehicles in Europe

Cargill has developed a natural calorie-free sweetener which will be sold as EverSweet next year.

Last week I reported that the Masters in Management degrees were set to overtake MBA

PROPERTY REVIEW

Inexplicably the local commercial property finance market remains buoyant. Of this the office and retail property market is possibly under the most pressure whilst the industrial market seems to be doing reasonably.

Shopping centres still deliver the best returns for commercial real estate investors. Overall returns now stand at 6.5% for the first half of 2015.

An interesting note made by Loos, is that the percentage of home sellers, seekin to downscale, remains at the multi-year low this year. This is ascribed to conservative mortgage lending practices by banks since 2008.

CASES

The abstract theory of transfer

In this case a so-called back-to-back transfer of land and the construction of a dwelling on it had been entered into. The deed of sale was not signed by one party; despite this the property was transferred to the purchaser. This transfer was argued to been invalid given S2(1) of the Alienation of Land Act. The court would have none of it

QUOTABLES

WEIRD & WONDERFUL

The news that Hitachi paid a fine in the USA for paying kickbacks to Chancellor House calls up memories of Nummawun and Shaik. We are used to only one party in a fraudulent relationship being guilty!

HSBC has said that South African money stashed in Swiss bank accounts outweigh that emanating from the USA eight times. This may be just one bank but one wonders.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend: it is quite interesting to see that Russia and the USA are both fighting essentially the same enemy. The only difference is that both sides claim to be more legitimate than the other in their selection of strikes and that they have different outcomes in mind. It will be interesting to see what transpires at of victory is one. Frankly after having seen American intervention elsewhere and the chaos that results in a power vacuum, Russia

LIGHTEN UP

Female Bok supporter at Newcastle accosts a Scot.