Reaching 65 no longer means hanging up your work shoes Photo: ALAMY In the last three months an extra 40,000 people over the age of 65 have joined the work force, taking the total number to 823,000. This is the highest number since the Office for National Statistics started keeping these figures in [ Read More → ]

Vietnam is ‘one of the most promising countries in the world’, according to one analyst. Investors who are fed up with dismal returns from traditional markets are making steps to invest in more adventurous areas. Popular funds include those that invest in Latin America, Russia, India, gold and commodities. Rebecca O’Keeffe, at Interactive Investor, [ Read More → ]

The latest lending statistics suggested the number of people who remortgaged their homes in June was just 27,000, down 20 per cent on a year earlier. Ed Stansfield, chief property economist at Capital Economics, said: “There is a sense that people have too little equity in their homes to be able to switch [ Read More → ]

Oregon exports — which had been rebounding for the past year, stoking the economic recovery — stalled in the second quarter as farm sales and shipments to Asia fell. The reversal came as the U.S. trade gap expanded by 19 percent in June. The nation imported $49.9 billion more in goods and services [ Read More → ]

The latest Inflation Report from the Bank of England has suggested that the economy is recovering at a slower rate than expected. The report, released today, states: “The recovery continued in the United Kingdom, with output growth across the first half of 2010 close to its historical average. But the level of [ Read More → ]

Nearly two-thirds of British drivers (64%) admit to having engaged in some form of potentially dangerous activity whilst driving in the last month, according to new research from Sainsbury’s Car Insurance. Eating and drinking whilst driving is the most prevalent dangerous habit, with 38% of motorists questioned admitting to having done [ Read More → ]

WASHINGTON — Prospects are bleak for fixing Social Security’s financial problems as the government retirement insurance program celebrates its 75th anniversary this week. Many Democrats adamantly oppose any cut in benefits to reduce cost and some won’t accept a gradual increase in the retirement age, something that was done in the [ Read More → ]

BERLIN — Germans are famous for being hard workers - but retirement at 70? That’s the prescription of two think tanks, which say years more toil are inevitable due to stubbornly low birthrates and the ballooning costs of the cradle-to-grave welfare system in a country that already has decided to bump [ Read More → ]

AMSTERDAM — , the Dutch bank and insurance company, Wednesday reported a sharp rise in second quarter earnings, mostly because it avoided some of the losses it made a year ago on stocks, bonds, and real estate-related investments. Net profit was euro1.09 billion ($1.44 billion), up from euro79 million in the [ Read More → ]

The markets are signaling that a bout of deflation may be coming. Many economists still dismiss the threat. But if they are wrong, and deflation does set in, what would it mean for stocks, bonds, gold and other investments? The last time deflation fears gripped the markets was in 2003, when [ Read More → ]