:00:14. > :00:22.This is Business Live. Mark Carney, take to the stage, he warned we
:00:23. > :00:27.could see a slow down if we voted to leave the EU. Will he cut rates for
:00:28. > :00:31.the first time since 2009? Live from London, that our top story
:00:32. > :00:45.today on Thursday the 4th of August. -- that is.
:00:46. > :00:52.It is shelter from the Brexit storm, the Bank of England weighs up action
:00:53. > :00:57.as the economy teeters possibly on the brink of recession. It is
:00:58. > :01:01.expected that Mark Carney will press that rate cut button and reduce
:01:02. > :01:06.rates by a quarter of 1%. It will be the first interest rate cut in
:01:07. > :01:13.Britain since 2009. Also in the programme, Toyota in a spin. Asia's
:01:14. > :01:16.largest car-maker says profits tumbled by almost 15%. This is as
:01:17. > :01:23.the car giant contends with falling sales in the United States and
:01:24. > :01:31.increasingly stronger yen. A busy day on the markets. Europe very keen
:01:32. > :01:36.to see the interest rate cut. But everything is up because of that job
:01:37. > :01:39.market news. A glitzy fundraising dinner is set
:01:40. > :01:43.speak to the boss of a company that speak to the boss of a company that
:01:44. > :01:48.hopes to revolutionise the way charities raise money. Also,
:01:49. > :01:52.ditching your digital devices to detox the mind, body and soul.
:01:53. > :01:57.Logging out and signing off seemed to be the new trend, but are you
:01:58. > :02:08.ready to disconnect? Or are you addicted? Let us know.
:02:09. > :02:17.Lots of messages coming in already. We've been bombarded by the
:02:18. > :02:20.technology question. The will they won't they
:02:21. > :02:23.merry-go-round over a possible UK rate cut is in full swing today
:02:24. > :02:26.as the country looks to stave off The bank disappointed a lot of
:02:27. > :02:43.people. economic data since then has led
:02:44. > :02:47.many to believe that they will be As you can see here rates haven't
:02:48. > :02:58.moved much for quite a while now 0.5% a year after year, almost eight
:02:59. > :03:02.years we've seen that. We haven't seen a rise since 2007.
:03:03. > :03:07.Leading economists now fear that there's a 50/50 chance of the UK
:03:08. > :03:12.falling into recession as a result of the Brexit vote and lower
:03:13. > :03:17.interest rates are one of the ways to reduce that risk.
:03:18. > :03:21.The theory goes that lower rates make saving money less
:03:22. > :03:26.attractive while reducing the cost of borrowing.
:03:27. > :03:30.This in turn drives people to borrow and spend more,
:03:31. > :03:35.That all sounds great but unfortunately there are also
:03:36. > :03:45.With rates already so low there are fewer levers to pull
:03:46. > :03:48.if things get worse for the central bank.
:03:49. > :03:51.Japan and the EU have both tried negative rates but many economists
:03:52. > :03:56.argue that this has done more harm than good.
:03:57. > :03:59.Prolonged ultra-low rates also tend to encourage unsustainable debt
:04:00. > :04:13.With borrowing so cheap people and businesses are far more likely
:04:14. > :04:15.to pay over the odds for things they can't really afford.
:04:16. > :04:21.Our Economics Editor Kamal Ahmed joins us on the programme.
:04:22. > :04:27.Welcome and good morning. This isn't an easy job. How do you signal that
:04:28. > :04:31.you will do whatever it takes to support an economy, but at the same
:04:32. > :04:34.time not exacerbate the problems of faltering confidence which we've
:04:35. > :04:39.seen from some of the data from the past few weeks? The Bank of England
:04:40. > :04:44.has marched us up the hill of we are going to cut rates. We were here a
:04:45. > :04:49.month ago when the monetary policy committee, the committee that takes
:04:50. > :04:53.the decision of nine economists of interest rates, we thought in July
:04:54. > :04:58.they would cut rates. The bank didn't. I think that was mostly down
:04:59. > :05:02.to the lack of data after the 23rd of June vote on leaving the European
:05:03. > :05:07.Union. There has been a lot of data since then. I think the chance of a
:05:08. > :05:13.cut, which will be announced at midday today in London, is far
:05:14. > :05:18.higher than it was in July. I think Mark Carney has said that he wants
:05:19. > :05:23.to see more monetary easing. He has been supporting that by two very
:05:24. > :05:31.significant members of the NCP. -- supported. I think we mustn't forget
:05:32. > :05:38.that cutting rates isn't all they could do. They also could introduce
:05:39. > :05:41.more quantitative easing, the buying of government debt, that increases
:05:42. > :05:49.the money supply in the economy. Or they could announce that they want
:05:50. > :05:52.to support bank lending, that is producing more money, more cheap
:05:53. > :05:57.money for banks to lend into the economy. There are other levers. But
:05:58. > :06:01.the big issue for Britain at the moment is the monetary policy, it
:06:02. > :06:04.isn't the interest rate, it is fiscal policy. What will the new
:06:05. > :06:08.government do, the new Chancellor, Philip Hammond, when they announce
:06:09. > :06:12.their first sort of Budget, the Autumn Statement, in November,
:06:13. > :06:21.December? It isn't just a British thing at the moment. We have the
:06:22. > :06:24.global picture. If we see a move from the Bank of England that will
:06:25. > :06:30.just replicate what we'd seen the Australian central bank do, they
:06:31. > :06:35.have cut down to a record rate, and the bank of Japan. Central banks
:06:36. > :06:42.are, once again, getting very active. Central banks have been
:06:43. > :06:46.trying to take the weight, or do the heavy lifting of economic growth.
:06:47. > :06:51.Probably they would argue, and Mark Carney has said this in the past,
:06:52. > :06:55.almost too much has been expected from central banks. To the point of
:06:56. > :07:03.which now the responsibility is moving much more sharply towards
:07:04. > :07:06.governments. You said in your intro to our discussion that negative
:07:07. > :07:11.interest rates haven't done a huge amount. There is some truth in that.
:07:12. > :07:14.But interestingly, if you take Britain out of the equation, and
:07:15. > :07:17.Britain has been suffering economically since the referendum,
:07:18. > :07:23.the Eurozone is doing better now, China is doing better now. There is
:07:24. > :07:29.some evidence Japan is doing better. The American economy has been
:07:30. > :07:33.struggling. Overall this monetary commerce hugely loose monetary
:07:34. > :07:37.policy, around the globe does appear to be feeding through to the
:07:38. > :07:42.Eurozone, at least to slightly stronger growth. -- this monetary
:07:43. > :07:50.policy, this hugely loose monetary policy. When you look at some of the
:07:51. > :07:54.data, particularly around lending, it does not seem to be the case that
:07:55. > :07:59.banks are not willing to lend. It seems to be the case that people are
:08:00. > :08:05.not willing to borrow. They just don't want it. You are right. This
:08:06. > :08:09.is not just a supply problem it is a demand problem. Already in the
:08:10. > :08:15.aftermath of a referendum the Bank of England actually reduced capital
:08:16. > :08:21.requirement on banks to encourage them to lend. Banks are already in a
:08:22. > :08:26.position where they are able to lend far more than demand is in the
:08:27. > :08:30.system. I think that is around, again, fiscal policy. It's around
:08:31. > :08:35.businesses feeling they will borrow money for a reason. There will be
:08:36. > :08:39.big infrastructure projects that could support the economy. At the
:08:40. > :08:43.moment businesses are hoarding cash because they don't feel confident
:08:44. > :08:47.about the future. Clearly that uncertainty has grown now Britain
:08:48. > :08:50.has voted to leave the European Union. Because it is unclear what
:08:51. > :08:56.our relationship will be with the rest of the EU. Those are the areas
:08:57. > :08:59.where uncertainty is an issue for businesses. They are not shouting
:09:00. > :09:05.that they cannot borrow at low enough rates, borrowing is
:09:06. > :09:10.incredibly come historically cheap. What businesses need to invest is
:09:11. > :09:14.certainty around the political situation, the economic policies of
:09:15. > :09:18.the new UK Government, and what it's going to do on taxing, spending, and
:09:19. > :09:22.borrowing. Its moves on that, I think, will increase the demand
:09:23. > :09:31.issue, which you have struck upon, rather than the supply issue. Thanks
:09:32. > :09:35.very much. I am glad you agree with me.
:09:36. > :09:38.CHUCKLES Let's talk about Japan now.
:09:39. > :09:40.Toyota has just published financial results for the first
:09:41. > :09:53.It is almost building up to a perfect storm, right? US car sales
:09:54. > :09:58.falling and the Japanese currency has been a bit strong.
:09:59. > :10:03.That's right. It is essentially the strong currency which has hit
:10:04. > :10:06.earnings for Toyota. It's the world's guest auto-maker. They are
:10:07. > :10:11.blaming the strong yen for the nearly 15% fall in its profits over
:10:12. > :10:15.the April to June quarter. It also said sales in the US are down. That
:10:16. > :10:23.strong yen means the profits it brings home from markets like the US
:10:24. > :10:26.are lower. It is only really worth more when the yen is weak. It also
:10:27. > :10:29.makes them more competitive overseas. But the yen has been
:10:30. > :10:32.rallying since the start of the year rallying since the start of the year
:10:33. > :10:36.because of those volatile equity market and Britain's vote to leave
:10:37. > :10:39.the European Union. That prompted many investors to buy it because
:10:40. > :10:44.they see it as a safe haven investment. We also saw other
:10:45. > :10:50.factors like the earthquake earlier this year. That hit one of Toyota's
:10:51. > :11:01.the production centres. It hit sales of about 60,000 vehicles. We also
:11:02. > :11:05.saw Toyota cutting for profits. We are seeing it slide to a four year
:11:06. > :11:14.low. A perfect storm. Not looking good. But there were still profits,
:11:15. > :11:17.$5.4 billion, and the shares closed today before the results were out at
:11:18. > :11:20.nearly 2% higher. Thanks very much. Electric car maker Tesla lost
:11:21. > :11:25.$293 million in the three That's the 13th
:11:26. > :11:33.quarterly loss in a row. It also missed analyst's
:11:34. > :11:35.expectations for sales forecasts and fell short
:11:36. > :11:37.of production targets. The company insists however
:11:38. > :11:40.that it is on track to deliver 50,000 Model S and Model X vehicles
:11:41. > :11:48.in the second half of the year. The world's biggest
:11:49. > :11:50.sports-maker, Nike, has announced that it will stop
:11:51. > :11:53.selling golf equipment. Last year sales at Nike's golf unit
:11:54. > :11:56.fell by 8% to $706 million, it's the third year
:11:57. > :12:03.in a row of declines. Earlier this year Nike's rival,
:12:04. > :12:15.Adidas, also announced its intention Who is going to make the golf stuff?
:12:16. > :12:15.Hopefully nobody will be playing any golf.
:12:16. > :12:19.Atlantic City's Trump Taj Mahal will close at the end of the summer.
:12:20. > :12:21.The casino owned by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, is the latest
:12:22. > :12:24.in a string of casino closures for the New Jersey Beach resort.
:12:25. > :12:34.Four of its 12 casinos remain shut after closing in 2014.
:12:35. > :12:39.The magic of television, I'm on my legs.
:12:40. > :12:42.Japan's main market the Nikkei recovering some of that
:12:43. > :12:54.It has had a heck of a right of late. -- ride.
:12:55. > :13:04.A bit of a rebound in oil prices from four month lows also supporting
:13:05. > :13:19.We will get the big jobs figures on Friday from the US, remember.
:13:20. > :13:22.In Europe - and the big news will be at midday -
:13:23. > :13:25.will the Bank of England cut rates to the lowest level in the central
:13:26. > :13:42.Currency dealers are a bit uncertain how sterling would react
:13:43. > :13:45.to a rate cut, as it has been largely factored in already.
:13:46. > :13:52.and find out what'll be making the biz headlines in the US.
:13:53. > :13:55.On Wednesday we heard from media companies Time Warner
:13:56. > :14:01.On Thursday, Viacom, the owner of Nickelodeon,
:14:02. > :14:03.Comedy Central and the film studio Paramount Pictures,
:14:04. > :14:13.The legal drama over control of the $40 billion media empire,
:14:14. > :14:16.as well as disappointing results at American box offices, means that
:14:17. > :14:18.investors will have lots of questions for company executives.
:14:19. > :14:21.And as the job market in the US picks up, the professional social
:14:22. > :14:23.networking site Linkedin expects its earnings to do the same
:14:24. > :14:32.Investors will be looking for more details on its $26 billion
:14:33. > :14:39.acquisition by Microsoft which was announced last month.
:14:40. > :14:43.And, of course, investors will want to know if they expect any
:14:44. > :14:49.impact of the Brexit vote on the company.
:14:50. > :14:52.Let's have a quick look at some other stories that
:14:53. > :15:06.This is about twitter. Twitter shares surged by about 17% on a
:15:07. > :15:10.rumour that this guy here, he is the former boss of Microsoft, might be
:15:11. > :15:13.interested in buying the entire site. There have been lots of
:15:14. > :15:23.reports. Him and somebody else, right?
:15:24. > :15:32.Yes. Him and another investor are getting ready to buy Twitter.
:15:33. > :15:37.Ballmer Last year announced a 4% stake in the company. Worth about
:15:38. > :15:39.$12 billion. The problem with Twitter is it is a
:15:40. > :15:45.company that has never made a profit. Its last numbers that came
:15:46. > :15:49.back, the biggest problem is building the monthly users, the
:15:50. > :15:53.active users, I should say. It was only a few weeks ago where we had
:15:54. > :15:58.the latest numbers and they built them in the last few months by about
:15:59. > :16:04.3% only. Experts are saying it just is not enough, and then you have the
:16:05. > :16:08.competition from Snapchat. And lots of people deciding they
:16:09. > :16:11.don't want their devices. They are putting down their Magri devices and
:16:12. > :16:14.having a digital detox. We will talk about that later. --
:16:15. > :16:17.their devices. Still to come - are glitzy
:16:18. > :16:20.fundraising dinners set to become Later in the programme,
:16:21. > :16:24.we speak to the boss of one company which hopes to revolutionise the way
:16:25. > :16:26.charities raise money. You're with Business
:16:27. > :16:34.Live from BBC News. British bookmaker Ladbrokes has just
:16:35. > :16:36.released financial results The BBC's Theo Leggett
:16:37. > :16:49.joins us now. He has been going through some of
:16:50. > :16:54.the numbers. Tell us more. This time last year, the first six months of
:16:55. > :16:59.2015, Ladbrokes racked up a more than ?15 million loss, but this time
:17:00. > :17:04.it's turned it around on the pre-tax figure is ?25.2 million worth of
:17:05. > :17:07.profit. It's all about football. There have been some problems with
:17:08. > :17:12.Leicester City winning the Premier League costing the company ?3
:17:13. > :17:21.million. But on the other side of the coin, the European Championship,
:17:22. > :17:23.where England, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, not doing
:17:24. > :17:27.terribly well. Not great for fans but good for the bookies. The only
:17:28. > :17:30.one bucking the trend was Wales. The overall picture from the European
:17:31. > :17:34.Championships was that the number of bets was up and it was very
:17:35. > :17:41.profitable for Ladbrokes and other bookies. Ladbrokes in the process of
:17:42. > :17:44.merging with Coral, a big strategy change, try to sell off a number of
:17:45. > :17:49.shops, but at the moment the strategy seems to be working. There
:17:50. > :17:53.is lots of competition in the sector at the moment with a lot of
:17:54. > :17:58.consolidation and regulatory changes as well. An interesting space to
:17:59. > :18:03.follow. It has been for some time. What Ladbrokes is doing with its
:18:04. > :18:07.merger with Corel is bringing together two of the big players on
:18:08. > :18:14.the high street. Some are suggesting high street bookmakers have had
:18:15. > :18:17.their day and it's going all on the Internet but Ladbrokes are saying
:18:18. > :18:19.that isn't necessarily true. Yes, a lot of betting happens on the
:18:20. > :18:24.Internet but high Street bookmakers are doing well as well. To prove the
:18:25. > :18:27.point, they will sell 400 shops, and they reckon they have found a buyer,
:18:28. > :18:33.currently unnamed, but they think the buyer will purchase sometime in
:18:34. > :18:40.the second half of the year. We are talking about detoxing from digital
:18:41. > :18:44.devices, could you live without your smartphone and devices for a few
:18:45. > :18:49.days? Absolutely not, I need to keep up with your Twitter feed! You are
:18:50. > :18:55.so diplomatic, a cheeky man. Thank you so much. Look up the hashtag
:18:56. > :19:10.sockwars. Private health care firm Bupa says
:19:11. > :19:12.it's profits have fallen 45% because of the oil price slide in the first
:19:13. > :19:14.half of the year. Our top story - The Bank of England
:19:15. > :19:18.is today expected to announce that it's cutting interest rates
:19:19. > :19:20.to a 0.25%. If that happens, it'll be
:19:21. > :19:33.the first change in the rate It will also be the lowest level of
:19:34. > :19:37.interest rates in the bank's 322 years of history. We've been waiting
:19:38. > :19:39.for something to happen for 88 months, so we are quite excited
:19:40. > :19:42.there might be a rate cut today. Most economists believe the Bank
:19:43. > :19:46.will act, with data showing a significant fall in economic
:19:47. > :19:58.activity since Britain voted That happened in construction and
:19:59. > :20:00.manufacturing ants as well as the service industry.
:20:01. > :20:04.Charity auctions have long been associated with the super-wealthy,
:20:05. > :20:09.There's now one company which hopes to make fundraising a less
:20:10. > :20:13.Similar to eBay, E-Solidar is an online marketplace
:20:14. > :20:22.However, all sales that take place on the platform must go
:20:23. > :20:24.The company also sources memorabilia for charities,
:20:25. > :20:27.meaning you don't necessarily need to meet someone famous
:20:28. > :20:29.in order to auction off a signed football shirt.
:20:30. > :20:33.Despite serving the charity sector, E-Solidar does aim to turn a profit.
:20:34. > :20:34.Last year, E-Solidar received $600,000 from venture
:20:35. > :20:47.Marco Barbosa is the founder of E-Solidar.
:20:48. > :20:54.Great to have you with us. I guess we will start with that, the
:20:55. > :21:02.600,000, you have to make money, so how do you? Everything we raise we
:21:03. > :21:05.send to charity, so we cannot make money without impacting on charity
:21:06. > :21:09.and vice versa. You must have spotted a gap in the market to set
:21:10. > :21:13.up this business, so what were the structural issues you saw with big
:21:14. > :21:21.charities? Big charities, about 90% of the income for charities goes to
:21:22. > :21:26.5% of the charities, and 81% of charities are struggling to raise
:21:27. > :21:29.funds to survive. The other side, from the consumer perspective and
:21:30. > :21:34.the corporate sector, they struggle to navigate the charity world and
:21:35. > :21:40.the complexity. Some charities have yet to fully grasp the technology,
:21:41. > :21:42.so we want to make the bridge between the companies and the people
:21:43. > :21:50.that want to support charities and the charities themselves. In
:21:51. > :21:54.something like this, transparency is so important, it's important for
:21:55. > :22:01.everybody, but for a charity, how do you go about making sure? We explain
:22:02. > :22:06.very clearly on the website what we do, and the fee that we take. It's
:22:07. > :22:14.about improving technology, bettering tools, owing to the market
:22:15. > :22:17.and understand the pain from the charities and also for the
:22:18. > :22:22.consumers, how they are struggling to help the charities and also the
:22:23. > :22:26.corporate sector. What's the endgame for the company? As far as I can
:22:27. > :22:32.think or remember, there isn't a big listed company out there in the
:22:33. > :22:40.charity space. Will that be you? We hope so. In maybe 8-10 years, if we
:22:41. > :22:49.manage to keep growing, we would like to be made an IPO, and show the
:22:50. > :22:52.world it's possible to have the profitability and the capitalist
:22:53. > :22:59.world, together with the social impact of the charity giving. At the
:23:00. > :23:03.same time we are supporting great causes and making a better bridge
:23:04. > :23:09.between the for-profit and nonprofit markets. Is that realistic? Seeing
:23:10. > :23:13.the nonprofit sector be as profitable as the profit sector.
:23:14. > :23:22.Surely by definition they are not. We have that visceral reaction of
:23:23. > :23:26.people making a lot of money to help people. We strongly believe it's
:23:27. > :23:33.possible to help people. We know it's very hard, but if we work with
:23:34. > :23:37.and for charities, attracting venture capital is very tough, but
:23:38. > :23:43.we think we can show to other entrepreneurs that it's possible. So
:23:44. > :23:49.we can open this mentality and show that it's possible. What's on the
:23:50. > :23:56.site just now, what do you have listed? A shirt from the cycling
:23:57. > :24:06.athletes. A shirt from the Portuguese team. We have the glasses
:24:07. > :24:14.from Elton John. Just go back to the question, we are a company that
:24:15. > :24:19.supports communities and we hope everyone can invest. Great stuff, so
:24:20. > :24:21.sorry, but thank you for coming in. Internet overload has led
:24:22. > :24:23.millions of people in the UK to take a digital detox,
:24:24. > :24:25.according to research The survey found more than 30%
:24:26. > :24:29.of internet users have taken between a day
:24:30. > :24:31.and a month away from the web. Almost 60% of those surveyed
:24:32. > :24:33.considered themselves BBC's Emma Simpson has this
:24:34. > :24:39.report... Nothing beats getting
:24:40. > :24:45.away from it all. If I Google that, we will be
:24:46. > :24:52.able to look today. I find it totally impossible just
:24:53. > :24:55.to put it away and not I like to keep in touch
:24:56. > :25:00.with everybody and I like to be able to post all my photos to Facebook
:25:01. > :25:05.so my friends can see where we are. We are now spending the equivalent
:25:06. > :25:08.of just over a day a week online A third of adults have taken
:25:09. > :25:14.a "digital detox" or break to strike For instance, 16% of us have made
:25:15. > :25:34.a point of going somewhere with no Many parents are making their kids
:25:35. > :25:37.take an online break. Nearly two thirds have been digitally grounded,
:25:38. > :25:41.but this lot say they know when to stop. I don't find it something you
:25:42. > :25:44.need every day. Because I'm more than happy biking up and down, I
:25:45. > :25:51.don't have to be on the Internet. We are better connected
:25:52. > :25:53.than ever before. But the challenge is to not let
:25:54. > :25:56.technology take over our lives. There will be more business news
:25:57. > :26:02.throughout the day on the BBC Live webpage and on World Business
:26:03. > :26:05.Report.