WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 23, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES NISSAN’S GHOSN TOPS JAPAN PAY LEAGUE Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn has taken top spot on a list of Japan’s best-paid executives after the carmaker revealed it paid its Brazil-born chief executive Y890m ($9.9m) last year. Nissan and other quoted Japanese companies are being forced to report the compensation of individual executives for the first [...]
Financial reform bill close to completion June 23, 2010 US lawmakers came closer to hammering out legislation to regulate the financial industry yesterday, dropping several proposals in an effort to finalise the new rules by tomorrow evening. A House-Senate panel continued negotiations to merge two major bank reform bills, which aim to overhaul Wall Street and beyond in the wake of the financial crisis. [...]
Sentance shatters consensus with call for rate rise June 23, 2010 A LONE dissenting voice in the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) this month urged for a hike in rates, the first time since August 2008 that such a call has been made. External MPC member Andrew Sentance, who has recently expressed disquiet about stubbornly high inflation in both MPC meetings and in the [...]
Australian mining tax could be axed after PM is ousted June 23, 2010 AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stood down this morning after calling a surprise leadership ballot, throwing negotiations on a new mining supertax in the country into jeopardy. Rudd’s deputy, Julia Gillard, will become Australia’s first female Prime Minister after Rudd resigned before the ballot of Labor party MPs at 9am local time (midnight BST). Gillard [...]
Banks mull measures to avoid UK levy June 23, 2010 BANKING analysts at UBS yesterday predicted a surge in creative accounting practices in the banking sector, as firms look to manipulate their books to minimise the impact of the government’s new balance sheet levy. The team at UBS, led by respected analyst John-Paul Crutchley, has already begun to identify possible opportunities for individual banks to [...]
Moody’s joins Fitch and backs Osborne’s austerity Budget June 23, 2010 THE massive £113bn fiscal tightening unveiled by George Osborne earlier this week should ensure Britain retains its AAA credit rating, Moody’s said yesterday. The comments, which follow similar remarks from fellow ratings agency Fitch, will boost the chancellor, who has staked his reputation on ensuring Britain maintains the highest credit rating possible. “The UK Budget [...]
Worst cuts for the UK since World War II June 23, 2010 WHITEHALL is bracing itself for the longest, and deepest sustained period of cuts to public service spending since at least the Second World War, which could see some departments see their budgets slashed by as much as 33 per cent by 2014-15 in real terms. Leading think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) yesterday confirmed [...]
IFS rejects Budget’s progressive claims June 23, 2010 THE Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) yesterday rejected chancellor George Osborne’s confident claim on Tuesday of a progressive Budget that would spread the pain across all sections of society but that the richest would contribute more than the poorest. James Browne at the IFS said yesterday that the fiscal consolidation measures announced by the coalition [...]
Osborne’s fiscal mandate must focus on the long-term, warns think-tank June 23, 2010 TWO major pitfalls threaten the credibility of George Osborne’s new fiscal mandate and debt target, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said yesterday, although it gave both a cautious welcome. While it applauded the forward-looking nature of the mandate to achieve a balanced structural current budget by the end of the forecast horizon, it warned that [...]
Budget score is 7 out of 10, say our panel June 23, 2010 GEORGE Osborne’s first Budget deserves a score of seven out of ten, our unique panel of London’s financiers and business professionals said yesterday. The City A.M./PoliticsHome.com Panel, which has been specially recruited to represent a cross section of London’s financial community, was also asked whether they thought the toughest fiscal consolidation in Britain’s peacetime history [...]