Item Club in Darling swipe April 18, 2010 A LEADING economist forecasting group has questioned Alistair Darling’s future plans for the UK public finances, saying his projections in the recent Budget lacked both precision and ambition. The Ernst & Young Item Club praised Darling’s Budget for assisting businesses and supporting the labour market but said the Treasury had wrongly based its assumptions for [...]
Black Swans back with a vengeance April 18, 2010 CHAOS theory reigns supreme. That is one of the most powerful lessons in life: unexpected events always tend to derail even the best and most carefully thought out plans. We have seen three major disruptions to the received wisdom in the past few days; all will have severe consequences. The first was the outcome of [...]
Tories seize on IFS report April 18, 2010 THE TORIES yesterday seized on a report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies that criticised Labour’s stewardship of the public finances. The independent economic think-tank noted that the public sector moved from a deficit to a surplus in the early years of the 1997 Labour government, when the party followed tax and spending plans laid [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 18, 2010 THE SUNDAYS The Sunday Telegraph BARCAP TO RAID ECM BANKERS Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of barclays bank, is creating a bold plan to catapult its equity capital markets (ECM) business into a global top-three player in under five years. The ambitious strategy just 18 months after its $1.85bn (£1.2bn) acquisition of Lehman Brothers’ [...]
Innovative is 48th failed US bank April 18, 2010 California-based Innovative Bank has become the 48th US financial institution to fail this year. It had $268.9m (£175m) in assets, and $225.2m in deposits at the end of 2009. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FIDC) estimates that the collapse will cost the deposit insurance fund $37.8m. Innovative was founded in 1982 as the Bank of [...]
Facebook’s new targeted ads April 18, 2010 Facebook, the world’s most popular social networking site, could introduce a new generation of targeted advertising that tracks its users’ internet activity. By following its users’ journey through the internet it could deliver highly tailored ads. The system will involve introducing a new “Facebook button” which will appear on a host of external sites, allowing [...]
Prudential bid like a forced marriage, says Asia analyst April 18, 2010 ONE of the largest brokerage firms working in Asia has launched a scathing attack on Prudential’s planned acquisition of AIA. A CLSA note obtained by City A.M. likened Prudential’s $35.5bn (£22.8bn) bid for AIG’s Asian business to “parents forcing their daughter to marry someone she doesn’t like for money.” The 11-page attack, penned by Patricia [...]
Navy could rescue travellers April 18, 2010 DRASTIC plans were hastily drawn up yesterday to help return at least 150,000 Britons stranded by the Icelandic volcano to the UK. Government ministers say the Navy could be recruited to ferry thousands of Britons who have been grounded by the fine cloud of ash belched over vast swathes of Europe. Some estimates place the [...]
UK politicians join Goldman bandwagon April 18, 2010 UK POLITICIANS presented a rare united front yesterday as they called for the City regulator to begin its own investigation into securities fraud allegations against Goldman Sachs. Fabrice Tourre, the individual named in the case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US, is now based at Goldman’s Fleet Street headquarters after [...]
Red Knights bid imminent April 18, 2010 THE structure for an audacious fan-backed bid for Manchester United has been finalised, paving the way for a formal offer as soon as next month. A group of wealthy City financiers desperate to take control of the club from the Glazer family thrashed out details of their £1.25bn bid last week and will now present [...]