Now we know the grim truth about cuts September 16, 2009 EVEN if you already suspected that Gordon Brown’s post-1997 public spending spree had been an unaffordable disaster, yesterday’s leaked Treasury forecasts made depressing reading. Everybody knows that there will have to be major spending cuts and that the current tax base cannot finance our bloated government; the Institute for Fiscal Studies had long since worked [...]
Ireland values bad loans September 16, 2009 THE Irish government will spend €54bn (£48bn) to buy risky real estate loans from the Republic’s banks, finance minister Brian Lenihan said yesterday. The loans are to be transferred into the government’s “bad bank”, the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), which will pay a 30 per cent discount on the book value of €77bn. “Nama [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 16, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES BURBERRY LOOKS TO WIN OVER FRIENDS ONLINEBurberry, the fashion brand that has gone from classic to cutting edge, is to launch its own social networking site next month. The clothing group hopes the move will deepen its relationship with customers and attract new devotees. Called artofthetrench.com, the site will initially feature users sending [...]
Firms delay tax bills in downturn September 16, 2009 Thousands of UK firms are being forced to strike deals to delay tax bills as they struggle in the recession. More than 200,000 companies have signed up to an HM Revenue & Customs scheme, putting off payments of around £3.6bn in total. The so-called “time to pay” scheme was introduced in last year’s budget to [...]
Eastman Kodak in deal with KKR September 16, 2009 Photography company Eastman Kodak yesterday said it expects to raise up to $700m (£425m) through a series of debt sales, including a commitment from private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, in an effort to shore up its balance sheet. KKR, which is to buy up to $400m of Kodak’s senior secured notes due 2017, said [...]
Barclays will dump 7.5bn in risky assets September 16, 2009 BARCLAYS yesterday announced the sale of $12.3bn (£7.5bn) of credit market assets to a newly-established fund called Protium Finance, managed by former Barclays Capital (BarCap) employees, in a bid to reduce its credit market exposure. The deal, a complex piece of financial engineering, was well received by investors but slammed by some analysts and media [...]
Q & A September 16, 2009 Q.WHY HAS BARCLAYS SPUN OFF THESE ASSETS?A.According to Barclays finance director Chris Lucas, the sale will reduce the bank’s exposure to potential deterioration of the assets and give it access to “stable risk-adjusted returns for shareholders over time”. Q.DOES THE SALE REDUCE THE BANK’S RISK PROFILE?A.Not really. Although the bank will be less exposed to [...]
Crisis pushes jobless total to new peak September 16, 2009 THE percentage of UK adults who are unemployed has climbed to its highest level since 1996, reaching 7.9 per cent as the economic crisis continues to wreak havoc in the job market. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobless total rose by 210,000 in the three months to the end of July, to [...]
Blanchflower spat with King heats up September 16, 2009 DAVID Blanchflower, the former Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member who accused Mervyn King earlier this week of running the central bank with an “iron fist”, claimed yesterday that he was merely speaking out in the public interest. Blanchflower was responding to comments from King made during an evidence session at the Treasury [...]
US industrial output rises again September 16, 2009 US industrial production rose for a second straight month in August, reinforcing views the recession had ended, while a spike in petrol costs pushed up USinflation. A Federal Reserve report said industrial production increased 0.8 per cent after gaining one per cent in July. The data came a day after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said [...]