UK government sees increase in fuel poverty this year August 8, 2013 Source: DECC The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has said it expects the number of households in fuel poverty will "increase marginally" over the course of this year. Until July 2013, any household spending more than ten per cent of its income on gas and electricity was defined as being fuel poor. The [...]
Fannie Mae hands $10bn profits straight to government August 8, 2013 Fannie Mae, the US government-backed mortgage financier, will have to pay the Treasury Department $10.2bn (£6.6bn) after a sharp rise in home prices pushed second quarter net income up to $10.1bn. This latest payment in the form of dividend on the preferred stock held by the Treasury, will bring total dividend payouts to the government [...]
Serious Fraud Office accidentally sends data from BAE probe to wrong person August 8, 2013 The Serious Fraud Office has mistakenly sent 32,000 document pages, 81 audio tapes and electronic media from a probe into BAE Systems to the wrong person. Around 98 per cent of the material has been recovered and the SFO said it is attempting to recover the remaining material not already destroyed by the recipient. The [...]
US initial jobless claims impress again August 8, 2013 US initial jobless claims increased by less than expected in the week ending 3 August, to 333,000 from an upwardly revised 328,000. Analysts had expected an increase to 336,000 (release). However, continuing jobless claims in the week ending 27 July were higher than expected – at 3.018m rather than the 2.950m expected – and up [...]
What the analysts are saying about Chinese rebalancing and trade data August 8, 2013 What does this morning’s narrowing of China’s trade surplus and boost in imports and exports mean for the economy? This morning, it was revealed that China’s trade balance narrowed much more drastically than expected in July – to $17.818bn from $27.100bn (a fall to $26.200bn had been forecast). At the same time, Chinese imports rose [...]
Cameron accidentally promises millions to those living near fracking sites August 8, 2013 During a speech in Lancashire, prime minister David Cameron accidentally told listeners that local communities would receive £1m every time a new well for extracting shale gas is created. This was ten times the £100,000 agreed last month by ministers, and it would appear that the prime minister simply made a mistake. Cameron was attempting [...]
FCA fines three individuals £205,000 for enabling market abuse in 2010 August 8, 2013 The Financial Conduct Authority has fined a compliance officer and a broker for failing to act with due skill, care and diligence enabling market abuse in October 2010. David Davis, senior partner and compliance officer of Schweder Miller, was fined £70,258 and Vandena Parikh, a broker at the same firm, was fined £45,673 for their [...]
OECD warns of BRIC slowdown as other major economies recover August 8, 2013 The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has warned of a slowdown in large emerging economises, but said it expects improvement in most other major countries (release). The OECD’s composite leading indicators (CLIs) for the US and the UK point to economic growth firming, and a pick up in growth in the Eurozone as [...]
Greek unemployment hits fresh highs August 8, 2013 The number of unemployed people between the ages of 15 and 24 in Greece hit 64.9 per cent in May, up from 55.1 per cent the year before. Unemployment for the country at a whole rose to a record high of 27.6 per cent from an upwardly revised 27.0 per cent the month before and [...]
False major earthquake alarm in Japan causes temporary panic August 8, 2013 The Japanese Meteorological Agency has said it is investigating a false alarm it issued via an early warning system this morning regarding a strong earthquake of magnitude 7.8 in the Nara prefecture in western Japan. Echoing an incident in the US last month when iPhones in New York issued simultaneous flash flood warnings to users, [...]