Bank of England governor faced with dilemma as economic recovery picks up pace August 6, 2013 NEW BANK of England boss Mark Carney faces his first real challenge as governor today, as he reveals a key decision on reforms that could lead to higher inflation. The Bank’s rate-setters publish their views on the potential for new unconventional monetary policy tools this morning, as part of their quarterly inflation report. The monetary [...]
G4S drops bid for tag contract after scandals August 6, 2013 GLOBAL security services firm G4S has dropped out of the bidding for a government electronic tagging contract worth £150m after a scandal over a previous deal. In July, justice secretary Chris Grayling said G4S had overcharged the government by millions of pounds on two previous agreements, tagging people who were already imprisoned or dead. According [...]
Report says NHS culture to blame for healthcare failures August 6, 2013 THE NHS requires “wide systemic change” to ensure it is a world-class healthcare system, according to a major report released yesterday that says individual staff should not be blamed for care failings. Professor Don Berwick, a US academic who has advised President Obama, was commissioned by David Cameron to examine NHS England following a series [...]
Bad news for Labour: Voters are getting behind coalition’s cuts August 6, 2013 ED BALLS and the Labour party have a big problem. The British economy is recovering, despite the coalition’s relatively modest cuts, and the public is increasingly supportive of reducing public spending. This is a devastating blow for Labour’s entire narrative, which was predicated on the view that “cutting too far and too fast” would not [...]
Help to Buy unlikely to spur new house building August 6, 2013 THE PRICE of housing is being driven upward by the government’s Help to Buy policy, but may not stimulate new building, according to ratings agency Fitch. Though the intention of the scheme is to get more people a place on the housing ladder, Fitch expects that chancellor George Osborne’s mortgage guarantees will mostly push up [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 7 August 2013 August 6, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES TPG looks for time to spend key fund TPG, one of the world’s largest private equity companies, has taken the unusual step of asking investors in its $19bn flagship fund if it can have an extra year to spend $3bn of undeployed capital, underscoring the difficulty finding good deals in the aftermath of [...]
India picks IMF expert to head its central bank August 6, 2013 INDIA picked the former chief economist at the IMF to head its central bank yesterday. Raghuram Rajan, known for predicting the credit crunch two years before it began, will start a three-year term at the Reserve Bank of India in September. Rajan served as the IMF’s top economist from 2003 to 2006, during which time [...]
US sues Bank of America for alleged fraud August 6, 2013 THE US government yesterday filed two civil suits against the Bank of America for an alleged fraud against investors, involving $850m (£553.5m) of mortgage-backed securities. The Justice Department and the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed the parallel suits in US district court in Charlotte, according to the court filings. The securities date to about [...]
Royal Mail eyes retail investors August 6, 2013 STOCKBROKERS will today be invited to take part in the privatisation of Royal Mail, as part of a push to ensure ordinary members of the public can buy shares in the forthcoming IPO. City A.M. has learned that business minister Michael Fallon will this morning send details of the offering to traditional brokers and online [...]
Half of all short-term borrowers happy with payday loan service August 6, 2013 ALMOST half of people resorting to payday loans would describe their experience as positive, new research showed yesterday. The poll of 2,000 Brits, carried out by comparison site uSwitch.com, also said that one in three of these borrowers would take out payday loans again, while 29 per cent regret taking out the loan. Short-term lenders [...]
