Detroit goes bust: America’s biggest ever municipal bankruptcy with estimated debts of $20bn July 18, 2013 DETROIT filed for bankruptcy last night, the biggest American city to go bust in history, following decades of decline. The city’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, who was appointed by the state’s governor to deal with Detroit punishing financial challenge in March, signed the documents that will begin an application for bankruptcy. The Michigan city’s enormous [...]
Government in bid to slash taxes for shale explorers July 18, 2013 THE UK government today outlined plans to slash tax on shale gas by more than half, in a move it hopes will kick-start investment and help unlock the UK’s potentially vast shale resources. In a consultation released this morning, the Treasury proposes a so-called shale gas pad allowance, which would lower tax on production income [...]
Dow hits record July 18, 2013 In stark contrast to the suffering city of Detroit, US stock markets smashed through their previous peaks and rose to historic highs yesterday. Both the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 hit previously unseen levels after climbing 0.5 per cent. Morgan Stanley, which released better-than-expected earnings figures, saw its shares rise to $27.70, [...]
Mortgage lending jumps to highest in five years July 18, 2013 LENDING for property purchases leapt to its highest level since the end of 2008 in the second quarter, according to figures released yesterday by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Gross lending between April and June reached £42bn, up nearly a quarter on the previous three months. In June alone, £15bn was lent, rising two [...]
We must urgently fix Britain’s horribly broken housing market July 18, 2013 IT’S called the law of supply and demand, a basic concept that Labour and coalition politicians sometimes find difficult to grasp. If you try to mess with it, it ends up biting you, and hard. Take residential property. In a free market, if the price for something goes up, people tend to produce more of [...]
German finance boss tells Greeks to keep cutting July 18, 2013 GERMAN finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble encouraged Greece’s leaders to carry on with its austerity measures and reforms yesterday, warning that they must not seek further writedowns of the country’s mass debts. Schaeuble held a joint press conference with Greek finance minister Yannis Stournaras during his controversial visit to Athens, as protesters were kept away by [...]
Chance to trade on Royal Mail July 18, 2013 Investors now have their first chance to make money on the privatisation of the Royal Mail by trading on the expected value of the company, before it floats. ETX Capital launched spread-betting on the UK’s postal service late yesterday and is expecting interest today. The financial services firm’s spread for the firm’s valuation is between [...]
£10bn boost from Olympics July 18, 2013 The Olympic and Paralympic Games’ presence in London generated £9.9bn in trade and investment, according to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The government also reports that the total benefits to the UK from having hosted the games could reach £41bn by 2020. BIS also claimed that 70,000 unemployed Londoners moved into jobs [...]
Cause of Boeing fire identified July 18, 2013 British aviation investigators have identified an emergency beacon made by Honeywell International as a likely source of last week’s blaze on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and called for it to be turned off, spurring a rally in Boeing shares by relieved investors. Boeing said the beacon could be removed in about an hour from its [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 19 July 2013 July 18, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Sheikh in Barclays rescue sells stake The Abu Dhabi sheikh who came to the rescue of Barclays Bank with a £3.5bn capital injection at the height of the financial crisis, has sold his stake in the UK bank. The sale of the seven per cent stake – which took place three weeks ago [...]
