Q&A: BUYING February 4, 2010 Q.Dear Camilla, I am thinking about selling my home this year. But is it the right time given that there is both economic and political uncertainty at the moment? A.There has been a lot of positive press about property prices in recent weeks, which should support the UK housing market. For example, mortgage lender Nationwide [...]
FOCUS ON: BETHNAL GREEN, E2 February 4, 2010 HAGUE STREET, E2 6HN Price: £550,000 For its location – just one stop by Tube or 30 minutes walk to Liverpool Street – this three double-bedroom house offers good value for money. It is both spacious and airy and the living room benefits from windows to the front and back. The kitchen has room for [...]
FTSE at lowest level in three months as bank shares drop February 4, 2010 WORRIES about the global economy pushed Britain’s top share index to its lowest close in three months yesterday as spiking risk aversion hammered banks and miners while energy stocks fell on weaker commodity prices. The FTSE 100 ended 113.84 points or 2.2 percent lower at 5,139.31, its lowest close since 5 November, having snapped a [...]
Mandela blitzed by Hollywood hokum February 4, 2010 FILM Invictus Cert: 12A *** MORGAN Freeman has played the President of the United States, God and now at last he has graduated to Nelson Mandela. He is by far the best thing in this film, and plays South Africa’s first post-apartheid president as a sprightly father of the nation (“I have 42m children”), who [...]
Dow hit by fears over sovereign debt February 4, 2010 THE Dow briefly fell below the crucial 10,000 mark yesterday as stocks suffered their worst losses in more than nine months. Escalating sovereign debt problems in Europe and an unexpected rise in jobless claims put investors on the defensive just ahead of Friday’s crucial payrolls report. Investors dumped banks and commodity-related shares and Wall Street’s [...]
ALSO OUT THIS WEEKEND February 4, 2010 FILM ASTRO BOY The long-running Japanese comics character gets an animated outing. MALICE IN WONDERLAND The fairytale gets transposed to the UK underworld, with Danny Dyer. OIL CITY CONFIDENTIAL Punk filmmaker Julian Temple’s documentary about 70s rockers Dr Feelgood. DVD THE INVENTION OF LYING Ricky Gervais stars and directs this romcom fantasy set in a [...]
Bank of America hit by fraud prosecution February 4, 2010 EXECUTIVES from Bank of America (BoA) are the first top bankers to face charges in the wake of the financial meltdown. Former chief executive Ken Lewis and former chief financial officer Joe Price will face charges after the New York State attorney filed civil fraud allegations yesterday. Andrew Cuomo accused the pair, along with the [...]
Euro debt crisis worse even than UK’s February 4, 2010 THERE is a crucial yet often over-looked difference between the mounting fears over the solvency of Greece, Portugal and Spain and worries about Britain’s debt mountain. All four countries are borrowing far too much – yet Britain still controls its own currency, sterling, in which our government’s debt is denominated. We could theoretically print our [...]
This year promises to be the closest yet February 4, 2010 THE Six Nations Championship never fails to produce thrilling, hard-fought contests, but I honestly believe this year’s tournament has all the ingredients of being the closest for many years. Any one of four nations can challenge for the big prize this year, while the other two will make them sweat every last drop. There really [...]
BoE suspends its QE policy February 4, 2010 BRITAIN yesterday looked set for its first interest rate hike since the crisis started after the Bank of England turned off the taps on its emergency £200bn quantitative easing programme. The Bank chose to suspend quantitative easing and kept interest rates at 0.5 per cent. The monetary policy committee (MPC) judged that the current stimulus [...]
