It is time for some genuine radicalism from George Osborne July 25, 2012 IT was typically cunning of Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, to call for a grand coalition on the economy yesterday. Cunning – but utterly wrong. George Osborne has failed lamentably – but that doesn’t mean Ed Balls is right, or that we need to ditch political debate in return for a disastrous neo-Keynesian consensus. The [...]
Architect of Citi calls for banks to be broken up July 25, 2012 THE MAN who turned Citigroup into a banking megalith said yesterday he now thinks such large institutions should be broken up in order to regain the public’s trust. Sandy Weill, who steered Citicorp into an $70bn merger with Travelers in 1998, told CNBC: “I think what we should probably do is go and split up [...]
Mexico fines HSBC $27.5m July 25, 2012 MEXICAN regulators yesterday fined HSBC $27.5m (£17.8m) for poor money laundering controls, following allegations the bank dealt with rogue nations and drug gangs. The country’s National Banking and Securities Commission highlighted 1,729 occasions where there was late reporting of suspicious transactions at the firm. The US Department of Justice is conducting its own investigation into HSBC, with analysts [...]
Union calls off border strikes July 25, 2012 UNION bosses have called off today’s planned strike action among UK Border Agency workers, which would have disrupted the busiest day in Heathrow’s history. The PCS union said it has secured 1,000 border jobs as part of a deal it cut with the government to avoid a walkout on the eve of the Olympics. The [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 25, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Man Utd pauses US listing plans Manchester United has temporarily paused plans to launch its $300m initial public offering in the US, where market volatility has soared in recent days as macroeconomic fears hit share prices. The English football club had been looking to begin its investor roadshow as early as Monday of [...]
Power station at Battersea in £8bn revamp July 25, 2012 THE GOVERMENT today announced plans for the £8bn redevelopment of Battersea Power Station by its new Malaysian owners, with the revamp due to kick-off as early as next year. Europe’s largest brick building, which has seen a string of developers try and fail to revive it over the past two decades, was recently rescued from [...]
Facebook hit hard as Farmville creator Zynga misses targets July 25, 2012 ONLINE gaming giant Zynga last night said that it had badly missed its financial targets, sending its share price down more than 40 per cent in after-hours trading. The announcement from the creator of the Farmville and Cityville games dragged down shares of social networking firm Facebook, which relies on Zynga for around 15 per [...]
EU regulators get tough on fund mangers July 25, 2012 EUROPEAN fund firms could lose out on revenues under new EU rules to toughen up supervision of securities lending published yesterday. Securities lending is commonplace in the mutual fund industry globally as a means of boosting revenue as well as reducing management fees. Under European markets watchdog ESMA’s proposals, all revenues generated by securities lending [...]
Estimates show GDP down 0.7pc in last quarter July 25, 2012 THE UK’S economy tanked in the second quarter, worsening the country’s double dip recession, according to preliminary figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released yesterday. GDP fell 0.7 per cent over the quarter, compared to a consensus expectation of 0.2 per cent, according to the preliminary estimate, which computes about 40 per cent [...]
How can GDP be shrinking so fast when employment numbers seem to be recovering ? July 25, 2012 Q Why is there doubt at all? A The relatively sharp quarterly tumble in GDP, of 0.7 per cent, seems incongruous with the reassuring jobs figures for the three months to May, when employment grew 181,000, and unemployment dropped 65,000. If employment has grown rapidly but output has fallen, then productivity must have seen a [...]
