Moody’s: Greek default almost certain July 25, 2011 Ratings agency Moody’s has cut Greece’s debt ratings by three notches to Ca, leaving it just one notch above what is considered default, and said the chance of a default is now “virtually 100 per cent”. The rating agency warned that last week’s bailout package agreed by euro zone leaders will make it easier for [...]
Debt deadlock July 24, 2011 Washington fails to hammer out a deal on US budget AMERICA’S ticking time bomb grew even louder last night, after bickering politicians failed to deliver a plan to cut the country’s annual deficit and raise the legal debt ceiling. The White House had targeted the opening of Asian markets this morning as a deadline to [...]
Cable in call for more QE July 24, 2011 VINCE Cable yesterday floated the idea of a “more imaginative” form of quantitative easing to kickstart Britain’s economy should it continue to grow at an anaemic rate. In an unusual intervention for a business secretary, Cable favourably quoted former members of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, who argued that quantitative easing should be [...]
The tide is turning on public spending July 24, 2011 IT has taken over a year but the coalition is finally getting to grips with public spending. It is still going up in cash terms, of course (there were never any plans to cut the sterling value of public spending) but for the first time it appears to have started to drop in real terms. [...]
Balls: UK faces Greek trap July 24, 2011 GEORGE Osborne faced a barrage of attacks from Labour yesterday, with shadow chancellor Ed Balls accusing him of plunging Britain into a “Greek-style trap.” With second quarter GDP figures expected to reflect badly on the UK economy tomorrow, Balls criticised the chancellor’s “reckless” deficit reduction for hampering the recovery. “Unless you’ve got more people in [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 24, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES CHINA EYES BARTER PLAN TO BYPASS US SANCTIONS ON IRAN PAYMENTS Tehran and Beijing are in talks about using a barter system to exchange Iranian oil for Chinese goods and services, as US financial sanctions have blocked China from paying at least $20bn for oil exports. The US sanctions against Iran, which make [...]
DSK maid to start charm offensive July 24, 2011 The New York hotel maid who accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of attempting to rape her will today start a charm offensive, which will include interviews on some of the most watched shows in the US. The woman, Nafissatou Diallo, also gave permission for news outlets to identify her by name. In an interview [...]
EU may force banks to disclose pay July 24, 2011 European banks could be forced to disclose details of all staff earning more than €1m (£880,000) under tough new proposals from the European Commission. Brussels would like every nation to collect information – which would also break out how much is paid in basic salary, bonuses and other incentives – and publish aggregate information for [...]
Euro break-up still likely, say economists July 24, 2011 ECONOMISTS still believe that the Eurozone will break up in the next four years despite a groundbreaking deal struck by policymakers for Greece’s second rescue last week. Capital Economics’ chief European economist Jonathan Loynes says: “We maintain our position that there is a smaller than evens chance that the Eurozone will survive the next four [...]
UK dividends jump by 27pc July 24, 2011 DIVIDEND payments by UK companies soared to £19.1bn in the second quarter of 2011, the largest amount paid out since the same period in 2008. UK mining companies were the biggest contributors to the 27 per cent jump in payouts compared to last year, quadrupling their dividends to a total of £1.85bn from just £451m [...]
