Greenspan defends record April 7, 2010 FORMER Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan came under fire for failing to take measures to prevent the financial crisis yesterday, but defended himself by arguing banks – not regulators – were to blame. In a heated appearance at the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in Washington, Greenspan insisted reckless mortgage lending and the securitisation of home [...]
Rambourg not probed by SEC April 7, 2010 GARTMORE management has written to intermediaries stressing that Guillaume Rambourg, the trader who is embroiled in a number of investigations, is not part of a US probe into the fund manager’s business. The letter, written by UK head of retail Richard Pursglove, said that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation did not involve [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 7, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES ITALY NEEDS DEEP REFORM, SAYS INDUSTRY Italy’s centre-right government must take advantage of a three-year period without elections – a relative rarity for a country often at the polls – to steer through radical reform or face long-term decline and falling competitiveness, the head of the employers’ federation has warned. Confindustria said economic [...]
Stronger growth won’t save Labour April 7, 2010 IT beggars belief that the government is continuing to fight for higher national insurance contributions. Contrary to what their name suggests, these are merely another form of income tax (albeit of a stealth kind which allows the state to pretend that direct taxes are much lower than they really are); the money raised is thrown [...]
Citi tells how it lost $50bn April 7, 2010 CITIGROUP took advice from outside consultants on moves that led it to lose $50bn (32.8bn) on complex debt securities, a former executive told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission yesterday. Thomas Maheras, a former co-head of Citi’s capital markets team, said the bank decided to up its exposure to certain parts of the fixed income universe [...]
Morrisons man’s £6.1m welcome April 7, 2010 Wm Morrison, the supermarket chain, will give incoming chief executive Dalton Philips a “golden hello” worth £6.1m. Philips, who joined from Canadian retailer Loblaw at the end of last month, has been handed a £2.2m target-linked share incentive plan along with £950,000 to compensate him for awards he would have received in his last job, [...]
M&S bonus spree for shop staff April 7, 2010 Marks & Spencer is to resume bonus payments to around 77,000 workers after sales continued to improve in the first three months of the year. Shop staff will receive between £500 and £1,000 each as analysts expect M&S to deliver a 1.7 per cent rise in earnings for the 13 weeks to 27 March. The [...]
OECD: UK will escape double dip recession April 7, 2010 LABOUR will trumpet figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on the campaign trail today which suggest Britain’s economy will skip away from a double-dip recession. In its interim report published yesterday, the OECD said GDP expanded at an annualised pace of two per cent in the first three months of the [...]
Greece teetering on the edge as bond yields keep on rising April 7, 2010 GREECE took another step towards the brink when it said its budget deficit would come in higher than expected, pushing Athens’ cost of borrowing to its highest level in a decade. The government said 2009’s funding shortfall would probably rise to 12.9 per cent of GDP, up from the 12.7 per cent briefed previously. Markets [...]
Monsanto changes track April 7, 2010 Monsanto, the world’s largest supplier of agricultural seeds, has scrapped its target of doubling profits within five years and will abandon its rule of keeping prices high. Chief executive Hugh Grant announced the backtrack as Monsanto revealed fiscal second quarter results below Wall Street expectations. Net profit fell from $1.1bn (£722m) to $887m year-on-year, with [...]
