FSA boss lines up for top Threadneedle Street job October 11, 2012 CITY watchdog chief Adair Turner last night presented his plan for a safe and prosperous financial sector, in a speech that appeared to set out his stall to take over as the new head of the Bank of England. With Sir Mervyn King stepping down as governor of the Bank next year, Turner is a [...]
Adair Turner’s analysis of the crisis is worryingly incomplete October 11, 2012 IF, like me, you believe that the bubble that blew up the global economy in 2007-08 was caused primarily by years of excessively loose monetary policy which pumped too much liquidity into the system, global imbalances that pushed down long-term interest rates, the promotion of sub-prime lending by the US authorities and massive moral hazard [...]
British Gas to hit customers with price hike October 11, 2012 BRITISH Gas is preparing to hike its gas and electricity prices by around eight per cent as early as today, leaving its variable tariff customers with an average of £100 extra on their bills. The group, which has around 12m residential customers in the UK, last increased its bills in August 2011, blaming rising costs. [...]
What the other papers say this morning October 11, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Geithner phone friend at BlackRock When Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, wants a first-hand account of how financial markets are interpreting government policies or reacting to the latest crisis, the man he turns to most often is Larry Fink of BlackRock. Mr Fink, the group’s chief executive, featured more frequently in Mr Geithner’s [...]
Man falls to death at 1 Poultry October 11, 2012 A man fell to his death from an upper walkway inside No. 1 Poultry in the City yesterday in a suspected suicide. Police were called at 12.41pm after reports of a man falling from a walkway just yards from Coq d’Argent restaurant. The police are not treating the death as suspicious. The death is the [...]
DECC denies policy change October 11, 2012 The Department for Energy and Climate Change last night insisted it was still committed to meeting climate change targets despite reports the government was plotting to build new gas stations. The Times said this morning that the government would introduce a legal loophole to allow new fossil fuel plants to be built. Last night DECC [...]
Coca-Cola Hellenic flees Greece October 11, 2012 Greece’s biggest company Coca-Cola Hellenic, which bottles Coca-Cola, yesterday said it would move the firm to Switzerland and switch its market listing from Greece to London. The company, whose shares make up a fifth of the Athens exchange, confirmed rumours it would seek a FTSE 100 listing to enhance liquidity opportunities open to the firm [...]
Direct Line IPO boosted by US intervention October 11, 2012 DIRECT Line Group yesterday celebrated a successful float as its shares jumped by more than seven per cent – however City A.M. has learned that London’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) in 17 months was heavily reliant on demand from US institutional investors. More than a third of the initial tranche of shares were bought by American funds, an unusually high [...]
BAE could be swallowed up by European firm in unsure future October 11, 2012 BAE could be approached by another European defence company in the wake of its collapsed bid with EADS. The Italian defence minister Giampaolo Di Paolo said yesterday that the break down of talks opened up opportunities for Italian defence firm Finmeccanica. “The failure of the scenario of a merger between EADS and BAE has created [...]
MPs criticise government housing plan October 11, 2012 A PARLIAMENTARY committee today slammed the government’s affordable homes programme for being poor value for money and failing to meet the demand for housing. The cross-party Public Accounts Committee said the government’s Affordable Homes Programme, which will make £1.8bn of grants to social housing providers to build 80,000 new homes, was badly designed and would [...]
