Dexia says governments may step in after its shares plunge October 3, 2011 THE BOARD of struggling Franco-Belgian bank Dexia last night said it will work with governments to “resolve the structural problems penalising the group’s operational activities”. The board held an emergency meeting last night to discuss options for the bank after Moody’s said it was on review for a credit rating downgrade, claiming that its funding [...]
ECB KEEPS BOND PURCHASES BELOW €4BN October 3, 2011 THE European Central Bank (ECB) bought €3.795bn in bonds during the last week of September, down from €3.95bn the previous week. Since it was relaunched in August the bank has bought €160.5bn in bonds. The ECB also said yesterday that use of its deposit facility had risen to its highest level in over a year, [...]
Slovakia likely to rubber stamp next phase of Eurozone bailout October 3, 2011 SLOVAKIA’s parliament is likely to approve changes to the Eurozone bailout fund, Eurogroup leader Jean-Claude Juncker said last night. Slovakia is one of the last of the 17 Eurozone countries to vote to approve the new and enlarged European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). But the leader of the junior coalition party had threatened to block [...]
No land ahoy for HMS Treasury October 3, 2011 WAS that the creaking of rigging we heard in the conference hall as our chancellor took the stage yesterday? At last we know how George really feels, standing on the shifting deck of HMS Treasury, presiding over a surging sea. In his own words, he feels “dwarfed by the scale and power of the daily [...]
HOW CREDIT EASING WILL WORK October 3, 2011 Q.WHAT IS THE NEW POLICY? A.So-called “credit easing” is supposed to make it cheaper for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to borrow. The programme involves buying SME bonds on the secondary market with the aim of driving down yields so that it is cheaper for them to issue debt. Q.WHAT’S THE RATIONALE? A.Banks are cutting [...]
The long fiscal shadow of credit easing October 3, 2011 GEORGE Osborne would have us believe that his policy of “credit easing” is not a fiscal matter. It’s nothing more than a liquidity injection, he says. The idea is to speed up a shift that is already happening: with new rules forcing banks to horde capital rather than lend, firms are turning to the bond [...]
A million are now taught at academies, says Gove October 3, 2011 MORE than a million children are now taught in academy schools, education secretary Michael Gove will announce today. That means one in three pupils are taught in schools that are independent of the local authority, after the coalition government converted 1,000 to academies during its first year in office. “When we came to power there [...]
IDS defiant on welfare payments October 3, 2011 Welfare and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith swore to defy an EU ruling on British welfare payments yesterday. Speaking at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Duncan Smith took a hard line against the European Commission’s order that Britain continue to pay welfare to foreigners who have only just arrived in the UK. “At a [...]
Osborne outlines carbon plans October 3, 2011 The UK will abandon its targets for reducing carbon emissions if other countries fail to meet theirs, chancellor George Osborne has promised. “We’re not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business,” he told an audience of Tory party members in Manchester yesterday, adding that Britain will “cut our carbon emissions [...]
CONFERENCE WHISPERS October 3, 2011 Boris for Tory leader? If his conference schedule is anything to go by, the Mayor certainly fancies his chances. Before his speech this morning, he met workers at a factory in Manchester, ostensibly because the plant makes axles for London buses. But it is almost unheard of for a Mayor of London to visit to [...]
