Three banks get EU approval November 18, 2009 Plans by three major European banks to sell chunks of their operations in return for state aid were approved by EU authorities yesterday, marking the latest regulatory-enforced financial break-ups. In reviewing a raft of bank bailouts across the 27 European Union member states, the European Commission has forced lenders to divest assets, close branches, reduce [...]
Ray of hope for victims of bubblenomics November 16, 2009 THERE is much to be learnt from Japan’s disastrous performance since it suffered the mother of all bubbles in the late 1980s. Its woes were originally caused by excessive interest rate cuts in reaction to the dollar’s 51 per cent devaluation against the yen between 1985 and 1987, which hurt Japan’s export industries. Huge amounts [...]
How to get yourself headhunted November 11, 2009 PEOPLE in the City are beginning to shift their feet. After sitting tight in their jobs throughout the downturn, workers are sniffing out new roles in increasing numbers, according to figures from recruitment firm Morgan McKinley – it said yesterday that the numbers of those looking for a new position in October were up six [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 4, 2009 THE FINANCIAL TIMES OPEL U-TURN LEAVES GERMANY ANGRYGermany and Russia reacted furiously to General Motors’ surprise decision to keep Opel rather than sell it, throwing up fresh uncertainty about the future direction of one of Europe’s biggest carmakers. The news that GM’s board had abandoned the sale of Opel/Vauxhall to Canada’s Magna and Russia’s Sberbank [...]
Bank shake-up puts EU firmly in charge November 2, 2009 AS power shifts go, this one takes some beating. After months of listening to what the government, the Bank of England and the FSA have had to say about the future of British banking, it turns out that the body with real power was based a little further away from home. For this morning, barring [...]
Branson set to swoop on British bank assets November 2, 2009 VIRGIN is preparing to swoop on a string of UK banking assets to be put up for sale as part of a European Commission inquiry into competition in the sector, Sir Richard Branson confirmed yesterday. “We do plan to create a Virgin bank and we will be interested in looking at the three banks that [...]
Virgin Media: Why City A.M. is wrong about TV market November 1, 2009 IN his article last Friday about the pay TV market, City A.M.’s David Crow suggested that, by forcing Sky to wholesale its premium sports and movie channels to competing pay TV retailers, media regulator Ofcom is punishing Sky’s success. He compares Sky’s investment in sports and movies to car maker Toyota’s investment in hybrid fuel [...]
We need to shake up consumer banking October 28, 2009 YESTERDAY was the 80th anniversary of the Great Crash of 1929. Like the present crisis, which has fortunately turned out to be much less severe, the bubble of the 1920s was caused primarily by errors in monetary policy and a misunderstanding of the way the economy works. There was too much cheap money sloshing around [...]
A second dose of the fabulous freakish truth October 28, 2009 SUPERFREAKONOMICSBY STEPHEN DUBNER AND STEVEN LEVITTPENGUIN, £20.00 WRITING a sequel to one of best-selling pop economics books of the last decade was always going to be hard. And it took Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner more than four years to create Superfreakonomics, the “freakquel” to their original collaboration, Freakonomics. Like the original, Superfreakonomics [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 27, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES JCB FACES FIRST ANNUAL LOSS AFTER GLOBAL DEMAND FALLSJCB faces a struggle to avoid its first annual loss this year, its chief executive warned, as he cautioned that he saw no recovery in demand for construction equipment outside of China next year. Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the UK’s largest maker of earth-moving [...]