New regulator draws on old hands for external members February 17, 2011 THE government yesterday appointed four external members to the board of a new regulator that is meant to replace the FSA and prevent future financial crashes – the Financial Policy Committee (FPC). It also released a new consultation paper on the committee that some said showed it had scaled down its ambitions for the regulator and [...]
Core price pressures grow for US February 17, 2011 AMERICA’S recovery was boosted yesterday, with several data releases boding well for the world’s largest economy. However, the Federal Reserve faces more criticism after core inflation rose at its highest rate for over a year. Consumer price inflation for January came in higher than expected, at 0.4 per cent month-on-month. Core prices – excluding food [...]
REVERSE QE2, SAYS FED’S RICHARD FISHER February 17, 2011 AS THE American economy improves, the Federal Reserve should consider reversing its controversial asset purchasing scheme (QE2), senior Fed official Richard Fisher said yesterday. When the time comes to tighten policy, “one could make an argument that the most logical thing to do is to undo what you did last,” he told Bloomberg News. Yesterday [...]
Fed boost for US recovery February 16, 2011 POSITIVE data from the US has caused the Federal Reserve to raise its forecasts for economic growth, it was revealed last night. “Participants generally expressed greater confidence that the economic recovery would be sustained,” the Fed revealed in minutes of its last rate setting meeting in January. The GDP growth forecast was increased to a [...]
US input costs rising but housebuilding up February 16, 2011 US core producer prices rose to their highest rate in more than two years in January, hinting at a potentially troubling build-up in inflationary pressures. A separate dataset from the Commerce Department showed new housing starts jumped 14.6 per cent in January from December to their highest level since September, beating economists’ forecasts but still [...]
US lawmakers oppose bank dividend plans February 15, 2011 Seven US Democratic lawmakers have expressed concern that big banks, some of which are still benefiting from government financial support, plan to boost their dividends and reduce capital. “It seems hard to justify reducing the capital of banks without considering the continued government support that banks with outstanding guarantees enjoy,” the House of Representatives members [...]
The Malthusian bull market carries on February 10, 2011 IN 1980, two academics, Julian Simon and Paul Ehrlich, agreed a now famous wager. Ehrlich chose five commodity metals and bet that over the next 10 years, they would get more expensive. Ultimately, Simon won, and all five metals – copper, chromium, nickel, tin and tungsten – got progressively less expensive all the way up [...]
What the other papers say this morning February 9, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES TPG LOSES ANOTHER SENIOR ASIA EXECUTIVE Mary Ma, a Chinese executive at TPG Capital, is leaving to start a fund, joining other mainland executives from western buy-out firms who will start out on their own. Ma, former chief financial officer of Lenovo, joined TPG’s Asia team as managing director and a partner in [...]
Bernanke says US job growth too low February 9, 2011 US unemployment remains too high for comfort despite the economy showing signs of strengthening recovery, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has said. In testimony to the US House of Representatives’ Budget Committee that largely echoed a speech he delivered last week, Bernanke also warned about the dangers of unsustainable budget deficits. But his commitment to [...]
Quantitative easing must stop, say top Fed officials February 8, 2011 AMERICA’S monetary stimulus should be withdrawn at the “earliest sign” of core inflation pressures taking hold, Richard Fisher of the Federal Reserve said last night. And no extension of quantitative easing (QE2) is warranted, he said. It was “hard to envision a scenario where I would not formally dissent against another tranche of monetary accommodation,” [...]