Joblessness up in Eurozone October 31, 2011 UNEMPLOYMENT has spiked across the troubled Eurozone, while rising inflation is adding to the single currency area’s woes, official data showed yesterday. And yet another turbulent day in Italy suggested that the debt crisis has not yet been cured by the agreements announced by European leaders last week. “Looking ahead, the real test for the [...]
Why the euphoria was not justified October 27, 2011 MARKETS are hugely preferable to central planning – but sometimes capitalism’s finest get it spectacularly wrong. Yesterday’s deluded jump in stock prices – the FTSE is now back up to 5,713.82 – was a gross over-reaction to the Eurozone’s deal. A sigh of relief that the outcome wasn’t worse would have been understandable; but there [...]
The latest euro deal isn’t pretty in cold daylight October 27, 2011 ANOTHER summit gone and another Greek bailout plan to assess in the cold light of day. On the surface this one sounds promising: a 50 per cent write down for Greek bondholders and €130bn in new bailout funds – should sort things for a while, right? Well, unlike in previous rounds, Wednesday’s meeting between Eurozone [...]
Football clubs on side in support of the economy October 24, 2011 UNTOLD ink is expended on the trials and tribulations of England’s football clubs. Public houses would be thrown into silence without our national pastime and fervent worshippers spend money hand over fist to prove their allegiance to their club. Yet this national obsession is all too rarely thought about as the economic powerhouse it is. [...]
Q&A: EU SUMMIT: THE TOP ISSUES October 23, 2011 Q. WHAT ACTION WILL BE TAKEN TO BOOST THE BAILOUT FUND? A. France wants the euro bailout fund to become a bank and borrow from the ECB, boosting its €440bn firepower. The leveraged fund would then be used to help troubled banks and nations. Germany believes this breaks treaties preventing the ECB from funding state [...]
Construction firms close in bleak climate October 23, 2011 A TOTAL of 3,515 construction firms have gone bust in the past year as the downturn takes its toll, according to new research. The sector has been hit by the government spending squeeze, which has led to the shelving of several public works projects. The Highways Agency – the largest customer to the construction sector [...]
Blackstone buys historic camera firm October 20, 2011 PRIVATE equity giant Blackstone bought a piece of European cultural history yesterday when it took a stake in German camera-maker Leica. Blackstone spent upwards of €122m (£106.47m) to buy a 44 per cent share in Leica Camera from Austrian billionaire Andreas Kaufmann. The roots of Leica go back to 1907, when Max Berek began producing [...]
Economists: German GDP growth to fall October 13, 2011 A GROUP of top economic institutes slashed their German GDP growth forecasts for 2012 yesterday. The latest prediction is for growth of 0.8 per cent next year – down from two per cent forecast six months ago. The eight institutes – six German, one Swiss and one Austrian – believe the sovereign debt crisis is [...]
Keydata wins court ruling against FSA October 11, 2011 KEYDATA founder Stewart Ford compared the Financial Services Authority to a “runaway train” after a High Court judge ruled that the watchdog acted “unlawfully” in its use of legally privileged emails in its enforcement investigation. “Right from the beginning I have said the FSA has acted in an underhand way and I believe that the [...]
This economist believes we shouldn’t bail out the banks: Let their lenders pay instead October 10, 2011 OVER the weekend, the nationalisation of Dexia Belgium was announced, with other parts of Dexia being broken up. On Monday, the nationalisations of a Greek bank (Proton) and a Danish bank (Max) followed. Full-blown Greek default is now imminent, the US and Eurozone economies appear to be in a soft patch, if not yet a [...]