Osborne to find cash for UK builders November 27, 2011 TOMORROW, George Osborne will deliver his Autumn Statement, supposedly focusing on economic growth. There will also be fresh data on government finances from the Office of Budget Responsibility. The statement is likely to contain a mixture of bad news for taxpayers as well as government subsidy for pet ideas. It is unlikely to contain anything [...]
Brownonomics makes a shock return November 22, 2011 AT one point yesterday, I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t having a nightmare. Is Gordon Brown still Prime Minister, I asked myself? The reason for my madness, dear readers, was the coalition’s dreadful neo-Brownite plan to part-guarantee 95 per cent mortgages. It was the kind of policy reminiscent of tax credits [...]
Brownonomics makes a shock return November 21, 2011 AT one point yesterday, I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t having a nightmare. Is Gordon Brown still Prime Minister, I asked myself? The reason for my madness, dear readers, was the coalition’s dreadful neo-Brownite plan to part-guarantee 95 per cent mortgages. It was the kind of policy reminiscent of tax credits [...]
Making sure you have got your family covered November 9, 2011 ONE child in 20 has a parent die before they finish full-time education, says Money Saving Expert. That’s a pretty frightening statistic, but it’s even more frightening when you then find out that more than half of the population doesn’t have life insurance. So why are so many people choosing not to take out life [...]
Freddie Mac sees $4.4bn loss November 3, 2011 MORTGAGE giant Freddie Mac said yesterday it will seek an extra $6bn (£3.7bn) from US taxpayers following its worst quarterly loss this year. The US government-owned company reported a comprehensive loss in the third quarter of $4.4bn, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. That compared with a $2.5bn loss [...]
House prices rise but market remains weak November 1, 2011 House prices rose in October but have fallen slightly over the past three months as difficult economic conditions kept the market under pressure, Nationwide has said. The building society’s house price index showed prices gained 0.4 per cent in the past month – the strongest monthly gain since February, and higher than September’s 0.1 per [...]
EU summit optimism won’t last for long October 25, 2011 FOREX conditions are choppy for euro traders, with yesterday’s moves indicative of the jittery markets. Upon the news that the Ecofin conference won’t take place, euro-dollar quickly dropped 0.6 per cent. Twitter feeds across the world were swamped with presumptions that the full emergency heads-of-government summit was also cancelled. Euro-dollar rebounded, as it became clear [...]
City hits out at Tobin tax October 24, 2011 ELEVEN of the City’s main financial groups have urged chancellor George Osborne to fight any proposed financial transactions tax, in a letter sent to the Treasury yesterday. The City collective – which includes the British Bankers’ Association and Investment Management Association – argued that a tax would hammer the economy and affect all of the [...]
Households struggling as prices rocket October 23, 2011 THE SQUEEZE on Britons’ finances is showing no sign of relaxing, according to a downbeat report by Markit, released this morning, thanks to job losses and soaring prices. The outlook for household finances plummeted to its lowest level for six months, Markit’s index has shown. The measure of people’s expectations for their finances over the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 20, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES EU PUTS BANKS’ SHORTFALL AT JUST €90BN Europe’s grand plan to strengthen its banking system is set to fall well short of current market expectations identifying a capital shortfall of less than €100bn (£87bn) that must be made up over the next six to nine months, according to the latest official estimates. The EU’s [...]