Why we shouldn’t bail out Portugal March 25, 2011 HERE’S a heretical thought: let’s not bail out Portugal. The near-bankrupt country has just seen its Prime Minister resign after losing a key vote on his government’s fourth austerity package in a couple of years, while Fitch has just downgraded the country’s credit rating. Yet the talk now is of a bailout – even though [...]
Why we shouldn’t bail out Portugal March 24, 2011 HERE’S a heretical thought: let’s not bail out Portugal. The near-bankrupt country has just seen its Prime Minister resign after losing a key vote on his government’s fourth austerity package in a couple of years, while Fitch has just downgraded the country’s credit rating. Yet the talk now is of a bailout – even though [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 24, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES BARCLAYS AT CENTRE OF LIBOR INQUIRY Barclays is emerging as a key focus of the US and UK regulatory probe into alleged rigging of benchmark interbank lending rates that are the reference point for $350,000bn in financial products, people familiar with the investigation said. Investigators are probing whether communications between the bank’s traders [...]
Osborne to hike tax allowances March 22, 2011 GEORGE Osborne will today unveil small tax cuts, help for first-time buyers and a series of symbolic measures to show he is tough on the rich. But his Budget could be overshadowed by spiralling inflation and weaker public finances, preventing him from pulling any rabbits out of his hat. The chancellor will announce that he [...]
How to squeeze more out of UK plc March 9, 2011 ONE of the most influential books in America today – Tyler Cowen’s The Great Stagnation – argues that technological innovation peaked in 1873 (yes, you read that right). Most of the progress of the past 100 years has come from the application of innovations made prior to 1914, he says; what we now think of [...]
Why the consumer is no longer king March 7, 2011 WHY are so many people still in denial? The era of debt-fuelled spending, from the private and the public sector, is over. A crisis caused by excessive and underpriced debt cannot be resolved by borrowing even more. It is a simple proposition. Virtually all companies, many individuals and some governments now understand this – but [...]
House sales rise in February March 1, 2011 House prices rose unexpectedly in February after a small fall at the start of the year, according to figures from the Nationwide. Prices climbed by a seasonally adjusted 0.3 per cent month-on-month, defying economists’ forecasts for a fall of 0.3 per cent following January’s 0.1 per cent drop. The annual rate of house price inflation [...]
Why I don’t believe rates should be going up February 20, 2011 The Bank of England releases its latest minutes this week and so the great rate debate continues. Will anybody have joined Andrew Sentance and Martin Weale in voting to hike? Many argue raising domestic rates can’t curb imported inflation but Sentance points out it might strengthen sterling, which would help. In practice, every currency analyst [...]
Why firms need to be freed to spend February 15, 2011 DESPITE repeated promises from the coalition that it would tackle the burden of red tape, a raft of new employment rules are set to come into force over the next few years. As we report on page 1, these will cost UK firms billions of pounds in extra recurring costs, even on the government’s own [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS February 9, 2011 42 PER CENT PREFER DOG TO PARTNER It is a sad day for British romance when 42 per cent of British people prefer their dog or cat to their partner. A survey conducted by M&S Pet Insurance shows that when it comes down to the “me or the dog” question, 42 per cent would always [...]