RBS to cut 400 staff at US arm May 27, 2014 RBS PLANS to cut two-thirds of its mortgage trading staff in its US investment banking arm over the next 18 months as it cuts down its non-UK retail banking operations, the bank has confirmed. Around 400 staff will get the chop, though workers trading in rates, currencies, and credit will be unaffected. The bank also [...]
Britain’s mortgage prisoners must act now or face financial meltdown May 22, 2014 IT’s BEEN a busy week in the world of monetary policy. On Sunday, Mark Carney said that rising house prices pose the biggest threat to economic recovery. On Tuesday, the official statistics told us what we already knew – that house prices in London are soaring, by 17 per cent year-on-year. Some homeowners are finding [...]
Consumer recovery heating up May 21, 2014 Retail sales jump by 6.9 per cent in April – the fastest year-on-year growth in a decade Mortgage lending rises by 36 per cent as Britons say they feel more secure in their jobs But policymakers at the Bank of England still voted unanimously to keep interest rates low INTEREST rates are not expected to go [...]
Austerity is working – but we must continue to challenge its diehard critics | City A.M. May 15, 2014 THE “BACKFIRE effect” is a term coined by the US political scientist Brendan Nyhan to describe how a person’s deeply-held convictions may actually get stronger when presented with contradictory evidence. In one recent study, Nyhan and his colleagues presented a group with information confirming the safety of vaccines. Faced with the facts, those who already [...]
Austerity is working – but we must continue to challenge its diehard critics May 15, 2014 THE “BACKFIRE effect” is a term coined by the US political scientist Brendan Nyhan to describe how a person’s deeply-held convictions may actually get stronger when presented with contradictory evidence. In one recent study, Nyhan and his colleagues presented a group with information confirming the safety of vaccines. Faced with the facts, those who already [...]
Carney: No rate hike to cool house prices May 14, 2014 INTEREST rates will not be hiked to slow London’s housing boom, Mark Carney said yesterday, arguing there are limits to the Bank of England’s powers when the crisis is caused by a crippling shortage of home building. Instead, Carney said he could make it more expensive for banks to give out mortgages, taking some of [...]
The Bank of England is playing with fire by keeping rates so low May 14, 2014 INTEREST rates won’t be going up any time soon, even though the economy is now booming. The reason is simple: the Bank of England is deadly serious about using other tools to calm down the housing market if it feels that it is overheating; interest rates, or at least the Bank base rate, are now [...]
Letters to the Editor – 15/05 – Politicising M&A, Best of Twitter May 14, 2014 Politicising M&A [Re: Britain’s apparently open economy can’t afford this Pfizer political inquisition, yesterday] Government interference in the market always leads to disaster. The shareholders and their board of directors created Pfizer and Astrazeneca, and only they should decide their future. House of Commons committees are merely a device for airing political prejudice or personal [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 14 May 2014 May 13, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Danone in talks over medical sale Danone is in talks with Nestle and other potential buyers over the disposal of most of its medical nutrition division, as it eyes an expansion of its baby food business. The French group, which is being advised by JP Morgan, stands to raise up to €5bn (£4.07bn) [...]
Bank of England inaction threatens house price bubble, warns analyst May 8, 2014 April saw a rare fall in house prices, according to the latest data from Halifax. They dropped by 0.2 per cent, a small monthly decline. But on an annual basis, UK house prices are now up by 8.5 per cent in the three months to April. House prices are driven by supply and demand, and [...]