UK house prices back in black at end of January January 31, 2013 HOUSE prices swung back into growth in January, according to Nationwide’s latest house price index. Prices grew 0.5 per cent over the first month of 2013, the data showed, so that the index was back to almost exactly the same level as during January 2012. This marks the first time in 11 months the annual [...]
Customers have no incentive to punish mis-selling banks January 31, 2013 BANKS are embroiled in another “mis-selling” scandal, but we can be sure that customer behaviour won’t be affected. Few people will switch bank as a result. Regulation means we are indifferent to how our banks behave. Why? Because we know banks will always be fined for their faults, and we know we’ll always be compensated. [...]
UK house prices tick up in January January 31, 2013 UK house prices edged up in January, boosted by the Funding for Lending scheme, mortgage lender Nationwide said this morning. According to the lender, house values ticked up 0.5 per cent in January, although values were flat year on year, avoiding a decline for the first time since February. The typical UK home is now [...]
US growth falls off a cliff again January 30, 2013 THE US economy shrank unexpectedly in the final three months of 2012, official figures showed yesterday, taking markets and analysts by surprise. Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve responded by holding interest rates at record lows and continuing to print $85bn (£53.8bn) a month to buy government bonds and mortgage backed securities. Stocks dipped on [...]
New lending scheme fails to boost small businesses January 30, 2013 EFFECTIVE interest rates on new deposits have dived from 3.01 per cent in August, when the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) started to provide banks with cheap funds, to just 2.11 per cent in December, the Bank of England revealed. But the cheaper funds have started to divert cash back into the mortgage market, the [...]
Flawed government policy is wiping out struggling savers January 30, 2013 ONE of the government’s daftest policies is its underpinning of bank lending, a nationalisation of credit in all but name. The biggest losers from the funding for lending scheme have been savers. The effective average savings rate for new deposits has collapsed from 2.75 per cent in September to a miserable 2.11 per cent in [...]
Fed is ahead in the battle of the central banks January 29, 2013 ALTHOUGH the US has shown signs of rebounding, a scratch beneath the surface reveals that there are still issues dragging on the world’s largest economy. By historical standards, the pace of its current recovery is feeble. Research from Bank of America Merrill Lynch points out that the average annual growth rate of this recovery is [...]
MPs say coalition budgets have been omnishambles January 28, 2013 THE TREASURY Select Committee (TSC) this morning slammed coalition budget policy as unclear, confused and generating uncertainty. The MPs on the committee, led by Andrew Tyrie, used the report to criticise the government for turning the Autumn Statement into a second budget; for giving out unclear signals on plans for fuel duty; and for leaving [...]
Austerity can’t have hurt UK growth because austerity hasn’t yet begun January 28, 2013 IN ORDINARY parlance, “austerity” means a period of cutbacks, spending reductions, and debt being paid down. So when voters hear talk of government austerity, most of them assume that’s what the government is doing. When they hear (a few) economists saying that weak growth has resulted from “austerity”, voters think cuts to public sector pay [...]
US indexes are close to highs after stock lifts January 27, 2013 STOCKS have been on a tear in January, moving major indices within striking distance of all-time highs. The bearish case is a difficult one to make right now. Earnings have exceeded expectations, the housing and labour markets have strengthened, lawmakers in Washington no longer seem to be the roadblock that they were for most of [...]