Barclays November 9, 2010 DESPITE Barclays having avoided a taxpayer bailout, there’s plenty of fodder for populist banker-bashing in its third-quarter results. Pre-tax profits were down 76 per cent and £1.6bn has been set aside for bonuses. These headline figures ignore the impact of mark-to-market fluctuations in value and the fact that investment bank staff numbers are up 2,000. [...]
Commerzbankmisses target as losses leap November 8, 2010 Germany’s second-biggest lender Commerzbank missed forecasts for third-quarter profit yesterday as losses on commercial mortgages and the costs of integrating Dresdner Bank offset strong corporate lending. Third-quarter net profit of €113m (£97.5m) was below the €164m average estimate in a analyst’s poll, though Germany’s economic rebound turned it round from a loss of more than [...]
Market cools as property prices tumble November 4, 2010 AVERAGE property prices have fallen 1.2 per cent in the last three months, according to the latest Halifax house price index. The closely watched index from the Lloyds Banking Group-owned lender showed house prices rose 1.8 per cent in October which helped to partially reverse the 3.7 per cent decline from the previous month. But [...]
Chequing in with the best November 4, 2010 In a wonderful example of stating the obvious, the Office of Fair Trading yesterday published evidence that retail banking in Britain isn’t very competitive. For most people, that will probably come as no surprise. Though customer service has been getting better in almost every other industry, in retail banking limited weekend opening hours, unhelpful call [...]
Fed stakes all on $600bn QE2 November 3, 2010 THE Federal Reserve is to pump $600bn (£372.6bn) of fresh funds into the US economy in a last-ditch attempt to revive the slowing economy and hasten the pace of recovery in unemployment. In its second-round of quantitative easing, dubbed QE2, which comes just two years after the central bank first tried to kick-start the economy, [...]
Federal Reserve’s hubris will cost all of us dearly November 3, 2010 IT may have been slightly more than the markets were expecting – but nobody will have been shocked by the Federal Reserve’s decision to embark on another $600bn worth of quantitative easing (QE2). That doesn’t make the decision any less wrong or short-termist; the problem is that the Fed and the bulk of the US [...]
…as Fed steps in again November 3, 2010 Q.WHAT IS QE2? A. It is the Federal Reserve’s second round of quantitative easing after its initial asset purchasing programme of $1.7 trillion started during 2009 and finished in March this year. This time, the Fed has announced a smaller programme: it plans to buy up $75bn’s worth of assets each month until June next [...]
ECONOMISTS’ REACTION: WAS RESTARTING QE THE RIGHT DECISION? November 3, 2010 MARTIN FELDSTEIN | HARVARD UNIVERSITY The Federal Reserve’s proposed policy of quantitative easing is a dangerous gamble with only a small potential upside benefit and substantial risks of creating asset bubbles that could destabilise the global economy. Although the US economy is weak and the outlook uncertain, quantitative easing (QE) is not the right remedy. [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 2, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES ITV BLAMES REGIME FOR NEED TO CHASE RATINGS ITV could invest more in arts, factual programming and drama were it not for regulations, its managers told a Lords committee. Archie Norman, chairman of the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster, and Adam Crozier, chief executive, told the communications committee that ITV had been driven into [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 2, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES ITV BLAMES REGIME FOR NEED TO CHASE RATINGS ITV could invest more in arts, factual programming and drama were it not for regulations, its managers told a Lords committee. Archie Norman, chairman of the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster, and Adam Crozier, chief executive, told the communications committee that ITV had been driven into [...]