WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 31, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES DEMOCRATS FACE MIDTERM MELTDOWN Barack Obama’s Democratic party faces a series of dramatic defeats at every level of government in Washington and beyond in the November midterm elections, according to leading analysts and opinion polls. The University of Virginia’s widely monitored Crystal Ball will today forecast sweeping setbacks on Capitol Hill and the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 24, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES CIVIL SERVANTS IN PLEA OVER JOBS CULL John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, is being urged to stop ministers from rushing through legislation that will slash redundancy terms for civil servants and clear the way for a cull of up to 100,000 jobs. Francis Maude, cabinet office minister, has asked Mr Bercow to approve [...]
Cairn August 15, 2010 CAIRN’S Indian assets are certainly attractive. The sites bought for a mere $7m (£4.5m) from Shell in 1997 now trade on the Mumbai exchange at a market value of $14bn. Cairn’s flagship oilfields in Rajasthan are predicted to churn out 90,000 barrels a day in 2011, rising to 125,000 barrels the year after. Vedanta is not [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 12, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES BARCLAYS REFUSES TO USE TARGETS The head of Barclays’ small business division has firmly refused to sign up to UK lending targets in a move that could fuel government criticism of the industry’s willingness to ease credit constraints in the economy. Speaking to the FT after Barclays broadened the remit of its business [...]
Energy firms drag down the FTSE as BG fails to deliver July 28, 2010 Britain’s top shares fell yesterday, dragged lower by energy stocks after BG Group reported its quarterly results, and weak US data knocked sentiment. The FTSE 100 index closed down 45.99 points at 5,319.68, having gained almost 4.5 per cent over the last five days, and falling away from the psychologically important 5,400 level. “The near-term [...]
Offshore drilling bill diluted July 27, 2010 US Senate Democrats unveiled a slimmed down bill yesterday aimed at reforming offshore drilling, as doubts grew that Congress would be able to pass any substantial energy legislation this year. The Senate bill, which Democrats were still refining, would require oil companies to cover all oil spill costs by removing the $75m (£48m) cap on [...]
British Gas to post record rise in profits July 25, 2010 BRITISH Gas owner Centrica is expected to post a record jump in profit for the first half of the year on Wednesday, thanks to the coldest winter in 30 years. Some analysts have predicted up to a 95 per cent increase in profits, but the record sums could anger customers who called for the energy [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 19, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES FUND BEARS LEAD THE PACK IN VOLATILE MARKETS Bearish hedge fund managers are making their biggest gains since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Only a handful of hedge fund managers have made money in May and June, when many of the industry’s biggest names were caught out by a sharp rise in market [...]
Fuel price dip cuts inflation rate for June July 13, 2010 FALLING fuel prices helped annual inflation to ease in June for the second month in a row but core inflation, which excludes energy and food costs, worrying rose last month, official data showed yesterday. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed the consumer prices index (CPI) eased to 3.2 per cent last month from 3.4 [...]
High electricity prices to hurt growth July 11, 2010 HERE is another reason why the recovery will be muted. Gas and electricity costs will rise substantially in the years ahead and are set to hammer not only consumers but also manufacturers, further eroding their competitiveness and that of Britain as a place to do business. It is not market forces that will push up [...]