WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING
FINANCIAL TIMES
YOUNG GENERATIONS FACE WEALTH DEFECIT
Baby boomers hold so much of Britain’s wealth that a prosperity gap is opening between the generations, with people born after 1970 unlikely to acquire the wealth their parents enjoy, a Conservative shadow cabinet member has warned. David Willetts said in a speech to the London School of Economics on Tuesday: “We are in danger of imposing too many debts on the younger generation.”
SONY PULLS OLED TELEVISION IN JAPAN
Sony said yesterday that it would stop selling a groundbreaking television that uses organic light-emitting diodes in Japan after exhausting demand for the Y200,000 sets. The 11-inch XEL-1 was the first OLED television to market in 2007 and Sir Howard Stringer, Sony’s chairman and chief executive, heralded it as evidence of Sony’s innovative capabilities.
BP DEALS BLOW TO OBAMA FIGHT ON CLIMATE
The Obama administration’s faltering efforts to pass climate change legislation suffered another blow on yesterday when BP and ConocoPhillips abruptly pulled out of the leading business group lobbying for curbs on US greenhouse gas emissions.By withdrawing from the United States Climate Action Partnership, the oil groups, together with Caterpillar, the heavy machinery company, signalled that they would take a more focused approach to the issue by pushing for specific policies that would benefit them, rather than the principle of reducing emission. BP and Conoco said the proposed energy legislation would be an unfair burden for the oil industry.
THE TIMES
POWER STATION WORKERS WALK OUT OVER SAFETY FEARS
Staythorpe power station was once again the centre of controversy today after hundreds of workers walked off a construction site after an alleged health and safety breach. As many as 500 employees at the plant, which is currently under construction near Newark, in Nottinghamshire, staged a demonstration and blocked roads near the site after walking off.
END FOR ABBEY ROAD? EMI PUTS BEATLES’ STUDIO UP FOR SALE
The Abbey Road studios made famous by the Beatles are in danger of closure after they were put up for sale by the music group EMI, which is struggling with huge debts. Business analysts regarded the move as a sign of EMI’s growing desperation.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
WESTINGHOUSE WARNED OVER NUCLEAR REACTOR DESIGN
UK regulators have dealt a new blow to Westinghouse’s nuclear reactor designs, raising concerns about the robustness of its concrete reinforcements. Toshiba-owned Westinghouse and its French rival Areva are both trying to get approval for their separate reactor designs from the Health & Safety Executive by mid-2011. However, the HSE said yesterday that it is not yet satisfied with Westinghouse’s proposals.
SAVERS CONDEMNED TO NEGATIVE RETURNS
Savers will find it almost impossible to avoid seeing their money eroded by inflation after the latest figures showed a jump in the Retail Prices Index to 3.7 per cent, experts warned yesterday. Rising inflation is eroding the spending power of savers’ cash.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
SPAIN PLANS BOND SALE
Spain announced plans to sell a 15-year bond, becoming the latest fiscally challenged government borrower to brush aside growing anxiety over debt loads in the 16-country euro zone. Spain’s plan for a euro-denominated, benchmark-sized offering comes on the heels of Portugal’s €3bn bond sale last week and Greece’s €8bn placement in late January.
EUROPEAN CAR MARKET EXPANDS
European registrations of new cars in January rose 13 per cent from a year earlier, driven by fleet renewals and scrapping incentives that continued to prop up demand in several major West European markets, trade data showed yesterday. Germany was the only major market to decline with results reflecting the discontinuation of its fleet programme.