What the other papers say this morning – 20 February 2014
FINANCIAL TIMES
‘Boomer bulge’ hits US jobs data
The drop in the percentage of Americans at work in recent years is often cast as a story about the long-term unemployed who give up trying to find jobs. But declining workforce participation rates, which have sharply reduced headline unemployment calculations in the world’s largest economy, could be related to a very different phenomenon: the greying of America. A report by Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research, looked at the bulge of “baby boomers” born between 1946 and 1964 and concluded that the shrinking of the US workforce began around 2000. This puts the start of the trend well ahead of recession.
Repsol poised for Argentina deal
Repsol and Argentina are poised to sign a $5bn (£2.99bn) compensation deal that will draw a line under a bitter legal dispute that has raged since Buenos Aires expropriated the Spanish energy group’s assets in the country two years ago. People familiar with the negotiations said a Repsol delegation was in Buenos Aires to complete the agreement in the coming days
Khamenei calls for economic jihad
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday called for an “economic jihad” to mobilise his country against the effect of international sanctions over the nuclear programme. Thee Ayatollah, who has the last say in all decision making, focused on what he called the economy of “resistance”.
THE TIMES
Something of the night about Ibstock
Punitive peak-time electricity prices are forcing Britain’s largest brickmaker to operate through the night to save cash as National Grid ratchets up prices when demand is highest. Ibstock Brick, which has 90 sites around Britain, has kilns that need to kept at more than 1,000C.
US net ruling forces protection review
Federal regulators in America said yesterday that they will draw up new rules to preserve open access for all internet users. The decision follows a US appeals court ruling last month that struck down the “net neutrality” rules put in place by the Federal Communications Commission, which required providers to treat web traffic equally.
The Daily Telegraph
Lloyds to domicile TSB in England
Lloyds Banking Group has opted to domicile TSB in England rather than Scotland ahead of the new bank’s £1.5bn stock market float. In a move which will be taken by some as a sign that business is concerned about an independent Scotland, the bank is to place its 631-branch subsidiary into a new holding company registered in London.
Use tax breaks to attract SME backers
Companies that back small and medium-sized businesses should be offered tax breaks to encourage more investors to provide the “missing piece” of funding to small and medium-sized enterprises, according to the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Rogue trader meets Pope Francis
Jerome Kerviel, the former Societe Generale trader convicted of making unauthorized trades in 2008 that cost his bank €4.9bn (£4.03bn), was among the handful of pilgrims who got to personally meet the pontiff at the close of his general audience in St. Peter’s Square, according to his lawyer David Koubbi.
Blair email in phone-hacking trial
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair advised former News Corp executive Rebekah Brooks on how best to manage the crisis swirling around her and her employer at the height of the phone-hacking scandal in 2011, according to an email read in court by prosecutors.