Inflation hits 27-month high February 15, 2011 INFLATION reached its highest rate since November 2008 last month, as escalating price pressures and tax hikes continue to hammer households suffering from sluggish wage growth and rising unemployment. While inflation on the consumer price index (CPI) climbed 0.3 per cent to four per cent, the tax and price index (TPI) – which includes the [...]
Why we shouldn’t bail out Portugal March 25, 2011 HERE’S a heretical thought: let’s not bail out Portugal. The near-bankrupt country has just seen its Prime Minister resign after losing a key vote on his government’s fourth austerity package in a couple of years, while Fitch has just downgraded the country’s credit rating. Yet the talk now is of a bailout – even though [...]
Why we shouldn’t bail out Portugal March 24, 2011 HERE’S a heretical thought: let’s not bail out Portugal. The near-bankrupt country has just seen its Prime Minister resign after losing a key vote on his government’s fourth austerity package in a couple of years, while Fitch has just downgraded the country’s credit rating. Yet the talk now is of a bailout – even though [...]
Fed turns record profits over to US Treasury January 10, 2011 THE US Federal Reserve has reported its earnings jumped by more than 50 per cent to a record $80.9bn (£52bn) on its massive holdings of securities in 2010 and it will turn the bulk of it over to the US Treasury. The $78.4bn the Fed is remitting is also a record, and is $31bn more [...]
VAT shock yet to be passed to consumers February 8, 2011 INFLATION in UK shops rose to 2.5 per cent in January – from 2.1 per cent in December — despite retailers absorbing much of the hike in VAT, a comprehensive survey revealed today. Even more price pressure could spill through to consumers in the coming months, the British Retail Consortium warned. “Retailers generally took the [...]
Why firms need to be freed to spend February 15, 2011 DESPITE repeated promises from the coalition that it would tackle the burden of red tape, a raft of new employment rules are set to come into force over the next few years. As we report on page 1, these will cost UK firms billions of pounds in extra recurring costs, even on the government’s own [...]
Why firms need to be freed to spend February 15, 2011 DESPITE repeated promises from the coalition that it would tackle the burden of red tape, a raft of new employment rules are set to come into force over the next few years. As we report on page 1, these will cost UK firms billions of pounds in extra recurring costs, even on the government’s own [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 2, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES LLOYDS DROPS MORTGAGE BROKERS OVER SUSPECTED FRAUD Concerns over suspected fraud have prompted Lloyds Banking Group to cull the list of brokers it allows to sell its mortgages. The UK’s largest mortgage lender has removed some 900 individuals over the past four years from its “approved panel” of brokers, including 300 in the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 2, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES LLOYDS DROPS MORTGAGE BROKERS OVER SUSPECTED FRAUD Concerns over suspected fraud have prompted Lloyds Banking Group to cull the list of brokers it allows to sell its mortgages. The UK’s largest mortgage lender has removed some 900 individuals over the past four years from its “approved panel” of brokers, including 300 in the [...]
For some, it’s a borrower’s market February 2, 2011 FANCY a new car, luxury holiday or that longed-for loft conversion but don’t have the cash? This could be the moment for you to bag a bargain. As businesses struggle amid the economic downturn, they are offering some very good deals, at least to certain clients. With care, you may be able to net an [...]