Homeowners relaxed about negative equity December 14, 2010 IN the latest YouGov SixthSense Mortgages Report, mortgage holders were asked to estimate the current value of their household and cost of their mortgage. Ninety-one per cent who were able to give these figures were in positive equity with nearly one in ten recording a no equity or negative equity score. This data is in [...]
Denmark lender fails February 7, 2011 Denmark has been left bearing a £1.72bn bill as Amagerbanken, the country’s eighth-biggest lender, became its tenth bank to be nationalised following the global financial crisis. Amagerbanken said yesterday that it would transfer its assets to Finansiel Stabilitet A/S, the state company that administers failed banks, and administrators would close the bank. Amagerbanken said fourth-quarter [...]
How to squeeze more out of UK plc March 9, 2011 ONE of the most influential books in America today – Tyler Cowen’s The Great Stagnation – argues that technological innovation peaked in 1873 (yes, you read that right). Most of the progress of the past 100 years has come from the application of innovations made prior to 1914, he says; what we now think of [...]
Why the consumer is no longer king March 7, 2011 WHY are so many people still in denial? The era of debt-fuelled spending, from the private and the public sector, is over. A crisis caused by excessive and underpriced debt cannot be resolved by borrowing even more. It is a simple proposition. Virtually all companies, many individuals and some governments now understand this – but [...]
Lawyers are bad at business? Think again February 8, 2011 THIS paper recently ran an article warning that for lawyers “doom is nigh” and that they should shape up or ship out. The context was the Legal Services Act and its welcome shake up of the way in which legal services can be delivered. The article had many solid, good messages: in summary, cutting overheads [...]
Lawyers are bad at business? Think again February 8, 2011 THIS paper recently ran an article warning that for lawyers “doom is nigh” and that they should shape up or ship out. The context was the Legal Services Act and its welcome shake up of the way in which legal services can be delivered. The article had many solid, good messages: in summary, cutting overheads [...]
Cameron needs to listen to business January 24, 2011 GOOD on Sir Richard Lambert, the usually mild-mannered outgoing boss of the CBI, for taking the government to task over its abject lack of pro-growth policies. It is a shame he didn’t say as much in such strongly worded terms a few months ago, but better late than never. Crucially, the CBI doesn’t object to [...]
Six things to check before setting up the family’s financial safety net February 23, 2011 PERSONAL insurance premiums are set to rise this year, as the market vies to boost profitability. That was the prediction last week from Axa, after it unveiled a drop in 2010 underlying earnings to £131m from £235m in 2009. So what better time to make sure you’re covered? While hunting down a competitive deal is [...]
Nationwide profits up after cost cuts November 23, 2010 NATIONWIDE Building Society’s profits rose 26 per cent to £147m in the first half of 2010, from £117m the previous year, as it cut costs and reduced loan impairment charges. Pre-tax profits rose 83 per cent to £259m in the six months to 30 September 2010, from £143m in the same period in 2009. Impairment [...]
Worries over banks and oil weigh on FTSE February 21, 2011 Nervousness over oil supply as violent crackdowns on protests in Libya continued combined with worries over banks’ liquidity to keep the FTSE in the red today. The FTSE 100 declined from about 9:00am and it finished 1.12 per cent down at 6,014.8. “Only a handful of blue-chips registered a positive change for the day – [...]