L&G sales up but capital fears persist May 13, 2009 INSURER Legal & General (L&G) reported above-consensus first-quarter sales of £382m yesterday and said the worst of the crisis appears to be over, but fears over the firm’s capitalisation levels continued to dominate. L&G revealed a 3 per cent global sales rise, from £372m a year ago, which was massively bigger than analyst expectations of [...]
Low interest rates are crippling savers May 13, 2009 SO the Bank of England agrees that the recession has bottomed out – but it is refusing to be too optimistic about the recovery, and expects interest rates to remain at 0.5 per cent for a year or so. All very sensible; but this only tells part of the story for borrowers and savers. As [...]
Monica Ali’s Brick Lane follow-up never really reaches boiling point May 13, 2009 ONE of the most famous books to come out of the boom of the Eighties was Barbarians at the Gate. In this book, it seems that the nerds have taken over from Conan and his chums. In fact, the subtitle of the book makes it clear that greed was to blame – politicians and central [...]
TUC calls for tax reforms September 8, 2008 The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has called for a new higher-rate tax bracket for those earning over £100,000, putting it on a collision course with Conservative leader David Cameron. The TUC’s statement, made in advance of its annual conference which begins tomorrow in Brighton, contrasts sharply with a newspaper interview given by Cameron at the [...]
House prices fall furthest in 25 years September 5, 2008 Yet more doom and gloom was heaped on the housing market yesterday as retail bank Halifax announced the first double-digit drop in prices since 1983. Prices dipped a further 1.8 per cent in August following a drop of 1.7 per cent in July, marking the fifth month running that house prices have dropped by at [...]
Why it may be time to reduce investment exposure to UK September 3, 2008 Two trends have dominated financial markets in recent months: global growth has continued to weaken, while inflationary pressure has eased. The main cloud on the horizon now is the renewed upward spike in US mortgage spreads; this prevents the average American house-buyer from benefiting from looser monetary policy and lower bond yields. More positively, energy [...]
Data fans slump fears September 2, 2008 Weak data with British mortgage approvals at their lowest level in 15 years and the manufacturing sector shrinking for its fourth straight month in August yesterday heightened fears that a UK recession was now inevitable. The Bank of England said that mortgage approvals, seen as an indicator of future movements in house prices, fell to [...]
Going short is not necessarily the answer September 2, 2008 A medium or long term approach may be wisest just now, says Katie Hope Its’ like a grim version of “when I were a lad…” working in the City at the moment. Everyone’s trying to out-do themselves in describing just how bad things have got. Going to school barefoot barely makes the grade in terms [...]
Cash and bonds will help protect your investments from stagflation August 29, 2008 It’s time to re-balance your portfolio to cushion the blow of the bear market, says Bill Jamieson Investors have arrived at a critical inflection point on portfolio planning. Many believe that key sectors of the equity market such as banks and house builders are now undervalued, yet they choose to remain markedly underweight in these [...]
Home loans plummet August 27, 2008 Deals for new houses remained close to a record low last month, with approvals for mortgages 65 per cent lower than a year ago. Mortgage approvals totalled 22,448 last month, according to the British Bankers’ Association (BBA), just above June’s series low of 22,369 but almost 12,000 below the average of the past six months. [...]