Business Comment
David Prosser: Time running out for stamp duty saving
Outlook The recovery of the UK housing market has never looked sustainable and the latest lending figures suggest it may already be beginning to run out of steam. The number of mortgages for house purchase agreed in September was only marginally higher than in August, The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports, and lower than July's figure. And while we're still up significantly on the same months of last year, the low base makes the comparisons pretty meaningless.
Inside Business Comment
David Prosser: Cameron gets a warning
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Outlook A sign of trouble ahead? Mervyn King has wasted no time firing a shot across the bows of the Conservatives. The Bank of England Governor seems to have been irked by David Cameron's speech to his party conference last month, during which the Tory leader said the quantitative easing programme would have to stop because "in the end, printing money leads to inflation". Mr King warned Mr Cameron off yesterday, insisting the decision was "one for the Bank".
Sean O'Grady: The worst is yet to come
Thursday, 12 November 2009
There are three powerful reasons why the financial pain is far from over. First, the credit crunch is still with us, and still making life difficult for the banks and the rest of us. The uncomfortable truth is that the entire credit system remains reliant on life support from the Treasury and the Bank of England.
James Moore: The worst is over
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Just as it's possible to talk your way into a recession, you can also talk your way out of a recovery. We might be in danger of doing just that. All right, last month's third-quarter GDP numbers were a nasty shock. But in the past few weeks there have been other numbers which offer some grounds for hope. There are signs of life on the high street. The housing market, if not exactly healthy, is out of its trough.
David Prosser: Budget pleas set to fall on deaf ears
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Outlook Bless. Within hours of the Treasury announcing yesterday that the Chancellor will deliver the pre-Budget report on 9 December, every special interest group under the sun was publishing its list of demands. There are sure going to be a lot of disappointed folk around come 10 December.
James Moore: Those ratings agencies can still bite hard
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Outlook In the world of ratings agencies there is a very definite hierarchy. Standard & Poor's sits at the top of the tree, a branch or two above Moody's. Fitch occupies third place and, as a result of this, it has often proved rather more willing to say rather more interesting things than the others. This is probably because it knows they won't have quite the same impact, so there is less risk. That wasn't the case yesterday, however, when Fitch warned that of all the major economies, Britain's prized AAA credit rating was most at risk of a downgrade.
James Moore: More needed for Vodafone to be throned
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Outlook There's something not quite right about describing Vodafone, that British corporate titan, as a straggler. But that's exactly what it will be when the merger of T Mobile and Orange completes, at least in its home market where it will drop from second to third place in the rankings.
Ben Chu: Does David Cameron understand what inflation does?
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
For someone who professes to be so worried about inflation David Cameron seems bizarrely ignorant about what its effects are. In his speech on poverty yesterday the Tory leader said:
James Moore: Shareholders can't allow Kraft to win
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Outlook: If you let a predator take over a company in your portfolio at beneath the market price, others will try the same tactic
Econoblog: It's painful, but the banking sector has to slim down
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Harsh as it is on the staff who are losing their jobs at Lloyds, the move is inevitable.
Stephen King: Developing economies show the way for the US and EU to recover
Monday, 9 November 2009
Emerging nations spend their money on investment goods, not modern-day ephemera
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Columnist Comments
• Matthew Norman: Cowell is a God
He has no need to play God. On Greek mythological lines, he is one
• Adrian Hamilton: Lies, damn lies and Berlin speeches
We're back to propping up rotten regimes. Stability is more important than values
• Christina Patterson: Why it's hard to be a blonde in the City
A big, fat, dark, ugly man who complained about their intelligence
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