Business Comment
James Moore: Those ratings agencies can still bite hard
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.
Inside Business Comment
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.
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
Hamish McRae: What the world needs now is a round of golf – between leaders of the G20
Sunday, 8 November 2009
The G20 finance ministers are gathering this weekend in St Andrews, not to play golf but to knock economic policy ideas about.
Margareta Pagano: Even at an Aldi discount, Lloyds is still a gamble
Sunday, 8 November 2009
It's hard to believe our banks were the envy of Europe
Stephen Foley: Don't despair as US jobless rate hits 10 per cent
Saturday, 7 November 2009
US Outlook: Employers make investment decisions based on their own, on-the-ground business experience, not on round numbers
David Prosser: Britain's car dealers on the scrapheap
Friday, 6 November 2009
Outlook At first sight, the scrappage scheme is working wonders for Britain's automotive sector. Car sales have risen in each of the past four months and, we learnt yesterday, October was the best month of the year yet, with a 32 per cent increase in new registrations. The extension of scrappage announced in September looks, then, to have been another shot in the arm for the motor trade.
Hamish McRae: Growth is returning but what will happen when QE is wound up?
Friday, 6 November 2009
Economic Life: There is an artificial element to the growth which people are worrying about
Sean O'Grady: Economy's house of horrors has frightened the Bank
Friday, 6 November 2009
Spooked. Though the Bank of England and its Governor, Mervyn King, would never use such indelicate language, it was not just the Hallowe'en experience that has them quaking. The Bank is spooked – shocked might be a better word – by the economy's continuing weakness.
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King of Tonga bows to democracy -
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Gambling on the property market
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