Afghanistan: Battle Kills Militants And Civilians, Officials Say NATO and Afghan troops called in airstrikes during a battle against insurgents on Monday that left 20 suspected militants and several civilians dead.... Read Full Article Power Shift In Congress Revives Health Debate House Democrats will try to rush legislation forcing the government to negotiate drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries and overturning the restrictions on stem cell research.... Read Full Article Hedge Fund Agrees To Acquire James River The James River Group, a property and casualty insurer, said yesterday that it had agreed to be acquired by the hedge fund D. E. Shaw Group for $575 million in cash.... Read Full Article Acxiom Shows Breaking Up Is Costly Behind some of the recent battles between Wall Street banks and their clients is the fact that some banks stand to lose millions of dollars if certain deals are completed.... Read Full Article WTO Rules Against Japanese Chip Duties A World Trade Organization appeals body upheld a ruling that Japan violates international trade rules applying punitive fees on imported South Korean computer chips.... Read Full Article |
Main NewsANC votes to rename streets after party activistsDURBAN council, which provoked riots last year after it tried to rename its main streets after revolutionaries, faced an opposition walkout after it announced fresh plans to change the street names of some of the city’s all-white suburbs.Read Full Article Hillary Clinton remains in race but turns fire away from Barack ObamaBill Clinton spent yesterday morning scrabbling around in the dirt, digging holes with his bare hands in front of a handful of bemused onlookers while his face went bright red.Read Full Article British Energy bids send shares higherThe battle for British Energy, the UK’s main nuclear generator, has sprung back to life after the company said it was considering three offers, two of which have been priced higher than the company’s closing share price on Thursday of 680p a share.Read Full Article Major Indian cities on terror alert as bombing wave leaves 80 deadMumbai and Delhi are on high terror alert after a bomb attack killed 80 people in Jaipur, one of India’s main tourist destinations.Read Full Article Mervyn King to grimace and bear bad newsWhen the Bank of England’s Governor unveils its latest prognosis for the economy this week, he is likely to adopt his sternest demeanour. The message from Mervyn King may not be quite as bleak as Churchill’s famous admonition that he had “nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”, but it may not be far off. The Bank’s hardline decision last week to keep interest rates on hold despite the latest spate of dreadful news over worsening economic conditions gave a foretaste of the granite-hard façade that it is set to present to the country in its latest quarterly Inflation Report on Wednesday. The “no change” verdict on interest rates from Threadneedle Street can only have appeared to much of the country at large like an exercise in monetary sado-masochism. Yet the harsh reality that confronts the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is that it remains trapped between an economic rock and a hard place. Far from easing as the economic outlook has grown darker, the conflicting pressures confronting the MPC – from faltering growth and activity on the one hand and simmering inflationary pressures on the other – have intensified. The deluge of ever more dismal economic indicators now leaves little doubt that the economy is facing its most testing two-year stretch since the early Nineties. Yet as the going gets much tougher, the persistence of the inflation threat condemns the Bank to talk, and act, tough, too. The MPC’s mission to ensure that inflation hits its 2 per cent target over the medium term leaves it scant room for manoeuvre. It is forced to act only cautiously, even as the demands for more aggressive and urgent action escalate. The Bank’s dilemma seems set only to be become more acute through the summer, as the Inflation Report is likely to spell out. If anything, the MPC’s latest assessment is likely to understate the full scale of dangers to growth prospects that have emerged. At the heart of the heightened risks is the increasingly dire straits of the housing market, which appears to be locked into a vicious downward spiral triggered by the mortgage lending drought. The severe squeeze on the availability of home loans is combining with falling house prices to cause demand in the property market to dry up, with cautious buyers holding out for the much lower prices they expect in future. As demand and market activity drop, and the supply of unsold houses grows, prices fall farther and faster. In turn, that farther deters would-be buyers and makes lenders become even more cautious, fuelling an ever steeper downward slide. The scale of these trends is underlined by the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ data, highlighted by Michael Saunders, of Citigroup, which shows the drastic tightening of lending conditions since the start of the year. The number of new home loans agreed plunged by more than 30 per cent in the first quarter, compared with the same period a year earlier. In March, approvals of new mortgages fell to the lowest since 1992. Although the Bank of England’s £50 billion lifeline, designed to ease the funding pressures on lenders, may limit the squeeze, Mr King has been bluntly candid that it is far from intended as a cureall for the mortgage market. The clear peril for the economy is that the toll on sentiment and household wealth from an increasingly severe housing correction now sees the credit crunch mutate into a brutal consumer crunch as households pull back their spending. The Bank tends to play down the repercussions of falling house prices for consumer demand. Yet signs are already accumulating that the consumer may embark on a full-scale retreat from the high street. Consumer confidence has slumped to 15-year lows, while polls show that concern over the state of the economy is at its highest levels since 1993. As other signs of economic weakness pile up, it is becoming painfully clear that Britain, far from being better placed than its rivals to weather global economic squalls, as the Chancellor and Prime Minister claim, is markedly worse off. As Mr Saunders argues, the UK is left badly exposed by the highest household debt burden in the Group of Seven leading industrial economies, alongside severely inflated house prices and low household savings. The price of a protracted period of living beyond our means may now have to be paid. Long years of high spending, as well as heavy borrowing excess. are making the fallout from the credit crunch more painful and the boost from the Bank’s limited easing of interest rates less potent. Yet, worse still, the same past excesses, in the form of a swollen current account deficit, are adding to the acute pressure on a sharply weakening pound, already hit by Britain’s worsening growth outlook. Sterling’s steep slide – by about 12 per cent in the past year - is aggravating the Bank’s inflation headache by raising the nation’s import bills and further curbing its scope to cut base rates to underpin faltering growth. With the pound set to tumble still farther, oil prices having surged to record levels of above $120 a barrel and the cost of food in global markets soaring, the City expects that the Bank will raise its forecasts for inflation this week. It is likely to give warning that headline consumer price inflation will rise above 3 per cent over the summer, forcing Mr King to pen what will be only his second explanatory letter to the Chancellor. Against this background, the Governor can be expected to make it brutally plain on Wednesday that further easing of interest rates will be only limited and gradual. Ultimately, the extent of the slowdown now taking hold in the economy will quell the inflationary threat that the Bank is, for now, compelled to prioritise over risks the growth.$Read Full Article External News for: mainFlorida Marlins thrash NY Mets starter John Maine in 5-1 victory - The Star-Ledger - NJ.comThe Star-Ledger - NJ.comFlorida Marlins thrash NY Mets starter John Maine in 5-1 victoryThe Star-Ledger - NJ.comNoah K. Murray/The Star-LedgerAfter getting two outs in the fifth inning, John Maine gave up five runs to Florida on ...Pitcher Anibal Sanchez regaining his form for MarlinsPalm Beach Postall 151 news articles »Florida Marlins thrash NY Mets starter John Maine in 5-1 victory - The Star-Ledger - NJ.comThe Star-Ledger - NJ.comFlorida Marlins thrash NY Mets starter John Maine in 5-1 victoryThe Star-Ledger - NJ.comNoah K. Murray/The Star-LedgerAfter getting two outs in the fifth inning, John Maine gave up five runs to Florida on ...Pitcher Anibal Sanchez regaining his form for MarlinsPalm Beach Postall 151 news articles »Questions Still Remain With 4-Alarm Lumber Yard Fire - KTVU San FranciscoKCBSQuestions Still Remain With 4-Alarm Lumber Yard FireKTVU San FranciscoA lane of Main St. was still closed Sunday, a day after the fire, so that fire officials could work on their investigation. They treated the area as a ...Explosion, fire hit Walnut Creek lumber yardSan Francisco ChronicleDamage to Walnut Creek lumberyard estimated at $5 millionSan Jose Mercury NewsSUNDAY NEWS ROUNDUPCBS 5KGO-TV -KCBS -KGO-AMall 59 news articles »Florida Marlins thrash NY Mets starter John Maine in 5-1 victory - The Star-Ledger - NJ.comThe Star-Ledger - NJ.comFlorida Marlins thrash NY Mets starter John Maine in 5-1 victoryThe Star-Ledger - NJ.comNoah K. Murray/The Star-LedgerAfter getting two outs in the fifth inning, John Maine gave up five runs to Florida on ...Pitcher Anibal Sanchez regaining his form for MarlinsPalm Beach Postall 151 news articles »Questions Still Remain With 4-Alarm Lumber Yard Fire - KTVU San FranciscoKCBSQuestions Still Remain With 4-Alarm Lumber Yard FireKTVU San FranciscoA lane of Main St. was still closed Sunday, a day after the fire, so that fire officials could work on their investigation. They treated the area as a ...Explosion, fire hit Walnut Creek lumber yardSan Francisco ChronicleDamage to Walnut Creek lumberyard estimated at $5 millionSan Jose Mercury NewsSUNDAY NEWS ROUNDUPCBS 5KGO-TV -KCBS -KGO-AMall 59 news articles »Beijing makes inflation battle main priority - Financial TimesTelegraph.co.ukBeijing makes inflation battle main priorityFinancial TimesThe fight against inflation is at the top of the Chinese government's policy agenda, Wen Jiabao, the premier, said yesterday, ...Premier: Chinese economy faces uncertaintiesChina DailyEconomy faces threat of double dipChina Dailyall 2,240 news articles » |
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