Patients Without Borders What do the uninsured in America do when they need health care? Some turn to a volunteer medical group that was set up to provide free services in third world countries.... Read Full Article BA Flies In The Face Of Pilots’ Demands With US Venture BRITISH AIRWAYS will this week risk the wrath of its pilots by revealing details of its new “airline within an airline” that will fly direct from continental European cities to America.... Read Full Article South African Miners Strike For Better Safety Conditions South Africa’s crucial mining sector was hit Tuesday by its biggest strike in two decades, as tens of thousands of workers stayed home to protest poor safety conditions.... Read Full Article PBL Rejigs Gaming Group To Grow Offshore Media and gaming conglomerate Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd will restructure its gaming division, setting up a new international business development group to focus on offshore expansion.... Read Full Article Music: Walking A Tightrope At A Jazz Competition The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz wrapped up its 20th annual jazz competition on Sunday with an emblematic scene. Herbie Hancock sported a shoulder-slung synthesizer and a high-wattage smile.... Read Full Article |
Needle NewsMervyn 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 Desperate Hollywood housewivesDuring a recent eight-hour business trip to Beverly Hills I found myself browsing around the Neiman Marcus department store — just as I did in the old days, before I moved to New York. The shop is usually overpriced (it’s known as “Needless Markup”), but it was sale time and I needed a pair of sandals for an imminent wedding in Australia.Read Full Article Well: College’s High Cost, Before You Even ApplyDoes the college chase lead to needless stress?Read Full Article Nine reasons to make a brave, bold cutIt’s going to be a particularly tough decision for the interest rate setters at the Bank of England this week. With energy bills, rail fares and food prices all rising fast, the ghost of inflation is hovering in the shadows of the octagonal room in Threadneedle Street where the Monetary Policy Committee gathers.Read Full Article Afghan Civilians Were Killed Needlessly, Ex-Marine TestifiesNathaniel Travers, who operated last year in Afghanistan, said Tuesday that his comrades appeared to have needlessly killed civilians after their convoy was attacked by a suicide car bomb.Read Full Article External News for: needleDetainees needle Wisconsin troops about Favre - Chicago TribuneDetainees needle Wisconsin troops about FavreChicago TribuneTim Donovan says the detainees at Camp Cropper needle the guards about Favre's success as a Viking. Boehnen tells WTMJ radio that since soccer is the main ...and more »Detainees needle Wisconsin troops about Favre - Chicago TribuneDetainees needle Wisconsin troops about FavreChicago TribuneTim Donovan says the detainees at Camp Cropper needle the guards about Favre's success as a Viking. Boehnen tells WTMJ radio that since soccer is the main ...and more »MLS Cup Final blitz: from the top of the Needle to... - Examiner.comMLS - Major League SoccerMLS Cup Final blitz: from the top of the Needle to...Examiner.comEarlier this week Seattle's Space Needle is painted in honor of the 2009 Major League Soccer Cup Final. (mlsnet.com / Omega Graphics). ...Roof Of Seattle's Space Needle Being Painted With Likeness Of MLS Cup BallOurSports Central (press release)Soccer cup may draw 35000 fans to Seattle's Qwest FieldPuget Sound Business JournalSeattle part of World Football (soccer) photos and newsExaminer.comall 53 news articles »Detainees needle Wisconsin troops about Favre - Chicago TribuneDetainees needle Wisconsin troops about FavreChicago TribuneTim Donovan says the detainees at Camp Cropper needle the guards about Favre's success as a Viking. Boehnen tells WTMJ radio that since soccer is the main ...and more »MLS Cup Final blitz: from the top of the Needle to... - Examiner.comMLS - Major League SoccerMLS Cup Final blitz: from the top of the Needle to...Examiner.comEarlier this week Seattle's Space Needle is painted in honor of the 2009 Major League Soccer Cup Final. (mlsnet.com / Omega Graphics). ...Roof Of Seattle's Space Needle Being Painted With Likeness Of MLS Cup BallOurSports Central (press release)Soccer cup may draw 35000 fans to Seattle's Qwest FieldPuget Sound Business JournalSeattle part of World Football (soccer) photos and newsExaminer.comall 53 news articles »Galaxy logo makes its Space Needle debut - Los Angeles TimesTelegraph.co.ukGalaxy logo makes its Space Needle debutLos Angeles TimesIt appears the folks in Seattle are really excited about this weekend's MLS Cup final -- so excited that they'll dance on top of the Space Needle. ...MLS Playoffs: MLS Cup Notebook: Calm Before The StormGoal.comReal Salt Lake MLS Cup 2009 PreviewOurSports Central (press release)10 Reasons Why Everyone – Even Euro-Snobs – Should Watch MLS Cup 2009The Offside (blog)all 956 news articles » |
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