Former Seoul Mayor Is Picked As Presidential Candidate Lee Myung-bak is now the clear front-runner to succeed President Roh Moo-hyun in the election scheduled for Dec. 19.... Read Full Article Dusting Off The Archive For The Web For magazines and newspapers with long histories, old material can be reborn on the Web as an inexpensive way to attract readers, advertisers and money.... Read Full Article APA Claims Qantas Bid Still Has Wings Uncertainty continues to hang over fate of Airline Partners Australia’s $11.1 billion bid for Qantas.... Read Full Article Questions For Matt Groening: Screen Dreams The creator of ??The Simpsons?? talks about his new movie, why animators don?t get paid enough and what’s funny about Arnold Schwarzenegger as president.... Read Full Article E-Commerce Report: EBay Moves To Recharge Its Auctions In making upgrades intended to make its site more friendly, eBay may endure criticism from more than 700,000 sellers who rely on it for their livelihoods.... Read Full Article |
Rates NewsProspects of cheaper loans hit as inflation forecast sends Libor soaringHopes of imminent cuts in new mortgage rates were dashed yesterday as the Bank of England’s inflation judgment sent money market interest rates soaring for a second successive day.Read Full Article Looks like Mervyn King needs to sharpen his pencilThese may be increasingly difficult times, but at least somebody’s job is getting easier. Mervyn King’s decision over whether to cut interest rates next month is becoming simpler by the day.Read Full Article FirstGroup in cash call to fund Greyhound dealFirstGroup, the bus and train operator, is issuing up to 43.7 million new shares to institutional investors to help pay for the $3.5 billion purchase of US transport group Laidlaw, which operates the 92-year-old Greyhound bus network. The deal was completed in last October.$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 Bank of England holds interest rate at 5%The Bank of England today rebuffed pleas for a new cut in interest rates as it pursued its campaign to quell persistent inflationary pressures in the economy.Read Full Article External News for: ratesRI jobless rate still leads New England - Providence JournalKXJZ NewsRI jobless rate still leads New EnglandProvidence JournalRhode Island's unemployment rate may have dropped to 12.9 percent from 13 percent in October, but it still ranks third highest in the ...Most States See Higher Jobless RatesWall Street JournalUnemployment rates rise in 29 statesCNNMoney.comUnemployment rates rise in most states in OctoberUSA TodayCBS News -Bizjournals.com -Washington Timesall 863 news articles »RI jobless rate still leads New England - Providence JournalKXJZ NewsRI jobless rate still leads New EnglandProvidence JournalRhode Island's unemployment rate may have dropped to 12.9 percent from 13 percent in October, but it still ranks third highest in the ...Most States See Higher Jobless RatesWall Street JournalUnemployment rates rise in 29 statesCNNMoney.comUnemployment rates rise in most states in OctoberUSA TodayCBS News -Bizjournals.com -Washington Timesall 863 news articles »UPS Sets 4.9. Percent Rate Increase for Next Year - New York TimesAd-Hoc-News (Pressemitteilung)UPS Sets 4.9. Percent Rate Increase for Next YearNew York TimesBy BLOOMBERG NEWS United Parcel Service will increase ground-shipment rates in 2010 by 4.9 percent, less than this year, as volume drops. ...UPS to Raise 2010 Ground Rate by 4.9%, Less Than 2009BloombergUPS To Raise Rates An Average Of 4.9% In 2010Wall Street JournalUPDATE 1-UPS raises 2010 rates by 4.9 percentReutersThe Associated Press -Bizjournals.com -Transport Topics Onlineall 115 news articles »RI jobless rate still leads New England - Providence JournalKXJZ NewsRI jobless rate still leads New EnglandProvidence JournalRhode Island's unemployment rate may have dropped to 12.9 percent from 13 percent in October, but it still ranks third highest in the ...Most States See Higher Jobless RatesWall Street JournalUnemployment rates rise in 29 statesCNNMoney.comUnemployment rates rise in most states in OctoberUSA TodayCBS News -Bizjournals.com -Washington Timesall 863 news articles »UPS Sets 4.9. Percent Rate Increase for Next Year - New York TimesAd-Hoc-News (Pressemitteilung)UPS Sets 4.9. Percent Rate Increase for Next YearNew York TimesBy BLOOMBERG NEWS United Parcel Service will increase ground-shipment rates in 2010 by 4.9 percent, less than this year, as volume drops. ...UPS to Raise 2010 Ground Rate by 4.9%, Less Than 2009BloombergUPS To Raise Rates An Average Of 4.9% In 2010Wall Street JournalUPDATE 1-UPS raises 2010 rates by 4.9 percentReutersThe Associated Press -Bizjournals.com -Transport Topics Onlineall 115 news articles »MONEY MARKETS-US Treasury bill rates dip below zero - ReutersMONEY MARKETS-US Treasury bill rates dip below zeroReutersDollar interbank lending rates hit a new low as an abundance of liquidity and dovish central banker comments also eroded short-term market rates. ...Sellers Scuttle Treasury Rally Before $118 Bln SupplyWall Street JournalAs if interest rates weren't low enough . . .Los Angeles TimesSome Treasury Bill Rates Negative Again FridayWall Street Journal (blog)Inside Futures -Wall Street Journal -Wall Street Journalall 162 news articles » |
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