Blame Game Over Deadly Gaza Raid Israeli army and an energy company blame each other for security lapse that let Palestinian militants kill two Israeli civilians in a Gaza border raid.... Read Full Article E-Commerce Report: Ad Costs On The Web Are Rising, But Perhaps A Bit Irrationally Retailers are wondering whether online publishers will be so emboldened by a strong advertising market that they will raise the prices of ads sharply.... Read Full Article Tempus Comment: Electrical Fault Any small spark of optimism ignited by Kesa Electrical in its interim results today was quickly extinguished by a bearish note by Credit Suisse, flagging the threat of another OFT investigation into... Read Full Article Fewer Options Open To Pay For Costs Of College Student loan companies are in turmoil and banks are tightening their standards and raising rates, making it harder for families to use multiple financing sources.... Read Full Article Music Review | Measha Brueggergosman: Sometimes A Big Gun Takes Time To Unlimber The nuance and force of personality that are her trademarks were still in short supply in her performance of Schoenberg, Satie and William Bolcom at Zankel Hall on Wednesday.... Read Full Article |
Risks 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 Tempus: The heat is onCentrica, the owner of British Gas, sits between a rock and a hard place. Every time it raises prices for its millions of domestic gas and electricity customers it risks a consumer backlash.Read Full Article British Airways counts cost of T5 fiasco as passenger numbers fallThe chaotic opening of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 last month led to British Airways’ worst April since the start of the Iraq war. Yesterday the airline said that passenger numbers had fallen by 7.9 per cent, or 221,000 people, to 2.5 million after the problematic opening of the £4.3 billion terminal. The British flag carrier was forced to cancel more than 430 flights and lost about 20,000 pieces of luggage as it moved into its new home at T5. The negative publicity and cancelled flights are thought to have contributed substantially to the fall in passenger numbers during the month. This particularly affected BA’s UK and European operations, which were the first to move into T5. Short-haul passenger numbers fell 8.5 per cent last month and BA’s aircraft were operating at only 70 per cent of capacity. Worldwide, the carrier’s aircraft were 71.6 per cent full during the month, the lowest April load factor since the Iraq war began in March 2003. Load factors are seasonal and typically in April traffic rises before the summer. The decline in passenger numbers last month was worst in the economy cabins, with an8.8 per cent fall compared with last year. Premium passenger numbers rebounded by 3.4 per cent after a 5 per cent fall in the previous month. Of particular concern to BA will be the sudden drop in transatlantic travel, which is where the carrier makes the bulk of its money. Passenger numbers to and from the Americas fell 7.9 per cent and the load factor fell to 72.2 per cent, from 78.5 per cent in the same month last year. Nick van den Brul, aviation analyst for Exane BNP Paribas, said: “T5 has clearly been a big problem and it will have an impact on profits. April is usually a good month, when things start to pick up after the winter, but this has not happened.” Analysts are concerned that BA’s passenger numbers are falling just as costs rise and the economy slows. Oil prices have hit record levels and this has caused a number of airlines to go into bankruptcy. BA put up its fuel surcharge last week to cover these increased costs, but it risks losing passengers, particularly as the economies of Britain and the United States slow. Doug McVitie, managing director of Arran Aerospace, an aviation consult-ancy, said: “The combination of higher fares, higher costs and falling passenger numbers is very bad news and the more bad news there is, the more people will be put off the airline.” BA’s share price fell 9¾p to 239p yesterday and is trading at less than half the level of a year ago. The company said: “Market conditions are broadly unchanged with long-haul, nonpremium traffic showing significant weakness. In April some impact was felt, particularly on transfer traffic, from the move to T5 and the operational problems in the early part of the month.” Ryanair, the low-cost carrier, has also suffered from weaker demand as a result of tighter household budgets. Its traffic figures for April show that it is not increasing passenger numbers by enough to cope with the capacity it is adding. Passenger numbers rose by 15 per cent to 4.7 million, compared with the same month last year, but load factors dropped to 79 per cent from 83 per cent. Further indications of weakness in the airline sector is expected today when easyJet, another budget airline, reports its first-half figures. Analysts expect a loss of about £50 million compared with a £17 million loss in the same half last year.Read Full Article Trichet sounds food inflation warningJean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank President, today gave warning about the future inflationary risks of soaring food prices across the world and explained that financial market speculators may also be to blame for the rising cost of grains and dairy produce.Read Full Article Warren Buffett: big is bad for banksTHE big banks have become too large to manage their own risks properly, Warren Buffett, the world’s most successful investor, warned last night. Their size had led to the recent meltdown in financial markets.Read Full Article External News for: risksThe Risks and Benefits of Cancer Tests - New York TimesCBS NewsThe Risks and Benefits of Cancer TestsNew York TimesWhether or not they are wrong for any individual will be a matter of personal attitude toward risk and, in truth, of personal priorities in life. ...Debating Benefits, Risks Of Routine MammogramsNPRMammography Pushes BackCounterPunchMammogram Guidelines: What You Need to KnowTIMESalem-News.Com -Fort Worth Star Telegram -News Sentinelall 387 news articles »The Risks and Benefits of Cancer Tests - New York TimesCBS NewsThe Risks and Benefits of Cancer TestsNew York TimesWhether or not they are wrong for any individual will be a matter of personal attitude toward risk and, in truth, of personal priorities in life. ...Debating Benefits, Risks Of Routine MammogramsNPRMammography Pushes BackCounterPunchMammogram Guidelines: What You Need to KnowTIMESalem-News.Com -Fort Worth Star Telegram -News Sentinelall 387 news articles »Treasury Two-Year Note Yields Drop to Year Low on Risk Reversal - BloombergTreasury Two-Year Note Yields Drop to Year Low on Risk ReversalBloomberg21 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury two-year note yields fell to the lowest level this year on concern the rally in risk assets has outpaced growth prospects and as ...and more »The Risks and Benefits of Cancer Tests - New York TimesCBS NewsThe Risks and Benefits of Cancer TestsNew York TimesWhether or not they are wrong for any individual will be a matter of personal attitude toward risk and, in truth, of personal priorities in life. ...Debating Benefits, Risks Of Routine MammogramsNPRMammography Pushes BackCounterPunchMammogram Guidelines: What You Need to KnowTIMESalem-News.Com -Fort Worth Star Telegram -News Sentinelall 387 news articles »Treasury Two-Year Note Yields Drop to Year Low on Risk Reversal - BloombergTreasury Two-Year Note Yields Drop to Year Low on Risk ReversalBloomberg21 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury two-year note yields fell to the lowest level this year on concern the rally in risk assets has outpaced growth prospects and as ...and more »Funeral industry workers at greater leukemia risk - Times of IndiaFuneral industry workers at greater leukemia riskTimes of IndiaFuneral industry workers are at a greater risk of getting leukemia because they are exposed to formaldehyde for long durations, a new study has claimed. ...Formaldehyde May Endanger Funeral WorkersU.S. News & World ReportExposure to formaldehyde linked to increased risk for cancer-related deathHemOncTodayall 28 news articles » |
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