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Stephen Foley: Don't despair as US jobless rate hits 10 per cent

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

There is both beauty and beastliness in round numbers. The US unemployment rate has been marching determinedly upwards for two years, but the fact of its passing 10 per cent is no less startling for that. That it has happened a month or two earlier than most forecasters predicted only added to the breathlessness of the headlines.

Stephen Foley: Don't despair as US jobless rate hits 10%

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Econoblog: RBS results show its a long haul for all of us

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:22:27 GMT

Nothing illustrates the Government's central dilemma over the economy better than the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Ben Chu: Separate the banks - even some bankers now agree

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:13:46 GMT

The argument against separating retail banks from their investment banking operations has got to be on shaky ground when even the financiers who originally pushed for the repeal of Glass-Steagall now say it was a bad idea.

Hamish McRae: Growth is returning but what will happen when QE is wound up?

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

So the monetary policy accelerator remains on the floor. It remains on the floor here and will remain on the floor in the US too for a while yet – and there is only the slightest hint that the European Central Bank will ease back at all soon. Not only do interest rates remain unchanged, as was of course expected, but more money is being pumped in both here and in the States.

David Prosser: No happy new year on the high street

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Outlook The retail trade is ending the year as it began it. The closure of Woolworth's, completed in the first few days of January, was the UK's biggest-ever retail failure. But Threshers, which has been in administration since last week, threatens to run it close. First Quench, the parent to the business, has 1,300 stores in all, 500 more than Woolies shut in the end, and announced yesterday that 373 will be closed for starters.

David Prosser: Britain's car dealers on the scrapheap

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

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.

Sean O'Grady: Economy's house of horrors has frightened the Bank

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

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.

Econoblog: This money is proof that QE hasn't worked yet

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:34:48 GMT

Though the Bank of England and its Governor, Mervyn King, would never use such language, they are spooked.

James Moore: We are right, says Next, and anon is wrong

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Outlook: Next and M&S might have reported better-than-expected sales figures yesterday but, of course, the focus on planet retail is not so much on the numbers themselves but on how they are put together.

James Moore: Pay gap is hard to solve

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Outlook: A bit of a turn up for the books from the Office for National Statistics today. Its figures suggest that men in part-time work are actually paid less than women. The result? A deafening silence from the Equalities department. Where's Harriet Harperson when you need her, anyway? Before everyone gets too excited, it's worth noting that the difference is only 3.5 per cent (in favour of women). When considering all employees there is a pay differential of 22.5 per cent. And that's in favour of men.

James Moore: GM needs to prove worthy of our money

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Outlook: So the horse trading begins again. Just a day after the Government pumped a truly obscene amount of taxpayer's cash into two zombie banks, the motor manufacturers are at it with General Motors wanting some financial candy of its own as the price for protecting thousands of British jobs. To be fair, there's good news to report here. The volte face made by GM on the sale of its European operations is infinitely preferable for Vauxhaull car workers in this country when compared to the alternative arrangement.

Detroit looks to hit the gas again as confidence rises

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

The General Motors board performed what amounts to a handbrake turn over the sale of Vauxhall and Opel. It is an audacious piece of driving from a team that has not proved itself particularly adept behind the wheel, but spirits are intoxicatingly high in Detroit at the moment. Both GM and Chrysler came through their state-sponsored bankruptcies in record time, and Ford – which never went bust – is even back in the black. The industry enjoyed bumper car sales over the summer, as the US Government pumped $3bn into "cash-for-clunkers" subsidies and the taxpayers of other countries chipped in to support their local markets, too.

Stephen Foley: Detroit looks to hit the gas again as confidence rises

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

David Prosser: Lloyds boss is the last man still standing

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Outlook Give Eric Daniels some credit, at least for tenacity. When the true scale of the horrors lurking in HBOS's commercial loan book first emerged, there was a widespread expectation that the Lloyds chief executive responsible for agreeing to take over the rival bank would have to go. Yet he has hung on doggedly, and shareholders yesterday were mainly supportive, despite being asked to participate in a massive cash call.

David Prosser: This bailout won't get the banks lending

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Outlook No one is going to buy the idea that £40bn is anything other than a huge sum of money. Still, the latest taxpayer investment in Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland – up to £39.2bn to be precise – is likely to be dwarfed by a much larger figure tomorrow. The Bank of England is widely expected to announce an expansion of its quantitative easing programme, with the betting currently on a £50bn increase to £225bn.

James Moore: It's head the City wins, tails we lose as RBS has wings clipped

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

So the bonus boys have at last had their wings clipped. Well at least at Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Sean O'Grady: Bank sell-offs aren't a great move, but they are a good one

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:23:45 GMT

Forget, if you're not inclined to do so, the merry go round of billions of pounds circulating between the government and the banks they own.

David Prosser: No cheap stocking filler from Orange

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:22:35 GMT

The future may be bright, but it's not going to be any cheaper. When Orange last month won the right to begin selling the iPhone – following an extended period of exclusivity for O2 – hopes were raised of a pre-Christmas price war. But its announcement yesterday of the tariffs it will offer when it finally begins selling Apple's blockbuster phone next week has rather pricked that bubble.

David Prosser: Will Treasury hat-trick get a result?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

You can see what the folk at the Treasury were thinking. Having spent so many billions bailing out Britain's banks – and with no decent return on their money in sight for taxpayers – presenting today's shake-up of Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds as a feast for competition-starved consumers is the Government's best hope to date of spinning a positive story out of the financial crisis.

Sean O'Grady: Will the euroland centre hold?

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

There has been plenty of speculation about the dollar and poor old sterling recently – but how has the euro fared in its first big test?

Simon Evans: Tesco marches on to retail banking dominance

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Right now, Tesco is the good guy in the banking world. The public's trust in the traditional banking sector, especially in the likes of Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland, has plummeted in recent years. Their reputations remain horribly tarnished.

Hamish McRae: Quantitative easing must end soon. The question is what happens next

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

So, according to the official figures, the US economy has scrambled back to growth again in the third quarter while we in Britain are still in recession.

Stephen Foley: Heavy whiff of politics hangs over BP fine

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

US Outlook: There is something more than a little fishy about the $87.4m (£53m) fine levied on BP by the US Occupational Safety and Health Authority, over alleged failings at its troubled Texas City oil refinery.

Stephen Foley: Come on, Tim – we're not convinced

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

US Outlook: If there is one thing that is definitely too big to fail, it is the US Treasury's plans for Wall Street reform. So it was dispiriting that the Obama administration has put forward a proposal with a hole in its heart.