Well there’s a surprise. A “strictly confidential” 10-page debt sustainability report commissioned for yesterday’s meeting of eurozone ministers concludes that the austerity measures being foisted on Greece as a quid pro quo for a second, €130bn bailout, are quite likely to prove self-defeating, in that the austerity, by further weakening the economy, may well cause [...]
Among the reasons regularly given by credit rating agencies for retaining the UK’s triple A credit rating when all around are losing theirs is Britain’s unblemished record in honouring its debts. As the Financial Services Authority routinely stresses, past performance is no guide to the future, but it is certainly true that countries which have [...]
British Gas deserves warm praise for its ground-breaking offer to pay people £50 each to put the fuel company in touch with householders so poor they are entitled to free insulation. Cynics may scoff that other customers will pay more for the fuel company’s offer to effectively pay the public to help it give even [...]
“The Greeks remain in their tragedy. But I think we’ve reduced the Greek problem to precisely that, a Greek problem.” That’s how Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg summarised the outcome of the 13-hour talks between eurozone finance ministers, resulting in a second bailout for Greece being agreed in principle this morning. A disorderly, chaotic default [...]
All these eurozone leaders and bankers, they must know, mustn’t they, that the game is as good as up and that in signing the latest €130bn Greek bailout cheque, they are only throwing good money after bad? Well if they do, they are still not saying, despite the emergence of a “strictly confidential” debt sustainability [...]
House prices are still falling, expressed in terms of national averages, but signs of recovery in the housing market include a 25pc increase in mortgage applications over the last year while asking prices increased by more than they have done in a decade. High rents, low interest rates and some easing in the mortgage famine [...]
