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Unless we get smarter, we'll get poorer. Martin Rees, The Telegraph (en) UK plans £3bn loan for Iceland. The FT (en)
Russia set for sale of the century in reverse. The FT (en)
Berlin with opportunity to shake up banks. The FT (en)
Pound plunges after Mervyn King warns of recession. Edmund Conway, Angela Monaghan and Jon Swaine, The Telegraph (en)
" ... The developments came hours after Mr King became the first major UK economic policymaker to warn explicitly that Britain is heading into recession, as he admitted that in recent weeks, the country's banking system came closer to collapse than at any time since the beginning of the First World War ...
... In an unusually frank speech in Leeds on Tuesday night, Mr King laid bare the devastation left by the worst financial crisis in living memory, predicting that house prices would fall further and that economic hardship would last for years ...
... In his speech, Mr King said the pound is likely to be one of the biggest victims of Britain's coming slump, facing a "larger and faster" adjustment as international investors pull their cash out of the British banking system. Sterling has fallen sharply from a few months ago, when almost $2 was offered for every pound ...
" ... The developments came hours after Mr King became the first major UK economic policymaker to warn explicitly that Britain is heading into recession, as he admitted that in recent weeks, the country's banking system came closer to collapse than at any time since the beginning of the First World War ...
... In an unusually frank speech in Leeds on Tuesday night, Mr King laid bare the devastation left by the worst financial crisis in living memory, predicting that house prices would fall further and that economic hardship would last for years ...
... In his speech, Mr King said the pound is likely to be one of the biggest victims of Britain's coming slump, facing a "larger and faster" adjustment as international investors pull their cash out of the British banking system. Sterling has fallen sharply from a few months ago, when almost $2 was offered for every pound ...
How Japan learnt to love the recession. Leo Lewis, The Times (en)
" ... In the few years after Japan's - actually fairly brief - late 1980s economic bubble, the very core of what it meant to be Japanese changed direction decisively, and by no means all for the worse. The supposed essentials of “the Japanese way of business” - concealment of emotion, job-for-life culture, pressure for home ownership, even the respectful choreography of exchanging name cards - turned out to be wholly dispensable conceits.
After its 16-year boom, Britain (especially London) has amassed a much larger collection of conceits that will surely perish. The Japanese obsession with Cuban cigars was comically short-lived. Is London really a city that eats sushi for lunch, and is picky about coffee beans, or just one that has recently been able to afford that appearance? ...
After its 16-year boom, Britain (especially London) has amassed a much larger collection of conceits that will surely perish. The Japanese obsession with Cuban cigars was comically short-lived. Is London really a city that eats sushi for lunch, and is picky about coffee beans, or just one that has recently been able to afford that appearance? ...
... Consumerism was transformed into something wholly different as the public embraced the creed of itten gokashugi - the “selective extravagance-ism” of splashing out on one thing, and spending astoundingly little on everything else ..."
Sarkozy calls for European wealth funds. Joshua Chaffin in Strasbourg and Tony Barber, The FT (en)
" ... "Stock markets are at a historically low level. There could be an opportunity to create our own sovereign wealth funds, which would make it possible to defend national interests and European interests,” Mr Sarkozy said in remarks at the European Parliament ...
... Mr Sarkozy’s proposal for European sovereign wealth funds played on the fear that certain companies, particularly so-called strategic assets, might be vulnerable to foreign takeover because the stock market carnage sparked by the financial crisis has driven their share prices so low ... But the proposal sits uneasily with the EU’s stance on foreign sovereign wealth funds, which are state-owned investment agencies in control of enormous foreign currency reserves and which are based everywhere from Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia to China and Singapore ..."
European states struggle to raise money. David Oakley, The FT (en)
" ... Spain failed to launch a bond last week, while Belgium and Finland were having difficulty attracting investors for debt offerings after governments set aside billions to recapitalise their banks and guarantee their debt. Governments face problems raising money, as investors demand higher yields because of the extra credit risk resulting from the bank guarantees and the huge pipeline of sovereign debt expected over the next year, which is hanging over the market ...
... One banker said: “There will be several hundred billion in extra sovereign supply next year because of the bank recapitalisations. This is against a backdrop of deleveraging and the shrinking banking sector that often hold this type of debt. “Central banks, which are buyers of sovereign paper, are also less likely to buy as they have to use their capital for their own support programmes and in some cases defending their currencies.” ..."
Italy’s Crisis Has Premier Riding High. Rachel Donadio, The NYT (en)
" ... Beyond the theatrics and locker-room humor for which Italy both loves and hates him, the remark reflected a reality: Mr. Berlusconi, 72, is riding high, his power and influence greater than ever. The reason: this man with an already unparalleled position at the center of the nation’s economy and politics now stands to control billions of dollars in public money to bail out private companies should they need it, and they probably will ...
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