Saturday, 18 August 2012

Still No Escape for Taxpayers If Banks Go Bust

'Five years since the start of the financial crisis, taxpayers would still be forced to foot the bill should more banks fail because countries are delaying alternative solutions.

Finding a way to shut down big banks quickly without triggering market mayhem — the threat of which prompted governments around the world to resort to publicly-funded bailouts between 2007 and 2009 — remains a mammoth task.

Britain, Switzerland and the United States, frustrated by the slow pace of reform, have drawn up plans giving their local regulators power to step in should a major lender go bust.'

Read more: Still No Escape for Taxpayers If Banks Go Bust

U.K. Recession Drives More Than 1,000 To Suicide: Study

'A painful British economic recession, rising unemployment and biting austerity measures may have driven more than 1,000 people in England to commit suicide, according to a scientific study published on Wednesday.

The study, a so-called time-trend analysis which compared the actual number of suicides with those expected if pre-recession trends had continued, reflects findings elsewhere in Europe where suicides are also on the rise.

"This is a grim reminder after the euphoria of the Olympics of the challenges we face and those that lie ahead," said David Stuckler, a sociologist at Cambridge University who co-led the study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).'

Read more: U.K. Recession Drives More Than 1,000 To Suicide: Study