Monday, 31 October 2011

Financial News

Europe Tries to Recapitalize Its Banks Without Injecting Capital

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Europe's largest banks may raise just a tenth of the total capital shortfall estimated by regulators, fueling concern policy makers' plans to bolster the region's lenders could fail.

Experts warn an independent Scotland could be forced to join the euro

Scotland could be forced to join the euro after independence, one of the Alex Salmond’s top advisers has said.

The SNP wants a separate Scotland to stay in the European Union and continue to use sterling, with the issue of joining the euro to be decided by a referendum. But this has been thrown into doubt by a new book, Scotland’s Economic Future, by Professor Andrew Hughes Hallet, of St Andrews University, who is a member of the First Minister’s Council of Economic Advisers.

He states: “First, all new members of the EU are required to join the euro eventually, and it is not clear there are grounds to argue that Scotland has the right to inherit the UK’s current euro opt-out.”

Jo Murkens, of the London School of Economics, added: “It would not be Scotland’s choice. They can’t say they want to be a member of the EU and not the euro.”

The Scottish Government is now facing calls to publish the legal advice it has received on the subject.

Labour finance spokesman Richard Baker said: “The SNP are in fantasy land if they think they can rewrite European treaties. It is now of huge importance that the SNP publish the legal advice they have received on this issue.”

Get a grip on Clegg

Get a grip on Clegg, Tories tell Cameron as fury flies over his comments on Europe

David Cameron told by Berlin: drop demands for repatriation of powers

Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, has indicated that Britain should not be demanding the repatriation of powers from Brussels during the eurozone crisis

Crisis provides opportunity for ‘fiscal union

http://tinyurl.com/5vkptkt

Europe’s financial woes reflect a political crisis of the eurozone


Gloomy EU deal reports keep pouring in

Following the usual collection of disappointing EUR-negative reports and articles, the Euro continues to trade immune to all the noise floating around the markets. Even if not reflected by the shared currency price action in early Asia, thre seems to be growing skepticism over the EU debt plan, as the key question of who funds the €560 billion EFSF hole remains a mistery.
Even if the head of the EFSF, Mr. Klaus Regling, who has been on a trip to China, told reporters he was confident China would continue to support the bailout fund, Zhu Guangyao, a Chinese vice-finance minister, said that nothing concrete had been agreed yet. However, the plot thinkens after Chinese state news agency Xinhua, threw cool water on such expectations, saying that Europe must address its own financial woes: “China can neither take up the role as a savior to the Europeans, nor provide a ‘cure’ for the European malaise.”

In another hot topic making the headlines over the weekend, there was speculation that European banks might refuse the "volunteering" tag on its 50% Greek debt forgiveness, should all the ratings agencies declare the 50% haircut a default event; in this case, banks may opt to collect on their CDS (credit default swaps) purchased as insurance. European leaders reassured last week that Greek default is not considered a "credit event", contrarian to what some rating agencies like Fitch have recently said.

As reported by the Brown Brothers Harriman FX research team, the decision to avoid triggered Greek credit default swaps, despite the "voluntary" 50% haircuts by private sector holders of sovereign bonds will have far-reaching implications: "It raises questions over the value of CDS insurance and analysts will have to review bank holdings and valuations in light of this. If buying a CDS no longer offers protection, it may lead to a selling of the underlying instruments, i.e., sovereign bonds, especially in the periphery. Watch the performance of financial equities, sovereign bonds and CDS market for investor reaction to the European developments."

TORY MPS IN FIGHT TO HALT £40BN FOR EU

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/280767/Tory-MPs-in-fight-to-halt-40bn-for-EU


UKIP mean business - A very New World Order.
GB Global Inc. – Taking care of business:




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Councils with poor adoption rates to be named and shamed as Government launches... GiveAChildAHome website

Screen shot 2011-10-31 at 06.47.27

TimesAdoption

"A Green Paper detailing new “floor standards”, similar to those issued to schools for their exam results, will set out the minimum proportion of children that should be adopted from care each year. It will also impose time limits on the process." - Times (£)

  • "Control over adoption and fostering services will be removed from councils that are failing in their duty to find parents for children in care, David Cameron will announce today." - Daily Mail
  • Private companies could take over the children's services of poorly performing local authorities - Telegraph
  • "Cameron, who is meeting parents, carers and adoption services representatives, will launch the website www.giveachildahome.co.uk, which aims to open debate on reform and provide information on adopting and fostering." - Guardian

> Yesterday's ToryDiary: The scandal of the racist dogma that stops black children being adopted

Distancing ourselves from the EU would be suicide, warns Clegg - Scotsman

Clegg DPM

"Mr Clegg said the idea that the UK should position itself as a leader of the 10 EU member states that have not joined the euro was a fundamental mistake. “To limit our ambition like this would be an extraordinary own goal,” he suggested. “Why would we seek to head up a smaller club with a fast diminishing membership? Many of our fellow ‘outs’ eventually want to become ‘ins’.” - FT (£)

  • States that opt to stay out of the euro should form a group to ensure their voices are heard - David Owen in The Times (£)

Tory MPs line up to attack Clegg on Europe

  • Peter Bone: "‘The Prime Minister wants powers back from Europe. Yet it seems to be Mr Clegg and a few Lib Dems dictating policy – it is outrageous."
  • Douglas Carswell: "‘Nick Clegg needs to be reminded that he is leading a party which is now running neck and neck with UKIP. If he wants to trigger a General Election on this issue then good luck to him."
  • Julian Lewis: "‘I am a conservative Conservative: if I had wanted to be a Liberal, I would have joined the Liberal Democrat party, and if the country had wanted the Liberals to be having as much influence as they have got, they’d have voted for them in rather larger numbers."

Quotes taken from the Daily Mail.

"Even now, with the eurozone sinking deeper into crisis, Clegg still clings to his party’s cherished doctrine of European integration. As the public mood in Britain turns decisively against the EU, Clegg grows ever more hysterical in his defence of Brussels." - Leo McKinstry in The Express

  • Tory MP Mark Reckless claims that half of all Tory MPs would like to leave the EU - Telegraph
  • Cameron under pressure from Tory backbenchers to veto a fresh EU bid to grab £40billion for its budget - Express

David Cameron vows to boost infrastructure projects - BBC | Telegraph

Ed Miliband suggests Government's tax changes penalise long-term investment - Guardian

"Companies should be given a £1,500 tax break for taking on a jobless 16 to 24-year-old in an attempt to combat rising youth unemployment, the CBI has urged. The employers’ group said the incentive, which would cover the first year’s national insurance for employers, would cost £150m a year and “is affordable within the context of the government’s deficit reduction plan”." - FT (£)

Cameron warns colleagues on talking down UK - FT (£)

> Yesterday evening's ToryDiary: Cameron sets out his three-pronged plan to revive Britain's economy

Smaller charities working with the young unemployed losing local government funding - Times (£)

Theresa May has launched a fresh attack on British judges accusing them of being overzealous in their use of the Human Rights Act - Daily Mail | Express

May Theresa 470 Sky

"Gun dealers are set to face life in prison as ministers launch a major crackdown on networks that fuel horrific gang crime. Home Secretary Theresa May will this week unveil a new firearms law aimed at smashing a deadly underworld of importers and middle-men." - Sun

Cameron gives green light to British merchant ships carrying armed guards to combat Somali pirate threat - City AM | Sun

Cameron: Developing countries which ban homosexuality may lose aid payments - Scotsman | Metro

Treasury Select Committee presses Bank of England on its handling of financial crisis - Guardian

The Public Administration Committee criticises executive's appointment of so many MPs to 'government jobs'

Jenkin Bernard Oct 11

"The public administration committee says its call to reduce the ministerial ranks from 121 to 80 has been ignored... The committee said the government employed more parliamentary private secretaries (PPS) - or ministerial aides - than it needed and that they performed "few functions of real value"... [Bernard] Jenkin, a key figure during the recent rebellion by Tory backbenchers over a referendum on EU membership, said the employment of aides was "more about exercising patronage over MPs, and thus being able to influence debates and votes, than it is about efficiency and accountability."" - < a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15516718" target="_blank">BBC | Guardian

"Ministers have been forced to seek permission from Prince Charles to pass at least a dozen government bills, according to a Guardian investigation into a secretive constitutional loophole that gives him the right to veto legislation that might impact his private interests." - Guardian

Hunt backed by PM accused of breaking rules to keep foxes - Independent

Britain would be better off and lives would be saved if we had summer time all year round - Boris Johnson in The Telegraph

Labour drops support for Heathrow runway - Independent

Tony Blair's Faith Foundation champions religious freedom. So why is he doing deals with a despot who persecutes believers? - Jerome Taylor for The Independent

Care in the community is 'a £100bn failure': Mentally ill patients have been neglected for decades, says Iain Duncan Smith think-tank - Daily Mail

Posted by Britannia Radio at 08:55