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Archive for November, 2008

A week that began with a lukewarm reception for the fiscal stimulus package contained in Alistair Darling’s pre-budget report seems set to end with our beaten and battered economy no closer to getting itself up off the canvas.   In London today more than 30 stores have staged special 7am openings in an attempt to ensure [...]

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And there it was gone.  The most eagerly anticipated – and heavily trailed – pre budget report since PBRs began (admittedly only ten years ago) has taken place against a backdrop of political discord and disagreement between the three main UK parties.  The Government has moved in a single leap from Prudence to Profligacy, hoping that [...]

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Today’s Daily Mail front page lead caught my eye.  Under the headline ‘Banks: Now it gets Ugly’ it says that “Alistair Darling is so exasperated by the ‘moral failure’ of banks to help small firms and families that he is poised to toughen the law.”  Apparently the particular target of the Chancellor’s ire is those [...]

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On one level, the current debate over the fate of the Big 3 Detroit car companies – and specifically whether the US Government should extend a further $25bn of public money to help the industry weather its own current financial crisis – puts me in mind of the “what have the Roman’s ever done for [...]

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There is no situation so bad that can’t be made even worse with a “lavish staff blowout” as yesterday’s News of the World front page story about HBoS’s Annual Star Gala event, which took place in Edinburgh last week, and the Sunday Mail’s exclusive about the bank’s planned December event in Birmingham for 1,500 mortgage [...]

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Is the Governor of the Bank of England sending a signal to the banks with today’s shock 1.5% reduction in interest rates?  This is the view of my colleague Susan Eastoe, Edelman’s Deputy CEO and Public Affairs guru who says that in dropping base rates to their lowest point since 1955 it looks like Mervyn [...]

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I can understand why Barclays’ decision to eschew the Government’s offer of financial support in favour of raising funds from Middle East investors has angered its existing shareholders.  When the value of your investment has already taken a severe hammering the last thing you need is for your stock to be diluted still further.  Unsurprisingly [...]

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