The Bank's survey found that concern about the economic outlook and falling asset values had prompted banks to limit lending, risking a downward spiral of falling property prices, increased loan defaults and tighter credit. The rep-ort, which predicted further reining in of lending in the current quarter, came on top of gloomy data from the manufacturing and housing sectors.Manufacturing shrank for the eighth straight month in December, according to the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply survey. Mortgage approvals in November were at their lowest since the Bank of England started collecting figures in 1999, while a Halifax survey showed a record annual fall in house prices of 16.2 per cent.The batch of grim data sent the pound down against the dollar and the euro, which hovered just short of record highs above 98p reached earlier in the week.
The Bank's survey found that concern about the economic outlook and falling asset values had prompted banks to limit lending, risking a downward spiral of falling property prices, increased loan defaults and tighter credit. The rep-ort, which predicted further reining in of lending in the current quarter, came on top of gloomy data from the manufacturing and housing sectors.
Manufacturing shrank for the eighth straight month in December, according to the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply survey. Mortgage approvals in November were at their lowest since the Bank of England started collecting figures in 1999, while a Halifax survey showed a record annual fall in house prices of 16.2 per cent.
The batch of grim data sent the pound down against the dollar and the euro, which hovered just short of record highs above 98p reached earlier in the week.
(Could someone explain the above news? What's a gilt?) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Tour operators have increased the price of summer holidays by up to 40 per cent this year, raising the cost of an average family break to the Mediterranean by as much as £500, according to research for The Independent. Sterling's slump against the euro and other currencies and rising prices in "bargain basement" Turkey and Egypt will put the cost of a week on a foreign beach in August beyond the reach of hundreds of thousands of families hit by the downturn.
Tour operators have increased the price of summer holidays by up to 40 per cent this year, raising the cost of an average family break to the Mediterranean by as much as £500, according to research for The Independent.
Sterling's slump against the euro and other currencies and rising prices in "bargain basement" Turkey and Egypt will put the cost of a week on a foreign beach in August beyond the reach of hundreds of thousands of families hit by the downturn.
US Treasury Department spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin confirmed that the government had sent the $4 billion in funds to Chrysler yesterday. General Motors Corp received $4 billion in emergency loans on Wednesday. Both Chrysler and GM have said they need the infusion of government cash to meet payouts to suppliers at a time when a plunge in auto sales has drained their cash holdings. Officials have not spelled out why the loan to GM and a separate $6 billion funding for its affiliated finance firm GMAC were completed ahead of the Chrysler transaction.
US Treasury Department spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin confirmed that the government had sent the $4 billion in funds to Chrysler yesterday.
General Motors Corp received $4 billion in emergency loans on Wednesday. Both Chrysler and GM have said they need the infusion of government cash to meet payouts to suppliers at a time when a plunge in auto sales has drained their cash holdings.
Officials have not spelled out why the loan to GM and a separate $6 billion funding for its affiliated finance firm GMAC were completed ahead of the Chrysler transaction.
At least 10 per cent, and possibly as much as 17 per cent, of its global workforce could be cut in what would be the first mass lay-offs in the company's 32-year history. Across the world, up to 15,000 jobs could be under threat.
The economic meltdown has led to losses among Germany's 20 richest families of about "30 percent on average" of their fortunes since 2007, said asset manager Joachim Paul Schaefer, according to a report published Saturday in the financial magazine WirtschaftsWoche. "It is clear now that the present crisis has inflicted much deeper wounds on big family fortunes than the last four or five recessions combined," he said. He compared today's threats to family fortunes that have grown over generations to those experienced during the bad old days of hyperinflation, during the 1920s or 1930s in Germany. For example, the magazine said the value of the shares of the Quandt industrial dynasty, which owns one-half of the capital of automaker BMW, has decreased by 50 percent in one year. According to the magazine, there are 122 German individuals or families worth at least one billion euros ($1.38 billion).
The economic meltdown has led to losses among Germany's 20 richest families of about "30 percent on average" of their fortunes since 2007, said asset manager Joachim Paul Schaefer, according to a report published Saturday in the financial magazine WirtschaftsWoche.
"It is clear now that the present crisis has inflicted much deeper wounds on big family fortunes than the last four or five recessions combined," he said.
He compared today's threats to family fortunes that have grown over generations to those experienced during the bad old days of hyperinflation, during the 1920s or 1930s in Germany.
For example, the magazine said the value of the shares of the Quandt industrial dynasty, which owns one-half of the capital of automaker BMW, has decreased by 50 percent in one year.
According to the magazine, there are 122 German individuals or families worth at least one billion euros ($1.38 billion).
The economic downturn in the second half of 2008 did not have a major effect on employment, it said. Germany's jobless rate hit a 16-year-low in November when 7.5 per cent of the workforce, or 3.15 million people, were without jobs. The Federal Labor Agency is due to release unemployment figures for December next week.... The Purchasing Managers' Index is a measure of an economy's manufacturing activity. A score over 50 points indicates growth, while a score below 50 reflects contracting industrial output. December saw the euro zone's score fall below 34 point points -- the lowest level in the survey's 11-year history. On a national level, Germany was one of the hardest hit. Its score shrank to 32.7 in December -- down three points from November. Chris Williamson, the chief economist at Markit, said Germany's disappointing score represents a 12 percent drop in industrial output.
The economic downturn in the second half of 2008 did not have a major effect on employment, it said.
Germany's jobless rate hit a 16-year-low in November when 7.5 per cent of the workforce, or 3.15 million people, were without jobs.
The Federal Labor Agency is due to release unemployment figures for December next week.
...
The Purchasing Managers' Index is a measure of an economy's manufacturing activity. A score over 50 points indicates growth, while a score below 50 reflects contracting industrial output. December saw the euro zone's score fall below 34 point points -- the lowest level in the survey's 11-year history.
On a national level, Germany was one of the hardest hit. Its score shrank to 32.7 in December -- down three points from November.
Chris Williamson, the chief economist at Markit, said Germany's disappointing score represents a 12 percent drop in industrial output.
The burden cannot fall exclusively on deficit nations. If trade is to work to everyone's advantage, the system must be broadly in balance, which means surplus nations must do more to stimulate demand. For China, that means crucially allowing its exchange rate to appreciate.
This is the "savings glut' / blame the evil Chinese savers mode again. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
