Wednesday 11 February 2009

Pound tumbles after Bank governor warns Britain is in a deep recession and economy could shrink by 6%

Daily Mail
Economist George Buckley of Deutsche Bank said: ‘This is the grimmest set of forecasts from the Bank of England that I have ever seen. It is as simple as that.’
Economist Simon Ward of fund managers New Star said the Bank’s growth and inflation projections ‘stretch plausibility’.
Michael Saunders of investment bank Citigroup said: ‘The scale of the forecast downturn is breathtaking. Indeed, things may be even worse, and we look for gross domestic product to fall by 3-4 per cent this year, with a slower recovery in 2010-11."
-------------------------------------
PM's adviser quits financial watchdog over sacking of 'reckless banks' whistleblower (Daily Mail)
------------------------------------
HBOS whistleblower stands firm
"Mr Moore told MPs it was obvious that the bank was "going too fast", but he was eventually sacked by Sir James as head of regulatory risk in 2005. ....Mr Moore hit back casting doubts on the independence of the investigation and saying that he had a "significant body of detailed additional evidence" to back his claims." (Independent)
------------------------------------
HBOS whistleblower Paul Moore breaks silence to condemn Crosby (Telegraph)
"He told the Daily Telegraph that he "totally stood by" his claims about his sacking and said he had extensive correspondence to back them up which he was prepared to submit to an inquiry for scrutiny.
...And he described an unpublished report by the respected accountants KPMG which exonerated Sir James of wrongdoing as "inaccurate, inadequate and without weight".
------------------------------------
The Bank of England’s Governor admitted yesterday that Britain is now in “deep recession” and signalled that it is ready to start “printing money” as soon as next month in aggressive, last-ditch moves to limit the slump. (The Times)

Comment: “quantitative easing” has been taking place for well over a year
-----------------------------------
Britain's beleaguered car industry has already received generous taxpayer handouts of over half a billion pounds - even before a penny of Lord Mandelson's current £2.3bn bailout is dished out. (Daily Mail)

No comments: