The gold rush fuelled by fear: Thousands of small investors flock to bullion for safety

Daily Mail
"Evy Hambro, who runs the £1.7billion BlackRock Gold & General investment fund, which invests in gold mining shares, says: 'First it was fear of recession and now it is fear of inflation and worries over the weakness of the US dollar. People are looking for gold as a currency that can preserve their purchasing power over time.'

Money figures show there's trouble ahead

Telegraph
"Private credit is contracting on both sides of the Atlantic. The M3 money data is flashing early warning signals of a deflation crisis next year in nearly half the world economy. Emergency schemes that have propped up spending are being withdrawn, gently or otherwise".

Bank says recovery could prove a false dawn

The Times
"Giving an economic overview, the minutes said: “There had been a number of developments during the month with positive implications for the short term . . . But the lesson from previous financial crises was that they were not resolved quickly, and that there could be false dawns."

G20: Passing the buck in Pittsburgh

Guardian
"There's nothing like a crisis to bring out the best in people, particularly international statesmen. Unfortunately, the very real problems facing the world don't look like a crisis any more. The banking disaster, which temporarily united April's G20 in London, has passed before politicians had time to work out how to stop it happening again. Friday's return summit in Pittsburgh threatens to turn into a rather less dignified game of passing the buck."

The perfect New Labour scandal

Independent
"The tale of Patricia Scotland and her Tongan illegal so neatly encapsulates so many of New Labour's least enchanting traits (arrogance, incompetence, lust for needlessly intrusive law, venality, reliance on whitewashing, the smugness and exhaustion of those in power too long, and, above all, startlingly brazen hypocrisy) that it has the flavour of a crude satirical conceit. It is also an indecently perfect morality play about the dangers of the centre left hopping into bed with right wing tabloids. Invariably, they emerge with a discharge and itchy rash."

King keeps door open to 'money printing' scheme

The Times
"Three policymakers, Mervyn King, the Bank's Governor, Timothy Besley and David Miles, had wanted to increase QE to a total of £200 billion in August but the remaining six members of the MPC voted to increase quantitative easing by £50 billion."

Germany declares economic war

Telegraph
"Remember that Herr Steinbrück is not a journalist, pundit, or back-bench maverick. He speaks officially for the German government and for the German nation on the international stage. ....What he said, in effect, is that Germany will marshal its forces to ensure that a chunk of the British economy is shut down - whatever the social consequences. This is the closest thing I have seen to a declaration of economic warfare in Western Europe in my lifetime."

No full recovery until 2015, says the IMF

Telegraph
"The warning, contained in a pre-released chapter of its World Economic Outlook, undermines hopes among economists that the UK is poised for full recovery."

We are entering a new age of protectionism

Telegraph
"The 21st-century form of protectionism is no less deadly than its 1930s predecessor - just less visible....However, such visible signs of protectionism tell a fraction of the story. For the shocking truth is this: over the past year, the costs and obstacles faced by exporters have, according to a study by economists David Jacks, Christopher Meissner and Dennis Novy, increased by almost the same scale as in the early 1930s when the US and others were imposing a range of protectionist laws, including the infamous Smoot-Hawley Act."

What could go wrong next ?

John Redwood
"I am less concerned about the immediate inflationary threat than I am about the debt threat. It is a strange idea that you can cure a crisis brought on by borrowing too much in the private sector, by borrowing too much in the public sector. The government has got away with its huge overborrowing so far by printing the money to raise the money for the borrowing. The Bank has decided to keep long term interest rates low,by printing money and buying government debt. At some point they have to stop doing this. Then we will discover what the true cost of government debt will be."

Britain's budget deficit widened to third worst on record in August

Telegraph
"Government borrowing soared to the third highest monthly amount on record, fresh figures showed today, underlining the hole the recession has blown in the public finances. ....
The Government has now borrowed £65.3bn since the beginning of the financial year in April, compared with £26.1bn at the same point last year, and economists said the Chancellor's Budget forecasts were at risk."

Public debt hits £800 billion - the highest on record

The Times
Comment: Must see this..
"Britain is clocking up debt at a rate of £6,017 per second as the Government struggles to balance the books. With tax receipts plummeting because of the recession, state borrowing grew by £16.1 billion last month — almost twice the entire budget for the 2012 Olympics...
John Hawksworth, chief economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: “It seems likely that budget deficits will overshoot Treasury forecasts not only in 2009-10 but for years to come.” Philip Hammond, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: “We used to worry about borrowing £16 billion in an entire year. Now Labour have done it in just one month. These shocking figures show the depth of Gordon Brown’s debt crisis and just how irresponsible he was to pretend that spending cuts weren’t necessary.”