When Oprah gives, someone else pays

The Age (Australia)
"In Australia, Oprah ''gave away'' $1 million worth of computer gear to a needy school (donated by IBM and Hewlett Packard). She gave away $250,000 to a cancer sufferer and his family (donated by X-Box). She gave away 6000 pearl necklaces (donated by West Australian pearl producer MG Kailis) and 6000 diamond pendants (donated by Rio Tinto). And, of course, she gave away the trip of a lifetime to each of the 302 ultimate fans who accompanied her from Canada and America (donated by Australian tourism bodies).

None of which is to say there is not a lot to admire in Oprah's generosity. It's merely to make the point that when Oprah gives, there's a very good chance someone else is picking up the tab - even as she is picking up the glory."

Treasury exposes the full turmoil of Labour's spending: Three Whitehall departments lost control during party's time in power

Daily Mail
"Labour lost financial control of three major Whitehall departments during its time in power, the head of the Treasury revealed yesterday.Financial management at the Ministry of Defence was so appalling it had to be put into ‘special measures’ – ordered to report on a month-by-month basis on its spending.Treasury Permanent Secretary Sir Nicholas Macpherson also identified the Department of Health and Department for Education as having ‘lost control of public spending’ during the past decade."

Inflation jumps to 3.7% - and it's set to get worse, raising fears of soaring interest rates

Daily Mail
"The soaring cost of food and petrol pushed inflation even higher than expected in new figures today, prompting fears interest rates will soon rise.The annual rate of inflation, the consumer prices index, jumped from 3.3 per cent to 3.7 per cent - confounding experts who had expected a 0.1 per cent hike.Prices rose 1 per cent between November and December - the biggest month-on-month rise since records began in 1996, the Office for National Statistics said.The wider retail prices index, which includes housing costs, also rose 0.1 per cent to 4.8 per cent in December, the figures revealed."

Bank bail-out adds £1.5 trillion to debt

Telegraph
"Britain's public debt is set to soar from under £1 trillion to more than double that landmark figure when official figures are updated this month to take into account the impact of the banking bailout. "

Cameron offers hope of relief on petrol price pain as he hints at fuel tax reform in March budget

Daily Mail
"Mr Cameron said yesterday that the Government was continuing to look at the option of a ‘fuel-stabiliser’, where the rate of duty is cut as oil prices rise, which brings in additional tax revenue to the Treasury. Under the scheme duty goes up when oil prices fall."

German economy grows at fastest pace since reunification

Telegraph
"Germany's swift recovery has made it a standout in the 17-nation eurozone, where smaller economies such as Ireland, Greece and Portugal have been struggling with huge debts.

"We grew twice as fast as the European Union average," said Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle, who had forecast growth of 3.4pc. The figures show that "people are rightly looking optimistically into the future," he added.

A key trigger for the strong recovery was powerful growth in exports into a recovering world economy — a 14.2pc gain last year reversed a 14.3 percent decline in 2009. Germany is the world's second-biggest exporter after China. "

PIGS Debt Riskier Than Iraq, CDS Prices Show

CNBC
"Greece has become the world's riskiest borrower in the fourth quarter of 2010, surpassing Venezuela, while Spain, Portugal and Ireland were riskier than Iraq, according to data compiled by CMA, a provider of data on pricing of Credit Default Swaps (CDS)."

Oil drops 2 percent on stronger dollar, U.S. data

(Reuters) - Oil prices fell more than 2 percent on Thursday to below $89 a barrel as a stronger dollar and weaker U.S. equities deterred buyers. ....U.S. crude for February delivery was down $1.76 at $88.54 a barrel at 12:50 p.m. EST (5:50 p.m. British time) in heavy volume for a second straight day. In London, Brent crude for February was down $1.20 at $94.30."

Overheating East to falter before the bankrupt West recovers

Telegraph
"Ben Bernanke made a fatal error by launching QE2 too early, with an incoherent justification, by dribs and drabs for fine-tuning purposes. The QE card cannot easily be played a third time. If he now tries to print money on a nuclear scale to crush all resistance and hold down Treasury yields, he risks exhausting Chinese patience and invites the wrath the Tea Party Congress. "

Brazil pledges to stop US 'melting the dollar'

Telegraph
"We're not going to allow our American friends to melt the dollar," said Mr Mantega, who views the US government's move to pump $600bn (£387bn) into its economy as an unfair attempt to help exports

"There are infinite measures that we can take. One of them is to manage the entry of speculative capital in the short-term."

Why I believe Tim Congdon is on losing side of monetary easing argument

Telegraph
"He argues that this column's description of quantitative easing as "a polite, yet intellectually dishonest name for money-printing" amounts not to a reasoned point of view but, instead, belies an "implicit prejudice".

Congdon's article then goes on to defend QE in robust terms, as he has ever since the Bank of England embarked on this policy in March 2009 – and just as I, since then, have attacked it. ......In my view, the main cost is inflation – and the related debasement of savings. By inflating away our debts, the UK is also imposing "soft-default" on our creditors, implying higher future borrowing costs. For some time, QE-advocates had a lot of fun deriding those of us who warned UK inflation would outstrip the Bank of England's estimates. We've been proved right – yet the inflation has only just begun. The vast majority of that QE money in the shadow-banking system, on both sides of the Atlantic, has yet to enter circulation. When it does, and is leant against many times over, we'll see QE's true inflationary impact. "

European debt markets 'face second credit crisis'

Telegraph
"European debt markets could be hit by a second credit crisis within months as fears grow over the huge volume of new bonds that must be sold by governments and banks in 2011. "