Financial news

• Refuse Murdoch's Sky bid after $32m O'Reilly 'cover up', says Tom Watson

  22-10-2017 19:54 via theguardian.com
  Shadow culture secretary says revelations about Fox News presenter make Murdoch-owned 21st Century Fox an unsuitable owner for SkyTom Watson is to write to the competition watchdog urging it to refuse the Murdoch family’s takeover of Sky after it emerged that Fox News gave presenter Bill O’Reilly a new contract after paying $32m (£24m) to settle a sexual harassment suit against him.Labour’s deputy leader and shadow culture secretary said the revelations showed Fox “
  
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• Paddington 2 backers thought to be seeking to cut ties with Weinstein Company

  22-10-2017 19:17 via theguardian.com
  Backers thought to be seeking to scrap US distribution deal claiming family film should not be associated with studio at centre of sex harassment scandalThe backers of the Paddington films are thought to be seeking to scrap the Weinstein Company’s lucrative deal to distribute the upcoming sequel in the US, in the wake of the sexual harassment and assault allegations against its co-founder Harvey Weinstein.A source close to Heyday Films, the co-producer of Paddington with the French company
  
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• Dublin ramps up bid to lure post-Brexit European Medical Agency

  22-10-2017 18:36 via theguardian.com
  Ireland’s industrial development agency joins campaign to place EMA alongside republic’s burgeoning pharmaceutical and biomedical sectorsIreland’s development agency is seeking to bolster Dublin’s credentials as the post-Brexit home for the European Medical Agency (EMA) when it relocates from London.The Industrial Development Authority has rejected reports that Dublin is losing out in the European-wide race.Continue reading...
  
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• It's time to reinvent the Federal Reserve | Zachary Karabell

  22-10-2017 16:20 via theguardian.com
  In the coming weeks, Donald Trump will announce his choice for the next head of the US central bank. Now is the moment to do something truly boldIn the endless swirl of noise and controversy emanating from Washington these days, it is easy to overlook a more mundane but significant challenge facing the US government: its institutions are getting old. With the exception of the Department of Homeland Security, most substantial agencies are at least decades old and many date back much longer. The F
  
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• UK business chiefs unite to demand urgent Brexit transition deal

  22-10-2017 16:11 via theguardian.com
  Five major lobby groups write letter to David Davis in latest sign of employers’ growing alarm about state of talks with EUUK business leaders have united to urge David Davis to quickly establish a Brexit transition deal that mirrors existing arrangements or risk losing British jobs and investment.In a letter to the Brexit secretary seen by the Guardian, five of the UK’s biggest business lobby groups said time was running out for the government to strike a transition deal before firm
  
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• Housing crisis: we will borrow to invest in new homes, says Sajid Javid

  22-10-2017 15:42
  Communities secretary calls for ‘big increase in all types of home’ including social housing and shared equity homesThe government will partially reverse its austerity doctrine by borrowing to invest heavily in new homes and associated infrastructure to tackle the housing crisis, Sajid Javid has said.The communities secretary revealed there could be an announcement about the move in next month’s budget. Continue reading...
  
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• Is the growth in living standards worse now than in the Great Depression?

  22-10-2017 13:10 via theguardian.com
  New data suggests life is getting tougher now for working-age adults than in the lost decade of the 1930sThe 1930s are the benchmark when it comes to lost decades. There are recessions and deep recessions, but then there is the Great Depression. In terms of sustained misery, nothing remotely comes close to the 10-year period that followed the Wall Street Crash of 1929.Yet in one respect – growth in living standards – the performance of the UK since the financial crisis began in 2007
  
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• My toddler was injured by a needle in a Beanie Baby

  22-10-2017 08:00
  I complained to the manufacturer, Ty, but it hasn’t bothered to get in touchMy two-year-old was recently given a new Ty Beanie Baby but after cuddling it she came away with a scratched face. I ran my fingers along the outside of the toy and was shocked to find a needle 5cm long. It looked as if it was from a machine, as the eye seemed too small and the needle too bendy for hand sewing. I contacted Ty immediately, in case it needed to do a product recall. I received a holding email in mid-S
  
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• Hammond should use an interest rate rise to unpick triple lock on pensions

  22-10-2017 08:00
  The chancellor must act in the name of fairness to younger people, and the budget would be the perfect moment to do soAs Philip Hammond prepares to defend his £12bn of welfare cuts in his autumn budget, pensioners can consider themselves lucky to be financially insulated.While most people on low and middle incomes are finding their spending power squeezed by rising inflation and cuts to in-work benefits, the triple lock on pensions is safe. Continue reading...
  
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• Can consumers keep the British economy going?

  22-10-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  GDP watchers will be out in force this week as third-quarter figures are revealedThis week’s big economic number is GDP for the third quarter, due on Wednesday morning. Economists reckon output rose by 0.3% or 0.4% in the three months to the end of September.Assuming the figure isn’t lower than expectations, economy watchers will turn quickly to the underlying trends, such as business investment. The economy has confounded predictions of a sharp post-Brexit vote slowdown or rece
  
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• Brexit makes a nonsense of Nigel Lawson’s struggle against inflation

  22-10-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  As chancellor, his enemy was rising prices – which is precisely what has followed the vote to leave the EUA few years ago I shared a platform with my old friend Lord Lawson at a conference on our membership of the European Union. This was some time before the infamous referendum. The event was good-tempered, and it will come as no surprise to readers that Lawson was, in a term yet to be coined, a “Leaver”, and your correspondent was not.What surprised me over subsequent coffee
  
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• They’re back, as wrong as ever. Enough of Nigel Lawson and his band of 80s ultras | Will Hutton

  22-10-2017 01:05 via theguardian.com
  Thatcherites’ support for Brexit reminds us that it was their policies that led us to our current perilous stateIn any league table of national figures who have been consistently wrong on almost every major judgment Nigel Lawson must rank close to number one. As Britain and his party reel from the impact of intolerable intergenerational and geographical inequality, stagnating productivity, a vast personal debt burden, and now the poison of Brexit, Lawson is the man most closely associated
  
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• New housebuying rules will clamp down on gazumping

  22-10-2017 01:05
  Ministers are reviewing regulations that will also bring and end to time-wasting offersA clampdown on gazumping and other tactics that cause misery to housebuyers and sellers is being drawn up by the government as part of a renewed attempt to reduce the stress of buying a home.New rules to stop people from cutting their offer at an advanced point in a sale, and “time wasting” by bidders with no realistic hope of completing a purchase, will also be examined as part of a review of the
  
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