Financial news

• Oliver Schmidt jailed for seven years for Volkswagen emissions scam

  06-12-2017 23:08 via theguardian.com
  Judge in Detroit imposes $400,000 fine on former VW executiveGerman was arrested trying to return home from holiday in FloridaA senior Volkswagen executive was sentenced to seven years in prison by a US court on Wednesday after being found guilty of concealing software used to evade pollution limits on nearly 600,000 diesel vehicles.Oliver Schmidt, a German national who was the general manager in charge of VW’s environmental and engineering office in Michigan, had pleaded guilty to his par
  
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• Three ways to remake the American economy for all | Elizabeth Warren

  06-12-2017 20:47 via theguardian.com
  In a speech at the Open Markets Institute, Senator Elizabeth Warren offers a roadmap for how to tackle growing monopolies in the United StatesThe central question America faces today is this: who does our government work for? Does it work only for giant corporations, for the rich and the powerful? Or does it work for everyone?This isn’t hard to understand. Americans don’t need to review the complexities of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to get what’s going on in this country. F
  
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• A new vision for railways that's rather short-sighted

  06-12-2017 20:32 via theguardian.com
  The government’s proposed model will just add more complexity to an already baffling franchise system
  The transport secretary, Chris Grayling, unveiled his “new vision for our railways” a week ago and gained a few favourable headlines for the modest commitment to reopen a few lines closed in the Beeching cuts of the 1960s. Forget that crowd-pleasing diversion, however, because it’s not what the rail industry is talking about.Instead, rail bosses are dumbfounded that Stage
  
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• RPI no longer fit for deciding rail fare rises | Letters

  06-12-2017 19:54 via theguardian.com
  Hetah Shah of the Royal Statistical Society says that people’s incomes and outgoings should both be linked to a single index, CPI, which commands ‘national statistic’ status and is credible for uprating purposesThe shadow transport secretary, Andy McDonald, is on the right tracks. The annual rises in rail fares should be decoupled from the retail prices index (RPI), as he argued in his Guardian article (This hefty train fare rise is yet another Tory betrayal of passengers, theg
  
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• Debt-based economy is real cause of our fixation on GDP | Letters

  06-12-2017 19:54 via theguardian.com
  A debt-based economy cannot survive if it does not keep growing, writes David Ashton. While Maurice Vassie says that the UK should follow the Swedish model and learn to repair our possessions instead of discarding themCaroline Lucas (Letters, 2 December), is right about the need to have a more sustainable and people-friendly measure of our wellbeing. However, it is vital to understand why there is the fixation on GDP and economic growth in the first place. Ninety-seven per cent of all money circ
  
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• Ryanair pilots threaten to strike in run-up to Christmas

  06-12-2017 19:50 via theguardian.com
  Airline dismisses likelihood of disruption after pilots in Italy vote to strike, while staff in Portugal and Ireland also consider actionRyanair is facing the threat of pre-Christmas industrial action in three European markets, including its first ever pilots’ strike.Pilots in Italy have voted to strike for four hours on 15 December, while colleagues in Dublin are voting on whether to follow suit, just days after Portuguese pilots voted in favour of industrial action. Continue reading...
  
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• Stagecoach hopes to retain East Coast rail after 2020 despite bailout

  06-12-2017 19:37 via theguardian.com
  Labour calls for transport group to be banned from bidding again, warning of an impending crisis in railway industry
  Stagecoach has said it hopes to continue running the East Coast rail route after 2020, when it will exit its current contract three years early with a potential £2bn shortfall for the taxpayer. Labour said the firm should be barred from bidding again, amid warnings that the effective bailout on its Virgin Trains East Coast franchise could cause a crisis across the rail indus
  
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• Europe should have its own economy and finance minister, says EC

  06-12-2017 19:35 via theguardian.com
  European commission presents proposals aimed at improving eurozone democracy and resilience to economic shocksEurope should have its own economy and finance minister, the European commission said, as it presented ideas aimed at making the eurozone more democratic and resilient to economic shocks.In a bulky set of proposals published on Wednesday, the commission said the EU could have a dedicated minister of economy and finance by 2019.Continue reading...
  
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• Markets edgy on geopolitical worries, but bitcoin surges through $12,000 - as it happened

  06-12-2017 18:34 via theguardian.com
  Worries over Brexit, US tax reforms and the debt ceiling are all weighing on shares todayIntroduction: Markets are down
  European in the red after Asian lossesNikkei suffered biggest fall in eight monthsWorries over Trump, Brexit, US debt ceiling all blamed
  Bitcoin hits new highs - can it really last?
  Australian growth missed forecasts 5.34pm GMTBubble or not, Bitcoin, meanwhile, is still sharply higher, albeit off its record levels. It is up 8.7% at $12,696, down from the peak of 12,815 recorded
  
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• Korean energy firm rescues UK's Moorside nuclear power project

  06-12-2017 15:45 via theguardian.com
  State-owned Kepco confirmed as preferred bidder to build reactors in Cumbria
  A state-owned South Korean energy firm is to take over construction of a troubled nuclear power station planned in north-west England, in a significant boost for the UK government’s nuclear ambitions.Kepco has been declared the preferred bidder for the NuGeneration consortium, which looked doomed earlier this year after the Japanese owner Toshiba was hit by writedowns and the eventual bankruptcy of its US nuclear
  
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• Hammerson snaps up shopping mall rival to become UK's top property firm

  06-12-2017 13:32 via theguardian.com
  Intu merger deal makes Brent Cross and Bullring owner a £21bn company as it expands shopping centre empire The owner of Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre has agreed to buy the company behind Manchester’s Trafford centre in a deal that will create Britain’s biggest property company worth £21bn.Hammerson, which also owns the Brent Cross shopping centre in London, is acquiring smaller rival Intu in a £3.4bn deal that highlights the increasingly tough retail e
  
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• Questions remain over the FCA inquiry into RBS | Nils Pratley

  06-12-2017 12:02 via theguardian.com
  Did the financial watchdog opt not to publish a report into the bank’s handling of small firms because it feared being sued? We need an answerA bad look for a regulator is to appear afraid of the people it is regulating. That is where the Financial Conduct Authority, fairly or not, now finds itself. It chose not to publish the high-profile report into Royal Bank of Scotland’s handling of 6,000 small and medium-sized businesses because it feared being sued.The FCA had other reasons, b
  
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• UK banks have 2m customers stuck in permanent overdraft

  06-12-2017 08:01 via theguardian.com
  Charity warns of unaffordable lending in overdraft market creating a ‘vicious cycle’ of debtMore than 2 million people in the UK are stuck with permanent overdrafts, with many trapped in a “vicious cycle” of borrowing, according to a debt charity.StepChange said it had also uncovered evidence of unaffordable lending in the overdraft market, and cases where banks had failed to offer customers a means to deal with their debt, even when they had made it clear they were in fi
  
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• Why does the council sell me a parking permit, but won’t enforce rules?

  06-12-2017 08:00 via theguardian.com
  I sometimes can’t park and I’ve been told the council has been unable to carry out enforcement for two years. I want a refundI believe my local council has acted dishonestly by continuing to take money for parking permits when it is not enforcing parking restrictions. I only found out when I contacted it over an increase in vehicles being parked without permits in my road, meaning that sometimes it is impossible to find a space.Continue reading...
  
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• UK government delays possible reforms to gig economy practices

  06-12-2017 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Thousands of ‘self-employed’ had been expected to benefit from changes following report by Matthew TaylorReforms to the gig economy expected to improve rights for up to 1.1 million people have been delayed until next year, in the latest sign that Brexit negotiations are hampering domestic policy.Ministers had intended to announce before the end of this month whether they would introduce fresh legislation on modern working practices. But that plan has been shelved amid growing concern
  
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