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News Round-Up. (18.12.2008)
Posted: Thursday 18th Dec 2008
Starting with the Financial Times, a columnist notes that the government’s bail-out of ailing UK banks is not working, while rich gits’ periodical Fortune reports that the three-man ‘firm’ used by indicted businessman Bernard Madoff to audit his accounts (or so it is claimed) don’t acutally, err, do audits.
Next, the BBC says there has been a surprising rise in high street sales in November. (Presumably this has nothing to do with Xmas.) The government is also getting ready to help bail out Jaguar Land Rover. (How do “British Leyland II”?)
The Telegraph notes that the Pound has slumped even further against the Euro, and that Legal & General are calling for negative interest rates to help the economy crawl out of the abyss.
Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that the price of oil is now under $40 a barrel, while consumers are still dodging the High Street in the Xmas run-up. (So much for the sales boost last month!)
Over at The Times, Detroit-based lame duck carmaker General Motors is in talks with fellow Detroit-based lame duck carmaker Chrysler over a possible merger. No such luck, though, for British Airways: its planned merger with Australian outfit Qantas has come to nought.
And finally, The Independent asks whether Apple Computers can survive if Steve Jobs (he of the reality distortion field) goes in one way or another. Given past form, probably not. And did we mention that UK unemployment is now skyrocketing? Well, we just have.