There’s nothing new in reporting bad news about the housing market, so here’s the DoF guide on how to spot green shoots.
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If the global recession has done one thing it is to puncture the fad for drinking bottled water. Consumers in developed countries have rediscovered the tap.
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When the fire-fighting is finished and the rescue completed, there are serious questions for what remain of the world’s banks. Capitalist countries must ask whether banks can again be trusted.
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If bidders pay £111m for Damien Hirst’s latest works is the art market immune from the decline in other forms of asset values?
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The question was not whether HBoS was too big to fail but whether it might be too big to save? The problem is not its exposure to the UK housing market but its exposure to US mortgages. Lloyds TSB must avoid being contaminated by HBoS’s problems.
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The exodus abroad of British companies – Charter, Henderson, Regus have joined the list – has renewed calls to cut UK corporation tax. But the less they pay, the greater the burden on people that cannot move.
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If a billionaire wants to buy two painting for £300m that’s his business. But how can UK galleries justify buying them for £100m (unless they are planning to flip them to the billionaire and keep the profit?).
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Woolworth has emerged as the latest pension fund with a business attached but giving away the operating assets is no way out of the problem.
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Name the 12 primary sponsors of the Beijing Olympics. The only point of them handing over $100m each is to improve their brand awareness, so if you can’t name them now the starting gun has been fired, it doesn’t look like money well spent.
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That UK share prices are officially in a bear market – 20 per cent below their recent peak - is belated recognition that British business is in trouble as well as the City’s financial firms.

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