Britain

The Times of London says that holiday tour operators in the UK are sensing a shift in consumer behaviour because of the credit crunch. Just as the holiday season is getting under way, the strains are clear. Operators are preparing for…

The word on the street is that Lloyd's TSB, one of the major British banks not hit hard by the mortgage crisis, may be considering a bid for Germany's Dresdner Bank, now owned by the insurance company Allianz. If this sale does in fact…

The UK government came up with a new inflation data series in the 1990s to replace the RPI for tracking consumer price inflation. Many people believe this series, the CPI, understates the inflation actually experienced by consumers in the…

Of all of the inflation indices the ONS (Office for National Statistics) in the UK uses, the RPI data are the most comprehensive. This particular series runs back to 1948 and is use in all manner of contracts, pension schemes, what have…

Mervyn King correctly assessed inflation risks to be temporary and the downside to come from the real economy. It sounds like he is not hawkish. Chances of a rate cut are down now. I believe the BoE wants some inflation to help do the…

According to the Telegraph, UK housing starts hit their lowest level in 63 years. With a lack of new business, how will Barrat's and Taylor Wimpey survive? The Telegraph suggests that investors will save them, much as they have saved the…

These two charts are interesting just for historical purposes. This tracks the FTSE All-share index from 1800-2007. While there were a number of peaks and valleys, the FTSE went pretty much nowhere until after World War II. At that…

European banks are still in need of time or money to recapitalise their weak balance sheets. This has to be especially worrying for UK banks as they have raised a significant amount of capital and their housing market has yet to see the…

According to the Daily Mail, house prices need to fall by a lot more than the 8% to date in the UK in order to make them affordable for first time home buyers. The 63% number comes from the least affordable borough, Westminster in London,…

That's what Sir Howard Davies, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England (BoE), has to say.