IT'S that time of year again. The great festive reckoning. The moment when our collective efforts to garner some happiness at Christmas and celebrate the coming of another year are weighed on the scales of commerce and found materially worthy or seriously materially wanting.
Alf Young on Tuesday: Judge Christopher A Boyko of the Federal District Court in Cleveland, Ohio, has just taken an intriguing and potentially ground-breaking judicial line on the human consequences of America’s sub-prime mortgage crisis.
Here's wishing you a thoroughly mediocre Christmas. That doesn’t sound very nice does it? But I bet you that this sums up the views of the Governor of the Bank of England and his colleagues on the Monetary Policy Committee.
The reconstituted Northern Rock board seems to like it. Chairman Bryan Sanderson calls it "very good news". Our battered UK government seems to like it. Downing Street sources claim it meets the Chancellor's pre-requisites of protecting taxpayers and depositors, while contributing to wider financial stability.
Is the fate of Northern Rock any clearer after yesterday's update from its board and the latest statement to MPs from the chancellor? Not much, would be the honest answer.
COLIN MCLEAN
Few tears have been shed over recent high-profile bank departures. Rich rewards go a long way to compensate for abrupt exits. And, given the huge write-offs following the credit crisis, it is clear new leadership and direction are
needed in many banks.
When heads roll, they don't come any bigger than that of Chuck Prince. The former chairman and chief executive of the world's largest bank, Citigroup, now finds his top end lying unceremoniously in the same metaphorical - but extravagantly feather-bedded - basket already occupied by that of Merrill Lynch's Stan O'Neal.
There is scant comfort in the latest rate-setting minutes from the Bank of England for those seeking an early cut in UK interest rates. Only that serial dove, David Blanchflower, voted for a quarter-point cut at the latest Monetary Policy Committee meeting earlier this month. By eight to one the decision was for no change.
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