economonkey

It’s hard to avoid the “house price calamity” stories in the press today, so you’ve probably already heard that UK property values are dropping at record pace right now and it’s likely that they’ve still got quite a long way to fall. If you bought at the top of the market and/or overstretched yourself in […]

The number of complaints against financial services companies rose by 30% over the past year, according to the Financial Ombudsman Serice, which says it dealt with 123,089 new complaints during the 2007/2008 financial year. Complaints about mortgages and banking services tripled, insurance complaints doubled but mortgage endowment issues fell by nearly three quarters.
Over half of […]

According to the National Association of Estate Agents, the UK property market is now ’stabilising’ - which, if you cut through the spin, simply means that a few metrics such as the number of sales agreed and the difference between asking and sale prices have remained roughly level for the past couple of months. The NAEA itself […]

Throughout the course of the UK’s insane ten year long property boom, the market cheerleaders have patiently explained that these massive increases in the cost of property are a natural result of the laws of supply and demand - the UK’s population is growing and there simply aren’t enough homes to go round. This, of […]

This article from the Scotsman highlights the difference of opinion between the Bank of England and the Treasury on what we can expect from the economy over the next year. The Bank, which is (at least in theory) independent from the goverment, claims economic growth will slow to 1.5% for 2009, while the Treasury says […]

On the first Thursday of every month the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Commission (MPC) has a little get together to decide what to do about interest rates for that month, and a couple of weeks later the notes from that meeting are released to the press. Until recently these notes didn’t generate a lot of […]

So, despite enjoying a decade of prosperity in one of the world’s richest countries, it seems the British middle classes have suddenly found themselves mired in debt and are struggling to make ends meet. It’s easy to be at least a little sympathetic to skint people who have over extended themselves and perhaps lived a […]

The Financial Services Authority says it is frustrated by the government’s foot-dragging over new legal powers which would make it easier for the FSA to target market-abuse.
Speaking at a parliamentary inquiry into financial stability and transparency, the FSA Chairman, Callum McCarthy, also echoed Mervyn King’s earlier call for a clearer delineation of the responsibilities […]

Dear oh dear, the government’s climb-down over its abolition of the 10p tax rate must surely be the final nail in the coffin of Gordon Brown’s reputation as a ‘safe pair of hands for the economy’. What happened Gordo? Once you were the Golden Boy who proved finally that the Labour Party could be trusted […]

Chancellor Alistair Darling has told mortgage lenders that they should be more lenient to homeowners* who fall behind with their repayments. The meeting was called by the chancellor this morning to let the banks know that taxpayers would expect to see benefits in return for the £50bn+ of their money which Darling has used to […]