TODAY’S HEADLINES IN BRIEF: EURO – RUSHING FOR THE EXIT. RBS ADMITS MISHANDLED FAT CAT PAY & FOOTBALLERS PAID 114% OF REVENUE
….RUSHING FOR THE EXIT …..
FINANCIAL TIMES
RUSH FOR HAVENS AS EURO FEARS RISE
By Richard Milne, Capital Markets Editor
Investors took fright at what they see as a poor policy response to the debt crisis in Spain and Italy. In a striking sign of the flight to haven assets, German two-year bond yields fell to zero for the first time, below the equivalent rate for Japan, meaning investors are willing to lend to Berlin for no return. US benchmark borrowing costs plunged to levels last seen in 1946 and those for Germany and the UK hit all-time lows.
DAILY MAIL
EURO BREAK-UP FEARS ESCALATE AS BORROWING COSTS IN SPAIN AND ITALY SOAR
By Hugo Duncan
The eurozone took a hammering on the financial markets yesterday as investors worried about a cataclysmic break-up ran for cover. The single currency tumbled and borrowing costs in Spain and Italy soared . The FTSE 100 index was down 1.74 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off more than 1 per cent. Shares in Madrid fell 2.58 per cent while Paris was down 2.24 per cent, Frankfurt 1.81 per cent and Milan 1.79 per cent.
DAILY EXPRESS
FEAR OF SPANISH BAIL-OUT SENDS MARKETS TUMBLING
By Andrew Johnson
Stock markets plummeted yesterday. They fell despite an attempt from the European Commission to calm the panic by suggesting a “banking union” to centrally oversee and bail out the sector. Europe’s wealthiest economy and paymaster, Germany, immediately poured scorn on the idea. The cost of Spanish borrowing on 10-year debt rocketed to a euro-era high of 6.7 per cent, dangerously close to the 7 per cent level seen as unsustainable.
CITY AM
DISINTEGRATION
By Tim Wallace and Juliet Samuel
Investors panicked yesterday as the European Commission warned of “financial disintegration”, fleeing risky assets and pushing Spanish and Italian borrowing costs close to breaking point. The latest polls in Greece showed the anti-bailout party Syriza back in the lead – putting the country back on the path to leaving the Eurozone and sending stocks plummeting.
…….FAT CAT PAY……
FINANCIAL TIMES
FRANCE TO CAP TOP PAY IN STATE GROUPS
By James Boxell in Paris
France’s new socialist government has launched a crackdown on excessive corporate pay by promising to slash the wages of chief executives at companies in which it owns a controlling stake, including EDF, the nuclear power group. In a departure from the more boardroom-friendly approach of the previous right-of-centre administration, newly elected president François Hollande wants to cap the salary of company leaders at 20 times that of their lowest-paid worker.
THE SUN
RBS: We bodged Hester's bonus
Chairman Sir Philip Hampton made the frank admission at the bank’s annual general meeting. Hester, chief exec of the bailed-out bank — which is 83 per cent owned by the taxpayer — was awarded a bonus of £963,000. But he was forced to waive it following days of public outrage at its extravagance. Sir Philip admitted the bank had been at fault in not anticipating the reaction.
WWW.BBC.CO.UK
PREMIER LEAGUE CLUB WAGES CLIMB TO NEW HIGHS
By Bill Wilson
The proportion of income that Premier League clubs spend on wages hit a new high in the 2010-11 season, says a Deloitte report into football finance .Clubs in England's top football league paid some 70% of their income on salaries for the first time. Manchester United, who won the league that year, spent 46% of revenue on pay, but Manchester City spent 114%.
