Archive for November 3rd, 2009
British Airways warned of Christmas strikes
(Telegraph): British Airways has been warned that it is risking strike action over one of the busiest periods of the year by pushing ahead with reforms to cabin crew working conditions. Staff will hold a mass meeting today to discuss opposition to new employment contracts they complain are ”unfair and unworkable”. ”Cabin crew will not stand by while the service they provide proudly, and which is the core of BA’s appeal to customers, is cut to the bone, " said Len McCluskey, assistant general secretary of Unite.
It is Japan we should be worrying about, not America
(Telegraph): Japan is drifting helplessly towards a dramatic fiscal crisis. For 20 years the world’s second-largest economy has been able to borrow cheaply from a captive bond market, feeding its addiction to Keynesian deficit spending – and allowing it to push public debt beyond the point of no return. The rocketing cost of insuring against the bankruptcy of the Japanese state is telling us that the model has smashed into the buffers. Credit default swaps (CDS) on five-year Japanese debt have risen from 35 to 63 basis points since early September. Japan has suddenly decoupled from Germany (21), France (22), the US (22), and even Britain (47).