More Austerity For Greece - Whether Greece Likes It or Not!

Athens fears IMF, Berlin will reach deal for further austerity https://t.co/C8kOauW3P2 pic.twitter.com/yQww2i0Yt3

— yannis xamonas (@xamonas) November 29, 2016

The Autumn Statement Live

The Chancellor will give his #AutumnStatement to the @HouseofCommons at 12:30pm - watch it here: https://t.co/ZuHw0bGE3j pic.twitter.com/nSoMQuwhg6

— HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) November 23, 2016

Three Mobile Hacked - Six Million Customers at Risk

Three Mobile admitted that hackers have successfully accessed its customer upgrade database after using an employee login.

Sources familiar with the incident told the Telegraph that the private information of two thirds of the company's nine million customers could be at risk.

The company confirmed the breach on Thursday evening but declined to say whether customers' data was stolen or how many have been affected.

Three said that the data accessed included names, phone numbers, addresses and dates of birth, but added that it did not include financial information.

As I have noted before, all IT systems are at risk of hacking. Therefore people need to be prepared for their personal data  to be stolen.

IMF Brexit U Turn

The International Monetary Fund said today that it expects the UK to be the fastest growing G7 economy this year, backtracking on its post-Brexit recession warning.

Brexit Recession Fails To Materialise

Retail sales rose 7.4% in Oct 16 compared with Oct 15 and were up 1.9% on Sept 16 https://t.co/aUbuZnxet4

— ONS (@ONS) November 17, 2016

Another nail in Project Fear's coffin!

Unemployment Falls To 1.6M

UK unemployment falls to 1.6m https://t.co/vSVVGINhar

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) November 16, 2016

When Stats Don't Convince, Change What You Measure

ONS plans to replace the main measure of inflation yet again - and the replacement still has major problems https://t.co/XI5OGhBMct

— Paul Lewis (@paullewismoney) November 15, 2016

The ONS, an organisation that publishes statistics that are out of date and invariably wrong, has decided to change its measure of inflation.

For why?

In order to confuse people so much, that they can't tell if the measure is accurate, timely or relevant!

Financial Armageddon Averted

Contrary to the American version of Project Fear, Trump's victory has not brought about financial Armageddon. Markets around the world are rallying, and the Dollar has stabilised.

The lesson here is that markets go down, and markets go up!

The Mother of All Fiscal Stimuli Coming!

Based on Trump's victory speech, it seems the mother of all fiscal stimuli and public works is on the cards for the USA.

Funded by an increase in public borrowing and cuts in defence expenditure I would wager.

#TobleroneGate Is Not Brexit Related

Toblerone triangle change upsets fans. This is the sort of thing that happens when people vote for Brexit. https://t.co/hh5svywRri

— Mark Sparrow (@MarkGSparrow) November 8, 2016

Despite the temptation to blame Brexit, this is not a Brexit issue as Switzerland is not in the EU!

20,000 Tesco Bank Customers Lose Money

Tesco Bank has halted online payments for current account customers after money was taken from 20,000 accounts.

The bank's chief executive Benny Higgins told the BBC he was "very hopeful" customers would be refunded within 24 hours.

About 40,000 accounts saw suspicious transactions over the weekend, of which half had money taken, he said.

Customers will still be able to use their cards for cash withdrawals, chip and pin payments, and bill payments.

They can also use online banking, but cannot make online transactions until the situation is back under control.

Earlier, the bank confirmed some accounts "have been subject to online criminal activity, in some cases resulting in money being withdrawn fraudulently".

Mr Higgins also apologised for the "worry and inconvenience" that customers have faced.

It is not clear as to the true scale or cause of this issue. However, it does rather call into the question the security of banking online and the desire by some in banking and politics to rush us towards a cashless society!

The Brexit Bounce

Following today's High Court ruling stating the MPs must trigger Article 50, both Sterling and the FTSE have bounced.

All very well and jolly in the short term, maybe. However, this suckers' bounce ignores the fact that this ruling has muddied the waters and created more uncertainty over Brexit.

Markets hate uncertainty!

Co-op Bank’s Former CFO and CEO Fined

As per AccountingWeb, the former chief financial officer of the Co-op Bank has admitted misconduct in a settlement with the FRC the accounting regulator, and agreed to a fine and exclusion from his accountancy body.

Barry Tootell, Co-op bank’s former CFO and CEO, admitted the wrongdoing as part of a settlement with the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), and agreed to exclusion from membership of any accountancy body for six years and a £20,000 payment towards the FRC’s legal fees.

Carney To Stay Until 2019

Mark Carney will stay at his post as Governor of the Bank of England until 2019.

This is a face saving measure, doubtless thrashed out during yesterday's meeting with Theresa May, to avoid further uncertainty in the markets caused by speculation over his position. It also allows him time to get back to Canada in order to stand in the October elections there in 2019.