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REUTERS/Henry NichollsLONDON, April 19 (Reuters) - Britain now has western Europe's highest rate of consumer price inflation after it fell by less than expected in March to 10.1% from February's 10.4%, official data showed on Wednesday. Despite falling in March, Britain's inflation rate was the highest in western Europe and the only country in the region to post a double-digit number for last month, after Austria recorded a higher inflation rate in February. Last month the BoE said it expected inflation to "fall significantly" in the second quarter. In February, the BoE had forecast March inflation of 9.2%. Inflation in prices charged by manufacturers fell sharply in March to its lowest since October 2021 at 8.7%, down from 11.9% in February, largely reflecting a drop in oil prices.

☆ Vice Media Hires Interim Finance Chief as It Seeks a Buyer
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Alexander Saeedy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Vice Media has hired an executive from turnaround specialist AlixPartners as its interim finance chief as the struggling media company looks for a buyer, according to people familiar with the matter. AlixPartners Director Mark Del Priore fills a vacancy left by Bruce Dixon, who is now the media company’s co-chief executive, according to an internal memo seen by The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Del Priore will work with Vice Media management in “making decisions for company finances and overseeing strategic plans to improve the company’s financial health,” according to the memo.

☆ Inside the demise of Vice, from turning away a $3.5 billion Disney offer to a 'painful' downward spiral that has the media giant scrambling for a buyer
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

The talks fizzled, Disney backed off, and Smith set off for California to drum up other interest in Vice Media. Vice Media Group co-CEOs Bruce Dixon, left, and Hozefa Lokhandwala. Vice Media GroupOne former Vice insider familiar with the current situation told Insider that staffers were warning vendors they needed to threaten to stop work in order to get paid. Just a few months later, Rupert Murdoch tweeted, "Who's heard of Vice Media? Refinery29 quickly lost key staff and was not well integrated into Vice Media, the two former staffers said.

☆ Elon Musk is behaving 'like the local drunk,' says a former Twitter executive
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A former Twitter exec told i News that Elon Musk was behaving "like the local drunk." "The more Musk behaves like the local drunk – getting into slanging matches with disabled ex-employees – the less current employees will be proud to say they work there," Daisley told i News. Just a week after taking control of Twitter, Musk laid off around half of its workers. "It's a little bit like the character in the cartoon who runs off the cliff but doesn't fall straight away," Daisley told i News. Under Musk, Twitter has become "a pressure cooker," an employee who still works at the company and who spoke on the condition of anonymity told i News.

☆ Vice Media names co-CEOs to replace veteran exec. Nancy Dubuc- NYT
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Feb 27 (Reuters) - Digital media firm Vice Media named co-chief executive officers to replace veteran television executive Nancy Dubuc who announced her departure last week, the New York Times reported on Monday. Chief Financial Officer Bruce Dixon and Chief Strategy Officer Hozefa Lokhandwala will helm the top role together, according to the Times. The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini GanguliOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Retailers Hope to Bargain for Lower Ocean-Freight Rates
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Paul Berger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Richard Galanti, chief financial officer of Costco Wholesale Corp. , said lower freight rates should lead to price cuts at the members-only retailer, which imports more than 200,000 containers a year from Asia. An International Monetary Fund study found that when ocean-freight rates double it causes inflation to rise by 0.7 percentage point. Jonathan Ostry, a Georgetown University professor and a co-author of the study, said cutting shipping rates in half should reduce inflation by the same amount. In the ocean-shipping spot market, where importers book containers without a contract, rates have dropped to $1,000 on some trans-Pacific routes. But they say lower ocean shipping expenses will help in steadying prices.

[1/10] A Boeing E-4B "Doomsday Plane" military aircraft takes off at Joint Base Andrews, in Maryland, U.S., May 11, 2022. But it was in the seemingly endless rows at the back of the new jumbo that the 747 transformed travel. "This was THE airplane that introduced flying for the middle class in the U.S.," said Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith. "Prior to the 747 your average family couldn't fly from the U.S. to Europe affordably," Smith told Reuters. Now, two previously delivered 747s are being fitted to replace U.S. presidential jets known globally as Air Force One.

☆ Special Report: Boy Scouts, Catholic dioceses find haven from sex abuse suits in bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Kristina Cooke Mike Spector Benjamin Lesser Dan Levine Disha Raychaudhuri | Kristina Cooke | Mike Spector | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +19 min

The Boy Scouts, for instance, said on a website the group set up for restructuring that it launched a “comprehensive noticing campaign” in the media. He sought compensation in the Boy Scouts bankruptcy in June, long after a deadline of November 16, 2020 for filing claims. The Boy Scouts bankruptcy reorganization plan, approved by a judge in September, halts all lawsuits against the Boy Scouts, local councils, churches and other organizations that chartered scouting activities. His case was halted by the Boy Scouts bankruptcy. Later that year, in August, he filed his lawsuit against defendants including a Boy Scouts local council and DeSandre.

☆ Retailers Pull Back From Using Chartered Cargo Ships
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Paul Berger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Retailers are moving away from using chartered ships to get around pandemic-triggered disruptions now that congestion at ports has cleared and pressures in supply chains have eased. A representative for Home Depot said it stopped using chartered vessels earlier this year as space opened up in global shipping. Party City started booking space on chartered vessels in mid-2021 in advance of Halloween, its busiest time of year, said Bruce Dzinski, Party City’s director of international transportation. Will Harwood, a spokesman for Lidl, said Tailwind owns two container ships and can carry additional cargo on other chartered vessels. Most other companies, like Home Depot and Costco, relied on third-party companies to operate chartered ships.

Commercial banks are paid interest on the reserves by the BoE at whatever is the BoE's current interest rate - just 0.1% a year ago, but 3% now and likely to rise further. But now the BoE makes losses because the interest paid on reserves exceeds income from its QE bond holdings. Bailey said the current structure of paying interest fully on all reserves was the simplest way for the BoE to ensure its interest rate changes are transmitted through the financial system. He disagreed with descriptions that this was free money for banks, since they had their own funding costs to meet that also rose with central bank interest rates. Another former BoE rate-setter, Gertjan Vlieghe, on Thursday said it would be a "disaster" to stop paying interest on reserves, even partially - akin to a default on debt.

LONDON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The Bank of England will not accept interference with the system of paying interest to banks from reserves issued by the central bank, BoE Chief Economist Huw Pill said on Thursday, pushing back against talk that change is needed. Some former BoE officials have said the central bank should alter its system of paying interest to banks on its 950 billion pounds ($1.15 trillion) of reserves, the vast majority of which the BoE issued to finance its quantitative easing programme. Pill's comments are likely to be interpreted as a warning to the government, which ultimately decides how interest on reserves are paid. Commercial banks are paid interest on the reserves by the BoE at whatever is the BoE's current interest rate - just 0.1% a year ago, but 3% now and likely to rise further. However, another former BoE rate-setter, Gertjan Vlieghe, said on Thursday it would be a "disaster" to stop paying interest on reserves, even partially - citing recent concerns about Britain's institutional credibility.

Sunak told business leaders at a Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference he was "unequivocal" that Britain should pursue its own agenda on regulation and migration. "On trade, let me be unequivocal about this: under my leadership, the United Kingdom will not pursue any relationship with Europe that relies on alignment with EU laws," Sunak said. [1/3] British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during the Confederation of Biritish Industry (CBI) conference in Birmingham, Britain November 21, 2022. And having the regulatory freedom to do that is an important opportunity of Brexit," Sunak said. "Let's have economic migration in areas where we aren't going to get the people and skills at home anytime soon.

Other media said Truss would allow corporation tax to rise in April, reversing a decision to freeze it that was part of Kwarteng's "mini-budget" announced last month. Yields for index-linked gilts also fell sharply. Bets on a peak for rates to hit 5.5% next year were no longer fully priced in. They have gathered pace as investors offered more bonds to the central bank with the scheme nearing its end. LDI funds had been hit hard by the record slump in long-dated gilt prices after Kwarteng's mini-budget.

"Were dysfunction in this market to continue or worsen, there would be a material risk to UK financial stability," the BoE warned. One source at the Treasury said Kwarteng would not resign, and the government would not reverse its policy. A second person familiar with the situation said Truss still backed Kwarteng and they would announce further economic reforms soon. One source at the meeting said Kwarteng had asked the assembled finance bosses what they could do to calm markets. U.S. bond giant PIMCO said it would have less confidence in sterling than it did before last Friday's announcement.

"Were dysfunction in this market to continue or worsen, there would be a material risk to UK financial stability," the British central bank said. By 2:48pm (1348 GMT) it was trading down 0.5% at $1.0679, a fall of 12% in the last three months. The BoE said it would return to its plan to sell bonds and its launch was only postponed until the end of October. RESTORE ORDEROn Monday the BoE said it would not hesitate to raise interest rates and was monitoring markets "very closely". But the slide in bond prices continued unabated on Wednesday, prompting the BoE to make its move.

"Were dysfunction in this market to continue or worsen, there would be a material risk to UK financial stability," the central bank said in a statement that immediately eased pressures on soaring British government bond yields. The Bank of England said on Monday it would not hesitate to raise interest rates and was monitoring markets "very closely". Earlier on Wednesday 30-year British government bond yields rose above 5% for the first time since 2002. "An irresponsible, destructive fiscal policy." In his remarks on Tuesday, BoE Chief Economist Pill said financial market upheaval would have a big impact on the economy and would be factored into the Bank's next forecasts.

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