Saturday Papers: Trichet warns on delaying debt cuts - other news

Financial Times

* Postponing cuts in public and private sector debts would be “very dangerous” and risk a Japanese-style “lost decade”, Jean-Claude Trichet, European Central Bank president, warned on Friday in Jackson Hole.

* Ben Bernanke said on Friday that the Federal Reserve stood ready to boost the flagging US economy and had the tools to do so.

* A group of Scottish business leaders are supporting the expansion of a local bank that was unscathed by the financial meltdown – Airdrie Savings Bank.

* Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s biggest retail bank, said second quarter net income had doubled against the same period last year to €1bn – mainly due to asset sales that offset trading losses.

* IG Metall union demanded a 6% pay rise for Germany's 85,000 steel workers, as a pay-off for economic recovery.

* Intel on Friday warned that consumer demand for computers was slackening amid widespread fears of a double-dip recession.

* Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, on Friday mounted a wide-ranging patent case against some of the best-known internet and technology companies, including Google, Apple and Facebook.

* Retail investors are resisting the siren call of bullish Wall Street equity analysts and high dividend paying stocks as they keep pumping money into bonds, contributing to the lowest stock trading volumes for August in more than a decade.

* Research in Motion and the Indian government were on Friday set for an impasse over New Delhi’s demand for access to BlackBerry e-mails and messaging services after the Canadian company said this was technically impossible.

* The S&P 500 has risen 1.7%; the FTSE All World index is up 1%; the Nikkei ended up 1%; Australian shares recovered to finish 0.3% higher.

* First-time buyers are being warned that unregulated schemes that offer the chance to rent a property with an option to buy it are a “disaster waiting to happen”.