Good afternoon and welcome back. It never rains but it pours:

1. “Recession will hit UK hardest” – says the Guardian.co.uk -, economists predict slowdown will be sharper in Britain than in any other major European countries and Britain will suffer a deeper recession than any other mature EU economy. Consequence? The European Commission’s latest half-yearly forecast predicts UK unemployment will rise from 5.3% in 2007 to 7.1% in 2009 — which would bring the number out of work to about 2.25 million.”

2. “HBOS deal to save Lloyds £1.5bn,” writes BBCNews.com. “Lloyds has said that its acquisition of HBOS would save it at least £1.5bn a year, raising fears of heavy job losses from the merger. Both banks have also unveiled further write-downs on assets ravaged by the credit crunch, with HBOS hardest hit. The banks also detailed plans to raise up to £17bn as part of the government’s bank bail-out plan. Unions said that the banks should think about the human cost of the takeover and avoid compulsory redundancies.”

3. “Ryanair profits fall sharply,” reveals today’s Financial Times. “[Its] profits fell heavily in the first six months under pressure from the doubling of fuel costs, and the group forecast that it would be in loss during the second half of the year… The group, Europe’s largest low cost carrier, had only “limited visibility” of forward bookings, but from October to March would fall by between 15 and 20 per cent leading to losses in the third and fourth quarters.”

4. WorldNews explains, “Gordon Brown hinted at another emergency global interest cut yesterday amid warnings that UK unemployment is set to soar to almost 3million. The Prime Minister promised ‘co-ordinated action’ across the world as pressure grew on the Bank of England to slash the cost of borrowing by as much as 1 per cent this week.” We shall see.