UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown was observed to be rapidly retreating from his proposal that a financial transactions tax be imposed to aid the global economy. Brown, made the speech on Saturday at a meeting of global finance ministers, suffered a backlash on his proposal to implement a miniscule “Tobin tax”. The Tobin tax originally saw the light of day in the early 1970s and was evolved by James Tobin, an influential American macroeconomist and recipient of the Nobel Prize for economics, of that time who proposed imposing a small tax on every amount exchanged from one currency into another. The US was among the first to criticise Mr. Brown who up till now has defended the financial sector against more aggressive moves on regulation by other European governments in the past.

A recent report has suggested that in the past six months alone, only one in ten UK savers have enjoyed an increase on the interest rates paid on their accounts despite the Bank of England’s base rate remaining static…

The study shows that 10% of variable savings accounts are paying lower rates than they were in May, with just 3.5% of variable rate accounts have seen interest rates increase over the same period, despite the implied competition for savers’ deposits.

According to the report, almost half of variable rate accounts are being paid less than 0.5%, while almost a quarter of the banks are offering returns below 0.1%.

The pound continued its recovery against the dollar over the weekend, rising also against all the major currencies.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6835
• Pound/Euro 1.232
• Pound/Japanese Yen 151.2029
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6947

As Monday’s bidding deadline drew closer, shares in Cadbury eased by 0.5 percent to 758 pence. Market analysts expect US food company Kraft to make a formal offer on Monday under the current terms whilst leaving room for maneuver at a later stage. Kraft Foods offer is projected to be around £10 billion ($16.59 billion), and will setting the battle for control of the famed British confectionary company officially in motion.

Those apparently in the know have stated that Kraft had always planned to take its offer directly to Cadbury shareholders, This they will do on Monday, in response to the U.K. Takeover Panel’s deadline to either make a formal offer or back off for six months.

On early rumours that the debt-laden rail and coach operator National Express could launch a fully underwritten £250 million placing and open offer as early as next week, their shares added 4.3 per cent to 330 pence on early trading.

Meanwhile it was reported that Vodafone are preparing a fresh round of cost cutting in an attempt to offset falling revenue at the mobile phone operator.

Vodafone intend to reduce their operating expenses by £1 billion gradually by March 2011, however market analysts now say that the target might even be increased to £1.5 billion. Expectations are that Vodafone will report turnover of £21.6 billion for the six months to September 30, meaning an increase of 8.3 per cent on the same period in 2008, with profits of £7.5 billion, up 2.8 per cent.

Rising unemployment and economic uncertainty in the UK has helped one company report revenues to increase revenues by 15.6 per cent in the six months to September 30. BrightHouse, who rents high-end consumer durables to people who have a low or non-existent credit rating, enjoyed profit growth up £94.6 million for the period. The privately owned retail chain, who supply top-of-the-range television sets, electrical appliance and furniture on a kind of rent/buy agreement without requiring large deposits. Turnover was increased thanks to the opening of 11 new stores in the period, bringing the nationwide total to 188, although like-for-like revenue also rose by close to ten per cent. BrightHouse’s earnings were up 23.7 per cent from the same six-month period in 2008.

Battery-operated robotic hamsters costing about £6 each look like becoming the Christmas hit for 2009, with demand in the UK for outgunning supply. GoGo Pets are the hottest toy of the season, seemingly on a par with demand for the famous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the smash hit of Christmas 1987. The interactive hamsters, Squiggles, Patches, Chunk, Pipsqueak and NumNums, respond to touch with squeaks and noises, and can be set to run about randomly in “explore” mode, and to “coo and chirp” calmly when held. Initial demand for the toys has proven so strong that retail giant Toys R Us had removed them from their Christmas toy catalogue to avoid disappointing customers.

On Friday, the FTSE 100 closed 17.1 points higher at 5,142.7 after a volatile session in which the market rose on early trading and then fell sharply after the release of a key US unemployment report, later recovering as the data was reassessed.

The FTSE 100 rose by 98 points, or 2 per cent for the week, its best weekly performance for a month. Meanwhile, the FTSE 250 rose 62.3 points to 9.082.7, leaving the mid-cap index up 170 points, or 2.2 per cent.

Irish airline Aer Lingus has announced a drop in sales of 9.7% in the third quarter, largely due to a drop in long-haul passenger traffic.

In the three months to September, long-haul numbers dropped 13%, offset by increase of 10%, passenger traffic in short-haul flights

Despite the reduction in turnover, share values s surged 11% to 62 Eurocents as investors recognized some clear signs that the loss-making airline was beginning to stabilise. Last month, the carrier said it would cut almost 800 jobs to try to save 97 million Euros a year (£90 million) by 2011.

The dollar jumped and Wall Street stocks look set to open lower after a crucial report on the US labour market showed unemployment at a fresh 26-year high. The unemployment rate rose from 9.8 per cent in September to 10.2 per cent last month, as the Labor Department announced that non-farm payrolls in October fell by 190,000, the highest since April 1983.

Despite the negative figures, the Dow Jones held its own, up 17.46 points to 10023.42. The NASDAQ also climbed a little, reaching 2112.44.

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