(LONDON) The yen slipped yesterday, giving back recent gains, amid increasing expectations that the Bank of Japan will adopt further easing measures, while the pound sterling fell on persistent credit and economic concerns.

TAXES for some people were actually raised in the recent Budget but judging by the apparent indifference of those affected, one could assume that these folks do not actually mind paying more.

EVERY now and then, market imperfections throw up arbitrage potential from corporate activity.

I REFER to your article, 'Time to beef up governance disclosure' (BT, March 9).

FEW, if any, are promoting 'collapsist' theories about China of the kind often heard in relation to North Korea, but the notion of a China 'bust' seems to be gaining ground.

THE recent election in Iraq seems to have triggered a wave of historical revisionism among American neoconservatives.

JOHN Maynard Keynes wrote during the Great Depression that only 'fools and madmen' will tell you 'the path of escape is to be found in strict economy'.

HOPES ran high among brokers yesterday that the local stock market might finally have decoupled from Hong Kong when the Straits Times Index remained firm, rising 22.75 points to 2,862.29 even when the Hang Seng weakened to close unchanged.

MAINTAIN 'outperform'. We raise our FY2009-2011 profit forecasts by 15-25 per cent to factor in higher sales and margin assumptions.

THE 'generation gap' endures as a staple of American political and social analysis.