Return of the Sunday Round-up

After a couple of weeks off,time for a business round-up again. This week has been dominated by Northern Rock yet again. However, as time goes on we are also at a very key point in the year. The markets are very much down and a rally should be on the cards, but we will see as some more key results come out this week.

Also the high street continues to be a difficult place along with the housing market. It is still hard to say whether we will have an outright recession this year, but we'll have a much better idea by the end of February:

Virgin steroetypical - In a classic piece of 'Virginisim,' Branson today announces a plane that will test a single engine on biofuel. It all sounds green and ahead of the market. An excellent piece of marketing with no chance of it becoming reality for decades, if ever.

Lawyers in Love - this is one group who will just love sub-prime fall-out. It will all end in the courts no doubt and lawyers will as usual clean up. Don't expect to see them firing staff this year.

Nuclear option - Directors to be held accountable for waste and decommissioning programmes.

XstrataVale next? - the mega-deals in mining and resources roll-on, bolstering this sector on the markets.

High street heartache - A thin story on a couple of bad weeks at John Lewis, but trend consumer spending is clearly sharply falling.

RBS results - After Barclay's and Lloyds, next up is RBS. One of the most highly traded stocks on the UK market. The weekend puff pieces suggests no rights issue. Let's hope so, bad news here would stop the market in its tracks; good news and the re-bound continues.

LTSB rampage - As I have said elsewhere, the disaster that was Lloyd's Scottish Widow's mess prevented them from getting into securitisation of mortgages. As such they now look rosy and are set for an acquisition spree - genius and luck are hard to tell apart.

Video of the week - Interview with John Studzinski, the foremost banker in the UK and a key participant in all major deals, including Northern Rock. Worth it to see what makes the guy tick.

Non-Doms - This issue is big in the papers this weekend. Rich foreigners clearly have the ear of UK journalists and so have made sure this issue stays high on the agenda. As much as I am against taxes, the idea that somehow the idea that the super-rich will all leave over £30,000 is somewhat disingenuous. As for the non-super rich hit, do we not have 1.5 million Brits out of economic employment to fill the space?

VW off - Great scandal in Germany, always a fun reaed when the world of business apes the world of Z-list celebs.