Tuesday newspaper round-up: Pensions, Co-op, Wall St, BAT
The coalition government policy that led to state pensions rising quicker than wages should be scrapped as part of an “intergenerational reciprocation” for the costs of battling Covid-19, a thinktank has said. The Social Market Foundation (SMF) proposes that the massive economic cost of the emergency measures deployed to manage the pandemic must be shared fairly between old and young, and that some of the huge anticipated government deficit could be funded by abandoning the so-called triple lock guarantee on state pension rises. – Guardian
The Co-op hopes to raise £30m to help those hardest hit by the coronavirus lockdown by allowing members to donate their unspent shopping reward points to a new support fund which will also draw on the chief executive’s salary. The food retailer estimates that its 4.6 million members have built up points worth £30m by earning a reward of 5% every time they buy a Co-op brand or service. It is now encouraging them to donate these points to its new coronavirus fund. - Guardian
The Treasury is weighing up a rescue package for startups that could involve co-investing with private backers and beefing up support from the British Business Bank. The Government is understood to be readying a deal to help startups facing a funding crunch after being warned that a “generation” of innovative firms will be lost to the coronavirus pandemic without intervention. – Telegraph
Wall Street has suffered the worst of the coronavirus crash, as long as there is no secondary outbreak in the United States, Goldman Sachs said yesterday. The support that markets had received from the government and the US Federal Reserve would push the S&P 500 up 8 per cent from the pre-Easter close by the end of the year, its equity strategists predicted. - The Times
British American Tobacco is under criminal investigation by regulators in the United States over suspected sanctions-busting. The Department of Justice and the Office of Foreign Assets Control, a financial intelligence and enforcement agency that is part of the Treasury department, are investigating “suspicions of breach of sanctions”. It is not clear which country or countries the regulators are focusing on. – The Times