If you're buying a rental home in the U.K. you're making the Bank of England nervous. Governor Mark Carney and his colleagues have repeatedly said a surge in buy-to-let property investment may pose a risk to financial stability. With the central bank's Financial Policy Committee grappling with that question, it's trying to get extra powers to intervene in the market. A U.K. Treasury consultation on new tools for the institution closes on Friday.  http://assets.bwbx.io/images/iXRnkwDzvuAw/v2/628x-1.png 628w, http://assets.bwbx.io/images/iXRnkwDzvuAw/v2/750x-1.png 750w, http://assets.bwbx.io/images/iXRnkwDzvuAw/v2/-1x-1.png 1200w" style="box-sizing:border-box;-webkit-font-smoothing:antialiased;border:0px;max-width:1200px;display:block;position:relative;margin:0px auto;z-index:1;width:740px"> Policy makers are worried because almost seven years of record-low benchmark borrowing costs and measly savings rates have bolstered appetite for property. At…

After 20 years, a St. Louis company may finally get its chance to prove that the Pentagon used its technology to make stealth combat aircraft stealthy without paying for it. An appeals court on Friday revived a patent-infringement suit that Zoltek Corp. first filed in March 1996. The court said a judge erred in ruling the patent invalid, and ordered a hearing on whether the F-22 fighter plane and B-2 bomber used a Zoltek invention. The U.S. government is invoking the military and state secrets privilege on the advanced aircraft and their classified technology, contending it must keep information about…

“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” — Henry Ford “Give me control of a Nation’s money supply, and I care not who makes its laws.” — M. A. Rothschild The Federal Reserve Bank (or simply the Fed), is shrouded in a number of myths and mysteries. These include its name, its ownership, its purported independence form external influences, and its presumed commitment to market stability, economic growth and public interest. The first MAJOR MYTH, accepted…

For decades the image of the archetypal German household has been one of thrifty stoicism in the popular imagination - a stereotype that has been actively encouraged by Angela Merkel, who has often paid homage to the proverbial schwäbische Hausfrau. That might be changing. The German postwar economic miracle - the Wirtschaftswunder - driven in no small part by the failure of worker pay to keep up with productivity gains is now undergoing a dramatic shift. With unemployment in the country at record lows and wages finally rising, analysts expect the driver of Europe's largest economy to move from exports to consumer spending. As Hans-Werner Sinn, president…

ina’s announcement that it will launch a national carbon-trading market in 2017 and give $3 billion toCH developing countries to help them fight climate change underscores the sea change that six years have wrought for the world’s biggest source of carbon pollution. It also means that China, nominally a communist country, is using a capitalist approach to solve a devilish environmental problem, while the United States, the second-largest emitter, is stuck with top-down regulations and government mandates to try to achieve the same goal. Presidents Barack Obama of the United States and Xi Jinping of China announced the new measures at a…