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Prime Minister David Cameron’s Help to Buy plan to aid home buyers is the wrong policy for Britain, economists said, adding to criticism of an initiative that was ramped up just this week. Two thirds of 31 economists described the measure as “bad,” according to a Bloomberg News survey published today. The prime minister this month accelerated the second phase of the program, which gives people the chance to buy a home with a down payment of as little as 5 percent. The new phase of the plan has heightened criticism it may fuel a bubble in Britain.

The number of people seeking work in Australia fell to a seven-year low, signaling disillusionment with the shrinking opportunities in a resource-rich economy strained by a sharp slowdown in mining investment, The Wall Street Journal reported. Declining participation in the job market helped drive a surprise fall in the unemployment rate to 5.6% in September from 5.8% a month earlier—mirroring a trend in other major developed economies like the U.S., where the jobless rate has fallen as people choose to leave the work force.

Anglo Irish Bank and its successor Irish Bank Resolution Corporation overcharged customers by an estimated $1.6 billion (€1.2 billion) and continued to overcharge since the Government liquidated the bank in February, a forensic banking specialist has claimed in a US court, the Irish Times reported. The expert witness made the claim in a legal challenge taken against IBRC’s application for bankruptcy protection in a court in Delaware by developer John Flynn and related parties who claim they were overcharged $11 million on loans of about $200 million with the bank.

Citigroup and International Bank of Qatar are holding up negotiations to restructure $4.5 billion in debt of Abu Dhabi conglomerate Al Jaber Group, further complicating drawn-out talks, sources said, Gulf Daily News reported. Al Jaber is one of the most prominent private sector firms in Abu Dhabi, which has generally suffered fewer corporate problems than neighbouring Dubai since the financial crisis. With operations in construction, aviation and retail, Al Jaber set up a five-bank creditor committee in 2011 to negotiate a restructuring.

Ireland’s corporate tax regime and the Government’s claim for further bank aid from Europe has been sucked into talks on the formation of the next German government, the Irish Times reported. In discussions with German chancellor Angela Merkel, the opposition Social Democratic party has set its face against using the ESM permanent bailout fund to provide capital directly to Irish banks.

Will Europe be third time lucky with the European Central Bank’s forthcoming asset quality review (AQR) of 130 banks? With the improvement in periphery sovereign spreads and bank valuations since the ECB announced its outright monetary transaction programme, the goalposts for judging success have shifted, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. The exercise is less a case of shoring up confidence in a collapsing banking system. Instead, a successful exercise must be used to kick-start a broader private debt restructuring effort.

For people in the airline industry, there’s a certain financial deja vu around Italian flag carrier Alitalia. The pattern plays like this: When the airline runs into a cash crunch, government officials, investors, and employees howl, a rescue package is assembled, and the company lives to fly another day. Fast-forward three or four years and repeat the cycle, Bloomberg reported. That’s where the company is as it heads into Thursday’s shareholder meeting, by which time Italy’s leaders are expected to have decided what measures are needed to keep the airline from collapsing.

The Chinese government has room to deal with rising debt levels, which has become a “serious concern,” according to Zhu Min, a deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund. While debt accumulation by companies and local government is “way too high,” the government has a lot of “policy buffer,” including $3.5 trillion foreign reserves, to resolve the problems, Zhu, a former deputy governor at People’s Bank of China, said at a panel during the IMF meeting in Washington yesterday.

The Land Conservancy of B.C. can no longer pay its bills and has been granted protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act by the B.C. Supreme Court, The Vancouver Sun reported. The 17-year-old non-profit organization - which controls numerous landmark provincial properties - says in court documents there are more than 200 secured and unsecured creditors with claims against it totalling $7.5 million. Without the court's support, the group said it would be unable to meet its payroll next Monday.

In an interview on Wednesday morning's edition of the Latvijas Neatkariga televizija (LNT) news program "900 Seconds", Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis (Unity) said that the insolvency of financially troubled metallurgical company Liepajas metalurgs cannot be ruled out, informs LETA/Nozare.lv., The Baltic Course reported.