Dear listener,

I know, I know. The contents of last week’s newsletter did not reflect fully, fairly and accurately the content of the programme. That wasn’t just to keep up the element of surprise and make sure you tune in (as we used to say) on Saturday. It was because of what Harold Macmillan called “Events, dear boy, events”. On Friday afternoon we learned that a new and very critical report on the 10p tax fiasco would be published on Saturday. And only on Saturday morning itself did we decide to look at the terrible first half of the year for share prices – and given this week, how right we were to do that. So we squeezed things but left fuller versions on the web. And the story about payment protection insurance best buy tables was squeezed so hard it ended up only on the web.

So I can’t promise that this newsletter will be any more accurate – in the event – than last week’s. But hey, Money Box is a news programme. And it’s barely half way through Friday.

One story we are not doing. I was shocked this week to read the Financial Services Authority’s annual accounts. Not only has its total net cost grown by 15.6% to a record £305 million. But the cost of its directors was up by 22%. That was partly because the man who was widely blamed for not spotting Northern Rock was given a whopping £528,952 pay off when he left the regulator “by mutual consent” in April. That was seven times the extra he’d have got if he had done everything right and received his maximum performance related bonus instead of only £30,000. Altogether Clive Briault got £978,711 in pay and pension benefits in 2007/08. Not bad considering the “failure of the supervisory team” he led.

I have also been fretting over reference books this week, looking into the history of credit crunches in the hope of working out where the current one will go and when it will end. More on that (though I can’t promise answers) next week.

This week Money Box is tackling four stories (at the moment!). But maybe not in this order.

We’re used to consultations. No government has had more or laid down the rules about them so precisely as this one. But the consultocracy reached new heights of interactivity this week with a paper after the first consultation and before the second which told us what the “lead options” would be when the second consultation was published in the autumn. The lead option is that cash in the bank or building society (of which there is almost £1 trillion) would be fully protected up to the first £50,000 (rather than the current £35,000). More on how, why and when in the programme.

And from banking nitty gritty to banking high finance. Bradford & Bingley is passing round its multicoloured bowler hats again after a Texan investor took back its offer to buy nearly a quarter of the bank for £179 million. So B&B shareholders need to decide all over again if they want to buy more shares in a bank which has had its credit rating cut twice in barely a month. Barclays is also offering its shareholders a chance to buy more shares. So what are small shareholders to make of all this? After all they only got their shares by accident when B&B and Woolwich demutualised.

Who gets your property if you don’t make a will? The question has come to prominence after a millionaire’s widow is reported to be suing her own children after the complex intestacy rules awarded her just £125,000 of his £2.2 million estate. Find out the answer ¬– and what to do – in the programme.

And the bad news buses certainly came in threes this week. Mortgage approvals fall to record low (Bank of England and British Bankers’ Association). House prices fall for the eighth month in a row (Nationwide Building Society). And mortgage conditions will get tighter over the next few months (Bank of England). So we look at the housing market and ask “if you fear another rate rise should you insure yourself against it?”

How can you fail to have been enticed by all that to listen on Saturday? Money Box – live at noon, repeated Sunday at nine pm. Or join the free-yourself-from-schedules download-the-podcast revolution and listen when it suits you, not us.

But before I go here is this week’s…

…Crown Dependency Money News
There was no 10p tax row on the Isle of Man after its Budget on 19 February. The basic rate of tax remained at 10% on the first £10,500 of income above your tax allowance. And that allowance is considerably above the UK level at £9,200 (add £2000 if you’re over 65). The higher rate of tax is 18% and that is charged on income above £19,700. For married couples – who are taxed jointly – double all those amounts. There is no capital gains tax or inheritance tax as there is in the UK and no wealth tax as there is in some continental countries.

Best wishes,

Paul Lewis

PS Don’t forget the live preview of Money Box on BBC1 Breakfast between 8.45 and 9 on Saturday morning.

e-mail Paul Lewis