Comcast CEO Brian Roberts tried to finesse the issue Thursday by arguing that the deal "does not reduce competition in any market or in any way,"

But the ramifications of the cable monopoly go beyond mere access to channels on your set-top box. As we observed back in August, the more damaging consequence of the cable monopoly is in broadband Internet access, where the power of the cable firms' monopolies is magnified by the lack of practical alternatives to their Internet services.

n general, the U.S. has the lowest connection speeds and the highest prices in the developed world. The New America Foundation serveyed the world in 2012 to determine what customers could get for the equivalent of $35 a month. In Hong Kong, they could download from the Internet at 500 megabits per second (a half a gigabit); in Tokyo 200 Mbps; in Seoul, Paris, Bucharest (Romania) and Berlin 100. In Los Angeles, 10. Los Angeles is a Time Warner Cable monopoly.

The constraint here isn't technological, but commercial. Our fat and secure cable monopolies simply don't feel competitive pressure to provide customers with the fastest speeds at reasonable, affordable rates.

We need more competition, not less; and allowing Comcast and Time Warner Cable to merge means much, much less.

We are looking at downsizing our present build capacity and to keep a lean workforce.

The speculative market is not looking positive right now due to Chinese yards churning out huge numbers of OSVs, with brokers trying to capitalise on the competitive vessel price and flexible payment and finance terms offered by these Chinese yards.

I don’t have a strong view at this stage as market prices are predominantly controlled by brokers and the bigger shipyards which monopolise the global market, and affected by growing regulatory pressures on safety and energy efficiency.

The postal service was privatised in October 2013.

Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, said the update was "perfectly acceptable".

She said the company's European parcels business was doing well after exploiting "growth opportunities in the eurozone". Letter revenue fell by 3% on a like-for-like basis, the company said, as the impact of London 2012 collectable stamp sales waned.

Shares in Royal Mail closed down 2.6% at 572.5p, against a flotation price in October of 330p-a-share.

Mr Hunter said Royal Mail's shares had had a "very strong run" since October but that it may struggle to make "further meaningful progress" in the shorter term. The company was "simply a hold" for investors, he said.

This enabled the company to increase its cash and bank balance from about Rs 45,000 crore during 2010-11 to Rs 62,000 crore in 2012-13,

Most of the additional reserves came from higher prices as production did not rise at the same pace. This fiscal year, the company is likely to miss its target on coal production by about 17 million tonnes and sales by some 15 million tonnes.

Power tariffs are regulated by Central and state regulatory commissions, however, coal prices are not. Every increase in coal prices leads to increased power generation costs which need to be passed on to consumers.

The figures from the Overseas Development Institute suggest that Britain is now the world's fifth largest subsidiser of fossil fuels

For every $1 spent to support renewable energy, another $6 were spent on fossil fuel subsidies

In 2011, the latest year for which data is available, Britain gave tax breaks of £280m to oil and gas producers and reduced VAT on fossil fuels by several billion pounds

Rich countries have committed to phase out "inefficient" fossil fuel subsidies but the ODI figures, drawn from the International energy agency, OECD and other sources, suggest global subsidies to fossil fuel producers totalled $523bn a year in 2011 – dwarfing subsidies to renewable energies.

£2.6bn yearly incentive favours investment in carbon at the expense of green energy, says thinktank

In effect, each of the 11.6bn tonnes of carbon emitted from the top 11 developed countries comes with an average subsidy of $7 a tonne – around $112 for every adult

The figures have been released as ministers prepare to go to Poland for the deadlocked UN climate talks and as uncertainty surrounds the future of government-mandated levies on energy bills that support fuel poverty schemes and renewable energy.

G20 governments accepted in 2009 that fossil fuel subsidies encourage wasteful consumption, reduce energy security, and undermine efforts to deal with the threat of climate change.

The report said: "Investors are being sent the wrong signals on two fronts as carbon prices decline and fossil fuel subsidies increase."

The report argues that fossil fuel subsidies also fail in one of their core stated objectives, which is to to benefit the poorest.

Surprisingly, a carbon tax would operate much like a diamond tax, for reasons both of demand and supply.

Demand: The wealthy actually consume a disproportionate amount of carbon. Discussions of a carbon tax usually focus on the price of gasoline. One gallon of gas produces about 17 pounds of CO2. One metric ton is 2,204 pounds. So a $100 tax on a ton of CO2 comes to $0.77 per gallon -- a significant cost to low-income commuters and small truckers.

A May 2013 federal study of the Social Cost of Carbon estimated costs of additional CO2 emissions for 2010 to 2050 ranging from $27 to $221 per metric ton in 2050, depending on assumptions.

Demand elasticity for oil is low, about 0.5; so a 1 percent increase in oil price would cause a 0.5 percent decrease in consumption. That makes sense, since in the short run, it's hard for people to cut energy consumption, especially if they must drive to work. But, though numbers are hard to come by, elasticity of supply is much, much lower, for two reasons. First, oil production takes decades and billions in capital investment; producers cannot quickly increase or decrease supply. Second, oil producers form an international cartel, an organized mega-monopoly, which holds down production to drive up prices. Since they're already charging what the traffic will bear, they can't much raise prices to cover a tax.

As economists long ago figured out, buyers and sellers share a tax in inverse proportion to elasticity. Therefore, if supply elasticity of carbon is, say, 0.1, while demand elasticity is 0.5, the suppliers will pay five times as much of the tax as consumers. That reduces that $0.77 per gallon gas tax to only $0.13. Moreover, precisely because most of the tax falls on suppliers, it will generate plenty of revenue to help those unfortunate long-distance commuters and small truckers, to build more public transportation, to invest in renewable energy, and even to cut super-regressive taxes like the payroll tax.

According to Edward Wolff, in 2007, the top 1 percent in the U.S. owned 43 percent of non-home wealth, mostly securities, including of course energy company stocks and bonds. The top 10 percent of wealth holders owned 83 percent.

But the very poor don't drive or travel or occupy much space; the rich fly planes, including private jets; drive to low-density suburbs; occupy and heat multiple houses and hotels; and buy lots of stuff. Clearly the rich consume much more carbon per capita than the poor.

So we have good news and bad news. Good news: The cost of reducing carbon emissions will fall hardest on the 1 percent, who consume the most energy and own the energy companies. Bad news: Ditto. Expect a fight!

3D content will become increasingly restricted to premium and on-demand offerings.

the unique appeal of 3D to the consumer is that it offers greater immersion in content

A number of major broadcasters are now diverting investment to other initiatives, such as 4K and multi-screen content delivery.

Futuresource Consulting added that the market for 3D cinema remains stable.

On Wednesday the Bank of England's financial policy committee

and what remedial measures

discuss the possibility of a property bubble

can be taken

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics)

has called on the committee to cap annual house price growth at 5% a year.

Vince Cable, the business secretary, has warned of the risks of "returning to the problems of the last decade when housing got out of control,"

and said the chancellor should consider halting the second phase of his Help to Buy scheme.

The controversial mechanism, which

will allow people to buy homes worth up to £600,000 with a 5% deposit.

The Liberal Democrat president, Tim Farron, also attacked George Osborne's flagship scheme

The Rightmove report said the average asking price reached £245,495 in September, a 4.5% increase on the same month a year earlier.

Prices are rising fastest in greater London, up 8.2% over the past year to £493,748, and the West Midlands, up 6.8% to £195,429.

In London, prices are up in all boroughs except Barking & Dagenham (down 0.8% to £218,242). Prices in Croydon and Tower Hamlets rose by more than 2% in September alone.The most expensive homes are in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average home is priced at £2.16m – a 6.5% increase on last year.