The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) says that a single rate of tax relief on Irish pension contributions would save public money and would be fairer. A report published by the institute on Wednesday, estimates that between €500 million and €1 billion could be saved by changing the system of pensions tax relief.

One of the most profound structural problems confronting industrial countries is demographic change. The resulting shortage of labour and especially of skilled workers is reducing the competitiveness of industrial nations and is presenting social security systems in particular with daunting challenges, according to Deutsche Bank Research economist Jochen Möbert. Meanwhile, a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit says demographic change has had less of an impact on health spending than is widely believed.

US commercial property values have fallen by -21.3% over the first three quarters of 2009, according to the IPD US Quarterly Indicator.

State-owned Anglo Irish Bank has begun legal proceedings against former chief executive David Drumm to recover unpaid loans of €8 million and overturn the transfer of his Malahide, Dublin home into his wife’s name.

Calpers is leaning toward dumping BlackRock as a real-estate adviser after the firm steered the California pension fund into a disastrous apartment-complex investment.

Beal Bank made a bid for Trump Entertainment Resorts Atlantic City casinos about a week after Donald Trump abandoned his campaign to get back the properties.

Markets news on stocks, currencies and oil; US new home sales unexpectedly climbed 6.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 430,000 in October. The median price for a new home slipped 0.5% to $212,200. Meanwhile, Budget Travel  — Ireland’s largest tour operator - - has this afternoon applied to the High Court  to have the company placed into provisional liquidation.

US consumer spending increased in October by 0.7% as incomes rose and inflation remained low. Personal income rose by 0.2% for the second straight month. In a separate report, initial claims for jobless benefits declined by 35,000 to 466,000 in the most recent week. However, durable goods, expected to last at least three years fell in October, and a barometer of capital spending by businesses, fell in another sign of the recovery’s slow pace.

Bank of Ireland says in a business plan prepared for the Office of the European Competition Commissioner that it will not require any more State aid.

The recession is taking a toll on tax revenues in the developed world with the average tax burden in the 30 economies that are members of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), calculated as the ratio of tax revenues to GDP (gross domestic product), which was unchanged between 2006 and 2007, and then fell in 2008.  The fall in the tax burden in 2008 is estimated to have been 0.6% of GDP, from 35.8% to 35.2%.