Ulster Bank today reported a loss of £368m for 2009 according to figures from its parent bank Royal Bank of Scotland. This compares with a profit of £218m in 2008. RBS reported a net loss of £3.6bn compared with a loss of £24.3bn a year earlier.

Principal news stories from the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Financial Times and New York Times.

Inflation is not the solution but it’s tempting to think that the US can inflate its way out of its fiscal problems.

Hedge-fund investor David Tepper has stepped into the battle over the fate of Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town, the giant New York City complex involved one of the largest commercial real-estate failures.

The financial secretary warned in the annual budget address of an ‘increased risk of a bubble forming in the property market,’ on recent signs of rising prices in the residential and land markets.

Refocusing on Its core business sends the stock of Entertainment Properties soaring. “It’s a very good time to be a theater owner.”

Markets news on stocks, currencies and oil; US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said today that the US economy is in a “nascent” recovery that still requires low interest rates to promote demand by consumers and businesses once federal stimulus expires.

Sales of new single-family houses in January 2010 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the US Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 11.2% below the revised December rate of 348,000 and is 6.1 percent below the January 2009 estimate of 329,000 - -  the lowest since records in the current series began in 1963.

Investments by Calpers in deals that included converting low-rent properties to market-rent apartments raises concerns.

US loans fell 7.5% in 2009, the largest annual decline since 1942, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Great Depression era agency which guarantees bank deposits.