As you may recall, Insider featured a piece back in January in which a number of Scottish-based insolvency specialists all told a similar story: HMRC had run out of budget to pay insolvency practitioners in the autumn of 2012.

The original article can be found here

HMRC, in a roundabout way, denied it had run out of budget for insolvency work but admitted to having received additional funding in December of 2012.

In January a spokesman for the revenue told Insider: "HMRC do not lack funding to pay for insolvency services.

Great news, as this would suggest there's a bit of a jobs boom under way, and a welcome turnaround on the 27,000 reduction in employment recorded the previous quarter covering August to October.

The ONS figures for the three months to October suggested employment in Scotland stood at 2,463,000.

By the end of January 2013, the employment figure had risen to 2,483,000, or thereabouts as the ONS put the figure at 19,000.

Finance Secretary John Swinney welcomed the news, saying: "Employment is on the increase and our employment rate is the joint fifth highest of the UK nations and regions."

Of course, seasonal jobs in the run up to Christmas would account for a spike in employment.

But the ONS notes in its most recent update covering November to January it has postponed its estimates of workforce jobs for December until its April 2013 release "due to operational difficulties which have resulted in a need for further quality assurance".

That's the 'word on the street' anyway, and confirmed - sort of - from discussions with four Scottish insolvency professionals this week.

HMRC has of course denied this - sort of.

A spokesman for the revenue told Business7: "HMRC do not lack funding to pay for insolvency services.

"In fact, in December HMRC released additional funding in Scotland to ensure legal action continued where it was appropriate."

So there you have it: HMRC hadn't run out of budget but thought it right to mention it was given "additional funding" in December.

UK interest rates have also been held at a record low of 0.5 per cent - the rate it has been since March 2009.

This, of course, is terrible news for savers, and indeed pensioners, as the buying up of gilts - UK government bonds - artificially depresses annuity rates.

Quantitative easing is basically the creation of new money - literally out of thin air.

The Bank of England creates this new money by way of a sale of Treasury investment bonds - basically a promise to pay later for cash now.

For an oil and gas region which has already reached peak production, this could be a massive blow if the big players decide to mothball their UK North Sea operations until we reach the Chancellors hallowed $75 a barrel oil cut off.

Derek Leith, oil and gas partner at Ernst & Young believes the Government has backtracked on a commitment last year to ensuring investment in the North Sea by creating a stable and fair UK oil and gas tax regime.

Leith says, that script has been binned.

He said the rise from 20 to 32 per cent "demonstrates to industry in an unambiguous fashion that there is no real concept of fiscal stability in the UK."

Leith adds: "It is hard to comprehend that mature oil and gas fields, which already pay petroleum revenue tax as well as corporation tax, will now suffer a marginal tax rate of 81 per cent. Many companies will be frantically re-appraising their plans for capital investment in the UKCS in the coming days.

"The prospect that the rate will reduce if the oil price falls before a certain level, and the possibility of some measure of relief for new gas fields will carry little weight with oil companies in the light of such a significant increase in tax."

RBS is now "considering all options" which obviously includes the possibility of pursuing Goldman's for a considerably larger chunk of the $870 million it lost in the Abacus investment deal.

Those losses stemmed from the fraudulent omission Goldman's hedge fund client, Paulson & Co was not only selecting mortgages for the portfolio, but was also making side bets those mortgages would drop in value.

A very cosy arrangement for Goldman's, which also charged Paulson & Co $15 million for the privilege of selecting mortgage backed securities to go into Abacus both Goldmans and Paulson must have known were at the very least suspect.

So the evidence given by the United States Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke to the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C on February 10 makes for interesting reading.

In his written submission to the committee on the Federal Reserve's exit strategy from what he describes as the "extraordinary lending and monetary policies that it implemented to combat the financial crisis and support economic activity" he adds an interesting footnote.

He states: "The Federal Reserve believes it is possible that, ultimately, its operating framework will allow the elimination of minimum reserve requirements, which impose costs and distortions on the banking system."

The full text of Mr Bernanke's evidence to the committee can be read here

The Scottish affairs select committee, made up of a panel of MPs, has found the taxpayer supported banks have been using what it described as "unsavoury practices" against its most vulnerable customers.

Examples provided by the Citizens Advice Bureau made for grim reading, with some customers complaining they were forced into taking loans to avoid defaulting on non-related financial products, excessive charges for overdraft extensions and rate hikes on credit cards - to name but a few.

Colin Borland, public affairs manager for the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland said he welcomed the views expressed by committee.

He said the FSB in Scotland has for the last 18-months been highlighting similar "unfair and aggressive" practices levelled at small business customers by their lenders.

The problem the government faced was the fact entering into a seventh consecutive quarters of negative growth would give the appearance we were headed down the road to depression.

The ONS figures also have an error range built-in, which are generally not published, but the figures range from between -0.2 per cent and +0.4 per cent.

Of course the 0.1 per cent growth figure will be adjusted to provide a more accurate account in the coming months, but for now we will have to settle for the less accurate range figure.

So, are we really out of recession just shy of 550 days of negative growth?

The due diligence of the assets RBS proposed to add to the APS, conducted by Ernst & Young and KPMG for a collective £16.4m fee, identified £43bn of assets they either rejected from the scheme or deemed to "no longer require protection."

So this reduced the £325bn in toxic assets RBS hoped to dump into the APS to £282bn.

However, the Treasury report documenting which of the Scottish bank's assets are entering into the scheme is rather scant on the details of those assets which the auditors refused to add to the APS.

The first of two Bills which made up the Glass-Steagall Act was brought into law in February 1932 in an effort to curb deflation and increase the US government's ability to provide financing to the banking sector.

This was followed by the second Act, passed in June 1933 separating banking types according to their business.

The argument being the new law would protect shareholders from undue risks made by the investment side of the business which investors had no voting control over.

But the separation of investment and commercial banking enshrined in the Glass-Steagall Acts of 1932 and 1933 were repealed in 1999.

RBS, having bowed to intense political pressure, has now agreed to pay bonuses at the "low, low end of the scale" - even if this means it will lose staff to better paying rivals.

Lloyds have also announced a bonus package for its top 200 executives of up to 80 per cent of their salaries, in a shares only package spread over three years.

And this on the same day the National Audit Office revealed the actual cost to the taxpayer so far for the banking crisis currently stands at ￡850bn.

News the government of Dubai was seeking a standstill on the debt repayments of its investment vehicle, Dubai World, is currently reverberating through the world's financial markets.

Dubai World has interests in all manner of industries globally and has a number of UK investments in property, leisure and ports, among others.

However it is being weighed down by its property arm Nakheel, which counts the iconic Palm Islands development in the Gulf among its assets.

Ripples from this reach all the way to Scotland as Leisurecorp - a division of Nakheel - bought Turnberry, host of the 2009 Open Golf Championship, for £55m last year.

Equally eye opening was the answer City minister Lord Myners gave when asked what other banks had received covert loans.

In a rather convoluted way he told Channel 4 News: "The very definition of covert is that is not a question I am going to answer."

What is important to differentiate here is the fact these were not loans made in the traditional sense, but rather the Bank of England (BoE) stepping into the role of lender of last resort after the money markets closed up following the collapse of Lehman Brothers.