News round up: Barclays, China, recession, unemployment, Vodafone, Goldman Sachs and European Union.

Barclays plc (LON:BARC) is considering clawing back part of its executives’ bonuses over the bank’s £1 billion mis-selling of insurance, chief executive Bob Diamond was forced to admit yesterday.

After a testy exchange with Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the influential Treasury select committee of MPs, Diamond eventually conceded: “We are taking into account in our businesses that impact [of mis-selling payment protection insurance] in our remuneration.”

The move follows Lloyds’ decision to look at getting back some of the awards awarded to former chief executive Eric Daniels due to the PPI scandal, which will cost the bank £3.2 billion, writes City AM.

China

China's credit bubble has finally popped. The property market is swinging wildly from boom to bust, the cautionary exhibit of a BRIC's dream that is at last coming down to earth with a thud. It is hard to obtain good data in China, but something is wrong when the country's Homelink property website can report that new home prices in Beijing fell 35% in November from the month before.

If this is remotely true, the calibrated soft-landing intended by Chinese authorities has gone badly wrong and risks spinning out of control. The growth of the M2 money supply slumped to 12.7% in November, the lowest in 10 years. New lending fell 5% on a month-to-month basis, The Telegraph reports.

Recession

Britain is heading for recession next year and the Chancellor is on course to miss his budget targets due to persistent slow growth, economists at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) have warned. The UK will contract by 0.4% in 2012 as a result of an even deeper recession in Britain's major trading partner, the eurozone.

The prediction makes LGIM the fourth leading forecaster to warn of an outright recession. UBS, Capital Economics and Standard Chartered all expect the economy to shrink over the coming 12 months, The Telegraph says.

Unemployment

Official figures revealed another 128,000 people joined the jobless ranks between August and October, taking unemployment to 2.64m, the highest level since 1994. Women and young people bore the brunt of the losses, with female unemployment reaching a 23-year high and youth joblessness soaring by 54,000 to 1.03m over the quarter.

Business leaders joined calls for action to stem rising unemployment, especially among the under-25s. (…) In brighter news, the number of self-employed Britons shot up by 166,000 over the quarter to reach 4.1m, according to The Telegraph.

Vodafone and Goldman Sachs

Up to ten companies are facing a judge-led investigation into their tax settlements amid growing concern over the way Revenue & Customs polices the City. Next week, the taxman will be accused of letting down the public through systematic management failures, after signing questionable deals with Vodafone and Goldman Sachs that have angered politicians and generated mass protests.

MPs believe that the settlements with these companies deprived taxpayers of up to £2 billion and £20 million respectively. The Public Accounts Committee, will publish a sharply critical report, turning its fire on David Hartnett, who announced his retirement as head of the department on Friday, as well as other senior staff there, The Times says.

European Union

Tensions between Britain and France over the future of the EU intensified after Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly accused David Cameron of behaving like "an obstinate kid" when he wielded the British veto at the European summit last week. As Angela Merkel held out an olive branch to Cameron by describing Britain as an important partner, the prime minister started agitating against the Franco-German push for a new treaty, writes The Guardian.