Round-up: Get Europe out of its mess - and win £250k

One man is offering you the chance to win £250,000 and all you have to do is answer one simple question: how do you manage a country's orderly exit from the euro?

The Tory peer Lord Wolfson of Aspley Guise, the chief executive of the Next clothing chain, has decided to give the prize of his own money to anyone who can answer the question that has plagued some of Europe's brightest minds, the Times reports.

The Wolfson Prize will be the second-biggest cash prize to be awarded to an academic economist after the Nobel and asks potential applicants to submit an article by the end of January of up to 25,000 words considering how transition from the euro to a new national currency could be achieved.

THE TELEGRAPH
INFLATION TO FUEL BIGGEST BUSINESS RATES RISE IN 20 YEARS
British businesses face the biggest annual jump in rates for more than 20 years as the Government uses September's 5.6% retail price inflation to set next April's rates rise.

DAILY EXPRESS
PENSION TO RISE BY £276 A YEAR
Pensioners were the winners yesterday with an inflation-matching rise in their allowance lifting incomes by at least £276 a year.

THE TIMES
BIG COMPANIES TURN THEIR BACKS ON RBS AND LLOYDS
Companies are cutting their business with the taxpayer-owned lenders Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds amid fears that the cost of borrowing will rise after the recent ratings downgrade by Moody's.

FINANCIAL TIMES
GOLDMAN REPORTS $428M LOSS
Goldman Sachs has reported a third-quarter net loss of $428m, only the second time since going public in 1999 that Wall Street's most admired and reviled investment bank has not made a profit.

FINANCIAL TIMES
APPLE EARNINGS MISS ESTIMATES
Apple reported $6.62bn in third-quarter profits, but missed quarterly earnings expectations for the first time in years, sending its shares down more than 6 per cent in after-hours trading.

THE GUARDIAN
FRANCE AND GERMANY READY TO AGREE €2TN EURO RESCUE FUND
France and Germany have reached agreement to boost the eurozone's rescue fund to €2tn (£1.75tn) as part of a "comprehensive plan" to resolve the sovereign debt crisis, which this weekend's summit should endorse, EU diplomats said.

THE INDEPENDENT
FAMILIES NOW SPEND HALF THEIR INCOME ON RENT
Property rental costs are at their highest level ever and now account for nearly half of the average British family's monthly earnings, according to figures published today.

WALL STREET JOURNAL
PAIN SPREADS TO BIGGEST BANKS
In a sign of the pain rippling through the financial system from Wall Street to Main Street, investment-banking giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc. on Tuesday posted a rare quarterly loss while Bank of America Corp. lost its title as the nation's biggest bank as it pared back its struggling consumer empire.