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News and views from the business world with Jeremy Naylor and Andy Verity.

The Office for Budget Responsibility, a new watchdog for public finances, opens today. Its job will be to publish independent economic forecasts for each Budget and pre-Budget report. We ask Danny Gabay, Director of Fathom Consulting and a former Bank of England Economist, whether the OBR will take the politics out of economic forecasts.

The British Chambers of Commerce is calling for George Osborne's emergency budget next week to include a 2 year freeze on public sector pay, a commitment to bring down the 50% income tax rate in the near future and not to raise Capital Gains Tax to near income tax levels. David Frost, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce explains why.

"The Future of Banking Commission", has said the banking system needs to undergo "profound reform." The cross-party commission came up with 39 recommendations, including separating the high street retail banks from the riskier investment banks. Roger Bootle, Managing Director of Capital Economics is one of the commissioners, and he told us what some of the key points are.

Closures of defined benefits pension schemes are set to surge according to research published by the consultants PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Its survey of 179 major employers found that the number which have shut the schemes to existing employees has doubled since last year to nearly a third. Marc Hommel, a Pensions Partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, explains if this is down to the recession.