We need an open contest to decide who will run the Bank April 11, 2012 THERE is no doubt that George Osborne’s most important decision over the next few months will be who he appoints as the next governor of the Bank of England. That job, which becomes vacant next year, is by a huge distance the most powerful unelected position in the UK; its formal powers now span monetary [...]
We need an open contest to decide who will run the Bank April 11, 2012 THERE is no doubt that George Osborne’s most important decision over the next few months will be who he appoints as the next governor of the Bank of England. That job, which becomes vacant next year, is by a huge distance the most powerful unelected position in the UK; its formal powers now span monetary [...]
The City can help us to put a spring in our step March 18, 2012 WITH only a few days to go until the chancellor reveals the Budget for 2012, the nation’s business community will be hoping that this March stays true to the message of spring, bringing reinvigoration and new growth. While the grip of the economic downturn has remained firm, the government has had to focus on slowing [...]
DAVOS DIARY January 25, 2012 IS Lord Mandelson missing the limelight? The dark prince was all over the forum like a rash yesterday, hot-footing it from one engagement to another. Before any sign of sun was showing through the thick snowclouds covering Davos yesterday, Mandy suited and booted for a breakfast hosted by WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell. Demonstrating [...]
Call for EU lobbying body December 18, 2011 THE GOVERNMENT should establish a super-committee to coordinate its lobbying in Brussels on financial regulation, an influential group of lords and MPs has said. The group convened to scrutinise the draft financial services bill – the government bill that abolishes the FSA and sets up several new regulators in its place – says that Britain [...]
Politicians are slaughtering UK finance – the goose that is still laying the golden egg February 5, 2012 OVER recent years British business has withstood many onslaughts with quiet stoicism, but the latest politically inspired witch-hunts against financial leaders seems to have finally broken the camel’s back. The unpalatable truth is that politicians of all parties, in their selfish efforts to bolster their personal election prospects, have delivered a savage wound to business [...]
Nigel Lawson contradicts chancellor by calling for a break up of Eurozone November 23, 2011 FORMER Tory chancellor Nigel Lawson has clashed with current Number 11 inhabitant George Osborne, by labelling plans to preserve the Eurozone as “mad”. Osborne has encouraged the 17 member states of the Eurozone to push forward with plans for greater fiscal integration, yet his predecessor has slammed the idea. “It was the Eurozone that caused [...]
FSA admits it joined market mass delusion December 12, 2011 THE FINANCIAL Services Authority (FSA) participated in a mass “delusion” that drove markets and underlay a flawed regulatory regime in the run-up to RBS’s collapse, the authority concluded yesterday in its long-awaited report on the collapse of the bank. The FSA had “a tendency to share the delusions of the then conventional confidence”, the report [...]
Rothschild trust looking for deals amid Eurozone crisis November 29, 2011 THE INVESTMENT trust run by Lord Rothschild is set to take advantage of the firesale of Eurozone bank assets. RIT Capital Partners yesterday posted a slump of nearly 10 per cent in net asset value (NAV) but Rothschild, its chairman, said they wished to do more ventures of the like of Renshaw Bay, an asset [...]
Cameron’s Euro make or break December 8, 2011 PRIME Minister David Cameron was under growing pressure to deliver on his promise to repatriate powers from Brussels last night as Eurozone leaders argued over the terms of their bailout fund. Cameron has come under fire for giving mealy-mouthed promises on the powers he aims to return to Westminster. He told reporters: “These are important [...]