Welcome to the Punch: interview with Mark Strong | City A.M. March 31, 2013 HE last time I saw Mark Strong he was beating up an 11-year-old. The time before that, he was pulling off George Clooney’s fingernails. He’s played an assassin in Revolver, a traitor in Tristan & Isolde, an alien super villain in Green Lantern and the chilling Lord Blackman in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. He is [...]
Capital controls are still ruining Iceland after half a decade March 31, 2013 ONE aspect of the Cypriot crisis resolution is of particular concern. As authorities fear that anyone with money in Cyprus will want to take it out as soon as banks open, capital controls are being put in place. We are told they will be limited in scope and temporary. Hopefully that is true. Another European [...]
UK only just fell into second dip of the recession March 31, 2013 THE UK almost dodged dropping into a double-dip recession a year ago, the latest data revisions showed yesterday. The economy only shrank 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011 and in the first quarter of 2012, the new numbers showed, meaning that the double-dip was a hair’s breadth from never happening. Previously the [...]
UK tech prodigy makes millions by selling app March 29, 2013 A LONDON teenager has become one of Britain’s youngest millionaires after selling a popular smartphone app he developed at 15 to Yahoo. Nick D’Aloisio, 17, designed and built Summly, an iPhone app that condenses news articles for reading on the move after teaching himself to write computer code. Since its launch, the app has reached [...]
Transaction tax missing its targets March 29, 2013 TOUGH taxes on financial transactions across Europe have devastated market activity and failed to raise as much as politicians hoped, according to new figures out yesterday. Hungary implemented a 0.1 per cent tax at the start of the year. But it raised less than half the revenue the state had hoped for, bringing in 13bn [...]
UK branches of Cypriot banks reassure savers March 29, 2013 CYPRIOT banks with British operations reassured customers yesterday that their deposits were safe, with at least some savings covered under guarantee schemes. The Bank of Cyprus UK, which has three branches in London and another in Birmingham, said there would be “no effect on deposits” for its UK account holders, describing itself as a “separately [...]
Why capital controls are an economic and political disgrace March 26, 2013 THERE is something truly terrifying about capital controls, the harsh restrictions that may soon be imposed on Cypriots. The freedom to take your money out of a country, and into another, at will and with no taxes, is an essential bulwark of a free society. It is also a central tool in a world of [...]
Troika tells Cyprus they need to find another €900m March 25, 2013 MNI reports that the Troika has said that in the face of worsening conditions Cyprus has to stump up more cash. They’re now demanding €6.7bn as opposed to €5.8bn. That’s a huge increase given the size of Cyprus’ economy. Finance minister Michalis Sarris has said a deposit levy is definitely back on the table. We’re back to [...]
Why Osborne’s housing subsidies feel right out of the 1970s March 24, 2013 IT is all too easy to make comparisons between the behaviour of current politicians and those of their historic predecessors. But basic economic errors seem ingrained in the nature of those in positions of power, and keep happening in almost cyclical fashion, albeit always in superficially very different circumstances. I have previously compared George Osborne [...]
Osborne’s gambled on the wrong policy March 23, 2013 THERE is a striking paradox at the heart of George Osborne’s approach to the economy, as demonstrated yet again in yesterday’s Budget. He was remarkably risk-averse with his tax and spend policies, refusing to embrace the kinds of shock and awe tax reforms many of us wanted, or to cut spending faster, though he did [...]