The UK is not as dependent on Russian money as you think March 24, 2014 IT IS obvious that Russia is a significant source of jobs, trade and investment for the UK. But it is also important not to exaggerate these links: while they matter a lot for a few industries, they are less important overall than some commentators assume. It is entirely untrue that London would collapse without Russian [...]
Labour would be mad to oppose Osborne’s pensions liberation March 20, 2014 SUPPORTERS of the nanny state were out in force yesterday, attacking George Osborne’s revolutionary liberalisation of the pensions market. Starting next year, the chancellor will no longer force savers to hand over pension pots to insurers in return for a miserable income for life, a so-called annuity. Instead, savers will be able to use the [...]
British savers free to choose at last March 19, 2014 @allisterheath WHAT a remarkable, extraordinary Budget. In recent years, the chancellor’s announcements have largely been ignored by the financial markets; not yesterday. This was the biggest market-moving Budget that I can remember, with the shares of many of the City’s blue chip financial companies crashing and others rocketing. It contained the greatest surprise in years [...]
Carney’s reforms are welcome but won’t prevent another crisis March 18, 2014 GOOD on Mark Carney. The Bank of England he inherited was in urgent need of a shake-up, and he has now delivered on the comprehensive reorganisation he promised. Some of the jargon that accompanied his presentation yesterday was a tad irritating, but it is good to see private sector management techniques being applied to the [...]
Britain’s traumatic national pay cut is finally coming to an end March 17, 2014 BRITAIN’S traumatic national wage cut could be about to come to an end – or so the Treasury would like us to believe. For once, it may have a point: while many are still suffering, there is growing evidence that pay is starting to rise for some workers. Let me first point out that I’m [...]
Russia’s Ukrainian grab requires a firmer response from West March 17, 2014 AT THE start of every year, forecasters try to predict what could go wrong over the next 12 months – and every time, they get it terribly, spectacularly wrong. Just three months ago, the big risks were seen to be China, Iran, tapering or Eurozone deflation – of course, one or all of these could [...]
Fraud must be stamped out – but bonus reforms will backfire March 13, 2014 BONUSES are not the source of all evil. Sorry, I know I’m not meant to say that, but it’s the truth. Some of the Bank of England’s proposed reforms to bonuses make a lot of sense – crime, fraud and misselling need to be ruthlessly stamped out, and incentives need to be correctly aligned – [...]
The coalition and Labour are uniting to destroy UK’s pensions March 12, 2014 IT’s hard to know what is most bizarre: the fact that the coalition and Labour are ganging up to vandalise the UK’s pension system, or that so few people have noticed or care. The disaster is on a similar scale to Gordon Brown’s infamous and at the time largely overlooked tax raid on pension funds [...]
British manufacturing’s long decline could be about to end March 11, 2014 ROSS Perot, as a US presidential candidate in 1992, infamously decried “the giant sucking sound” of jobs being exported abroad as a result of free trade. It was populist nonsense, of course. Trade creates far more jobs than it destroys – and London’s high value added economy wouldn’t exist without it. That so many low [...]
Venezuela’s mad socialist experiment is destroying a nation March 10, 2014 IF you want to see how to destroy an economy and a society, look no further than Venezuela. One year after the death of Hugo Chavez, its disastrous communist president, the country is on the verge of total collapse under his equally appalling successor Nicolas Maduro. Food is running out, as are other essentials, even [...]