The City must not over-react to the shock death of an intern August 21, 2013 THERE are still lots of unanswered questions following the sudden and tragic death of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s 21-year-old intern Moritz Erhardt. Whether he was an epileptic – and whether he had declared that to the bank – is crucial to understanding what happened to cut an ambitious young man down in such cruel [...]
Speed is not of the essence in the disposal of RBS branches August 20, 2013 THE ROYAL Bank of Scotland (RBS) was yesterday called upon to get a move on in the disposal of 316 branches it has been required to make as a condition of its 2008 bailout by the UK taxpayer. Urging it to make a speedy decision are two of the three short-listed bidders who are vying [...]
BT Sport has a mountain to climb in its bid to beat BSkyB August 19, 2013 A COUPLE of friends of mine have spent most of their summer putting together what is certain to be an entertaining and enlightening show for Sky Arts called Portrait Artist of the Year. Presented by the comedian Frank Skinner, the series involves members of the public painting portraits of celebrities, including the actress Juliet Stevenson. [...]
Why you can bank on the humanities to launch a City career August 15, 2013 PHILOSOPHERS have been making a killing in financial services since Thales of Miletus used options to corner the ancient Greek market for olive oil. So it is fantastic news to see several big banks continuing to recognise how much humanities graduates have to contribute in the twenty-first century: nearly half of the intake at Barclays [...]
UK needs to stop deliberately inflating residential land prices August 14, 2013 MY column yesterday revealing that the French are building three times more homes than the British every year – an astonishing fact which highlights the gravity of our housing supply crisis – elicited a number of typical counter-arguments. The most common was that the French have plenty of land, and we don’t, so it isn’t [...]
The French build three times more new homes than we do August 13, 2013 THERE is a first time for everything. Today, I’m going to praise something about the French economy – well, sort of, at least. This year is proving to be “bad” for housebuilding in recession-hit France, so there were “just” 342,000 housing starts in the year to June 2013, down 14.2 per cent on the previous [...]
Greece’s catastrophic 1930s-style depression is a salutary tale August 12, 2013 SORRY, but the fact that Greece collapsed at an annual rate of 4.6 per cent in the second quarter, rather than a little bit faster, isn’t good news. It’s terrible, awful, horrible news. Greek output is down by 23 per cent since 2008 and unemployment is at around 28 per cent; no wonder, given the [...]
We must be more meritocratic – but quotas are not the answer August 11, 2013 QUOTAS are the enemy of meritocracy and have no place in public companies. Giving people jobs or promoting them merely because they happen to belong to a particular group ought to be anathema to a free, liberal society in which people are treated and judged solely as individuals, regardless of their gender, race or any [...]
Bubblenomics will fuel total demand in the British economy August 8, 2013 IF THE UK economic rebound continues, the total amount of demand in the economy is likely to rise more strongly than most people realise. I write this even though I don’t think that the recovery is ultimately sustainable: it remains based on rock-bottom interest rates, excessive consumption, insufficient investment and will in any case eventually [...]
Why governor’s monetary revolution will eventually backfire August 7, 2013 ONCE again, I find myself in a minority. Most economists – and the overwhelming majority of commentators – are delighted with Mark Carney’s shake-up of monetary policy. But while I welcome the governor’s enthusiasm, I am unconvinced by his proposals. First, the theory. Carney’s thinking is that 1) there is plenty of spare capacity in [...]