Euro’s deluded alchemists were chasing fool’s gold all along June 25, 2012 WHAT is most upsetting about the Eurozone project is that it was based on a giant lie, one all too familiar in other contexts across the wealthy Western world. Europeans were told that they would be able to stay rich without having to work harder or change their ways: the single currency was meant to [...]
Customers should vote with their feet to punish bad service June 24, 2012 EVERY so often, a company makes a mistake. These things happen; we are all human, after all. But the extraordinary and seemingly never-ending IT blunder that rendered RBS and its NatWest unit unable to service customers properly in recent days takes the biscuit. It has severely inconvenienced a large number of people, and has reminded [...]
Cameron must back Gove for the sake of Britain’s children June 21, 2012 FOR the first time in living memory, Britain has a government that is on the brink of delivering huge improvements to the state education system. Michael Gove, the secretary of state, has a masterplan: he wants to axe GCSEs, replace them with much tougher O-Levels, introduce an alternative vocational qualification and sweep away the national [...]
We need a flat tax with no loopholes to reduce avoidance June 20, 2012 HYPOCRISY barely starts to describe it. Left-wing comedians – you know, the kind that love to attack the City, ridicule aspirational values, question the motives of those in business and who wear their champagne socialism on their sleeve – are not supposed to be extreme tax avoiders. So the news that Jimmy Carr, one such [...]
Inflation falls at last – but the damage has already been done June 19, 2012 AT last, Britain’s inflation problem is abating. Prices are still increasing too quickly – inflation remains at 3.1 per cent on the retail price index and 2.8 per cent on the consumer price index, painful as wages are growing far less quickly. But the direction of travel is reassuring. The Bank of England – by [...]
Why Germany could eventually lose patience with the euro June 18, 2012 FORGET about Greece, Spain or even Italy. And no, I haven’t gone mad: if somebody ends the euro, it will be Germany. This would be a great paradox. So far, Germany has been the big winner from the single currency – but it may soon find that the costs of membership are becoming greater than [...]
Greece jumps out of the fire and straight into the frying pan June 18, 2012 IT was the kind of giant kicking sound that always warms the financial markets’ hearts. And no, I wasn’t referring to football, but to Greece’s nail-biting election finish, which saw the euro granted a stay of execution. Pro-bailout parties eked out a small victory, avoiding an immediate and explosive Eurozone crisis, albeit at the cost [...]
Government’s plan to subsidise credit could easily backfire June 14, 2012 USUALLY, formal dinners at Mansion House in the City are highly enjoyable but somewhat predictable affairs. This one was unusually exciting. For the first time I can remember, the speeches from George Osborne and Sir Mervyn King included major news bombshells. The Bank is launching an £80bn “funding for lending” plan to cut the cost [...]
It is clear that the Eurozone can no longer do anything right June 13, 2012 COULD Brussels have been taken over by saboteurs, a secret army of eurosceptic infiltrators and spies masquerading as officials? I only ask because it now almost seems as if Spain’s bailout was deliberately designed not merely to fail but to inflict maximum damage on the Spanish economy and the entire Eurozone. Rarely have I seen [...]
Iceland’s stunning comeback gives Eurozone food for thought June 12, 2012 GUESS which developed country could enjoy the fastest growth this year? Come on? Alright, then – it’s Iceland. Its economy expanded by 2.4 per cent quarter on quarter in the first three months of the year, its fastest pace since its meltdown, boosted by exports, tourism and consumption. Annual economic growth was 4.5 per cent, [...]