Volkswagen car emissions scandal: VW’s crisis shows the cost of having unclear values September 23, 2015 The scandal surrounding Volkswagen’s rigged emissions tests, which may affect 11m vehicles, has rightly caused outrage. The carmaker is in crisis, its chief executive has resigned, consumers are shocked, and Volkswagen’s share price has dropped by nearly a third. The company announced that it is setting aside almost £5bn to cover the costs, although [...]
As chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigns, will Volkswagen survive the emissions tests catastrophe? September 23, 2015 Bill Blain, strategist at Mint Partners. style ‘Donut’, says Yes Speculation that Volkswagen is doomed is way-wide of the mark. Suffer? Yes. Dead? By no means. Markets overreact – at some point its deeply discounted share price and suddenly toxic bond issues will be a screaming buy. The question is when – and it’s not [...]
Why London needs a rebrand for its 21st century life as a megacity September 23, 2015 With London’s population set to top 8.6 million this year, overtaking the previous record set in 1939, there’s been heightened debate on the big challenges for housing, education and transport in the capital. But relatively little discussion has focused on the crucial matter of how we help Londoners to connect with and develop a [...]
Volkswagen emissions scandal and recall will rock public trust in business – The City View September 22, 2015 For much of the past few years the debate around trust in business has focussed on financial services. The case for the prosecution is well known and the roll-call of shame (Libor rigging, forex scandals, PPI mis-selling) should never fail to serve as a reminder of the damage caused when individuals and institutions consider [...]
Jeremy Corbyn’s Flat Earth economics: Why rational people struggle to respond September 22, 2015 Imagine you are relaxing at a bar enjoying a drink after a hard day’s work. The person next to you strikes up a conversation. Initially he seems reasonable. But soon he begins to go on at length about how the Earth is flat and how a misguided cabal of scientists hides this truth from [...]
As its economic growth continues to falter, is George Osborne right to prioritise close relations with China? September 22, 2015 James Sproule, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, says Yes No country can maintain breakneck economic growth forever, and China faces some significant challenges. The biggest will be moving towards a system where market signals replace government initiatives. Britain is right to want to play a leading role in this transition. China’s GDP stands [...]
Skills shortages are a perfect storm for London construction September 22, 2015 No matter where you are commuting from this morning and where your final destination is, it will be impossible not to notice the construction boom taking place in the capital. All around us, new housing is taking shape to accommodate the largest population that London has ever known. Whether colossal structures piercing the low-lying [...]
Executive pay debate: Not all measures of inequality are equal – The City View September 21, 2015 Few areas of public policy have provoked more debate, hand-wringing, tweets and tomes in recent years as the issue of inequality. It turned a French economist, Thomas Piketty, into a global superstar and has provided a seemingly undeniable intellectual foundation to the pontifications of the contemporary left. But like all areas of social and economic [...]
Greek debt crisis: Greece’s banks could still tip the fragile country into disaster September 21, 2015 When the Eurozone crisis first erupted five years ago, it was a crisis of confidence in the ability of peripheral countries (Greece, Spain, Portugal) to pay back the debt incurred in financing their swollen government deficits. Those countries, including Greece, have since virtually eliminated their fiscal deficits and, following the re-election of Alexis Tsipras [...]
London’s next mayor must be unashamedly in favour of airport and housing expansion September 21, 2015 I feel sorry for the Conservatives’ London mayoral candidates. With the political landscape transformed by the election of a “pre-1970s socialist” to the Labour leadership, voting in the current Tory primary feels a bit “after the Lord Mayor’s Show”. In such a centralised country, regional politics will always play second fiddle to stories about [...]