What Britain’s little toll road says about the future of infrastructure finance August 6, 2014 Compared to many Western countries, the UK has a relative dearth of toll roads. Today, only one major toll road operates, the M6 Toll from Cheslyn Hay to Coleshill, near Birmingham. Even so, the road is a public-private partnership. It has been many years since a truly private toll road has been built in the [...]
Israel and Hamas both think they won in Gaza: This crisis is doomed to fester August 5, 2014 After four weeks, the guns over Gaza have been stilled, at least temporarily, as a three-day ceasefire has gone into effect. Further, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – satisfied that, in destroying 32 tunnels, it has significantly (if temporarily) degraded Hamas’s ability to directly strike Israel proper – has announced it is leaving the Palestinian [...]
Why recessions can be good for your health – unless you’re in your fifties August 5, 2014 MANY readers at this time of the year will be looking forward to their summer break, perhaps contemplating with a certain amount of envy those colleagues who have already departed. But is leisure good for you? A bit of a no brainer, you might think. Indeed, until recently, the consensus among applied economists was that [...]
Don’t blame developers for poor doors – blame Britain’s planning laws August 5, 2014 "POOR doors” have been slammed on newspaper front pages in recent weeks – stories of luxury developments in New York with separate entrances for on-site affordable housing have spread across the Atlantic, as it turns out that there are similar arrangements in London too. The outrage this discovery has provoked is understandable. Though the practice [...]
Are investors underestimating the risks of the Scottish independence referendum? August 5, 2014 Bill O’Neill, head of the UK investment office at UBS Wealth Management, says Yes. So far, the independence debate has been black or white: union or separation. Yes, the market is anticipating a rejection, which would see a modestly positive reaction in sterling, gilts and equities. But investors need to consider the wider picture presented [...]
Juncker’s new EU financial services tsar would be disastrous for the City August 4, 2014 The prevailing winds of politics have not been kind to the City or the wider financial world of late. Politicians, often with one eye on the next election and tempted to kowtow to “banker bashing” sentiments, have paraded their credentials by legislating against the unruly financiers who “caused the financial crisis”. But if you think [...]
Pork barrel UK: Buying off voters with taxpayer cash has serious consequences August 4, 2014 THE CLASSICAL liberal French economist Frédéric Bastiat once said that “government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavours to live at the expense of everybody else.” Over the past year or so, numerous examples and allegations suggest that a more accurate pearl of wisdom for the UK would be: “Government is the great fiction, [...]
Does today’s geopolitical landscape share parallels with the run-up to the First World War? August 4, 2014 Michael Stephens, deputy director of RUSI Qatar, says Yes. The First and Second World Wars forced the creation of global institutions designed to stop states from disregarding international security norms. Nevertheless, the world of 2014 is a grim place, with international tensions close to boiling point. As the United States retreats from its hegemonic role, [...]
Lights out for darker skies: First World War started with a crash August 3, 2014 For the City, the Great War began with a financial crisis. Even before Britain committed itself, Europe’s great powers ranging against one another spelled disaster: the collapse of the magnificent, peaceful edifice of international trade built between the empires. As told in Jerry White’s riveting account of London in the war, Zeppelin Nights, on Friday [...]
Meet the magical computing that puts the human into artificial intelligence August 3, 2014 Think Artificial Intelligence and the first thing that comes to mind is probably robots. Thanks to popular culture, AI is considered distinctly un-human, and can prompt people to worry about the role of technology in our daily lives and who is really in control. However, there’s a new wave of technology fighting to put the [...]