Housing bubble psychology: Why Wall Street isn’t smarter than Mr Average September 2, 2014 LURID stories about the excesses in the UK housing market continue to proliferate. True, there is some evidence of a cooling, as price rises tempt more sellers into the market and temporarily increase supply relative to demand. But at the same time, we learn in the Sunday Times that the good burghers of Cobham in [...]
Was the Davies Commission right to rule out Boris Island as an option for airport expansion? September 2, 2014 Stewart Wingate, chief executive of Gatwick Airport, says Yes. We share the mayor’s passion for London, as well as his desire to maintain its status as the best-connected city in the world. But what is needed above all is certainty that additional airport capacity will be delivered. And while ambitious, the Thames Estuary airport option [...]
The value chain of an international drug trade September 2, 2014 There are many reasons to end the war on drugs. One can point to the huge incarceration rates, how criminalisation hurts the people already at the bottom of our society or one can focus on the moral aspect of the right to self-ownership. But perhaps the most indicative of the negative consequences of the war [...]
Len Blavatnik’s Perform offer revives troubled IPO debacle – Inside Track September 1, 2014 The non-executive directors of the media group Perform, who include the sports broadcaster Gaby Logan and the former DMGT finance director Peter Williams, have a tough job on their hands in deciding whether to recommend the 260p per share offer for the group from its major shareholder, Len Blavatnik. Blavatnik, whose business interests also include [...]
Putin has won in Ukraine – but the West can still salvage the long game September 1, 2014 There’s only one way to make a fortune, and that’s to down the fellow who’s up against you." W Somerset Maugham, on poker ONE OF the many wonderful traditions at St Andrews University is that, if a student did well, they did not have to sit final exams until their last year. As a result, [...]
Why interest rate rises won’t push voters into Ed Miliband’s arms September 1, 2014 We all know they are coming, even if not quite yet. The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is not expected to change interest rates this week, but its inaction is unlikely to last for long. In August, dissenters appeared on the MPC for the first time since 2011, with two members voting for an [...]
Airport expansion is vital for London’s prosperity – but politicians still do nothing September 1, 2014 WITH the Airports Commission widely tipped to make an announcement about Boris Johnson’s Estuary airport proposal today, it is important we take stock of what is at stake. The airports debate is about more than where to put extra planes and runways: it’s about jobs, growth and our country’s future prosperity. International connectivity is fundamental [...]
Are David Cameron’s new anti-terror measures necessary to protect the UK? September 1, 2014 Hannah Stuart, research fellow at The Henry Jackson Society, says Yes. The government is calling for increased powers to tackle the threat posed by returning fighters from Syria and northern Iraq. With a steady stream of people still leaving for Syria, and an estimated 250 already back on our streets, it’s clear that current preventative [...]
Nato can save us from Putin – but only if Europe gets serious about its military August 31, 2014 For my sins, early in my Washington career I was sent to literally scores of high-level North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) meetings, frustratingly all on the same beside-the-point topic. Stripped of its finery, basically every conclave revolved around finding another mission for the most successful politico-military alliance in the history of the world, now that [...]
Bank regulators need to get more realistic if we are to avoid a new crisis – City Matters August 31, 2014 The idea of a “Europe without banks” became popular after the financial crisis, when bankers were demonised and punitive regulations proposed. Six years on, the repercussions still resonate deeply, as I found at the recent Alpbach Financial Markets Symposium, where the high Austrian location gives an added sense of perspective to Europe’s issues. Of course, [...]