Stop acquisitive politicians forever with a max tax guarantee March 6, 2014 HOW MANY times have we heard a politician say that “those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden”? Indeed, given the frequency with which this mantra is repeated, you could be forgiven for thinking that the rich are only taxed lightly. The reality is somewhat different. If anything, the UK is dangerously dependent [...]
Scottish nationalist failures have spooked business. EU outers beware March 6, 2014 SHELL, Lloyds and Barclays have joined Standard Life and Sainsbury’s in warning about the consequences for their businesses of Scottish independence. Uncertainty for business about the implications of a vote to leave the UK appears to be harming Scottish prospects already, even though opinion polls suggest the risk that Scotland votes to leave the UK [...]
Letters to the Editor – 06/03 – Investment risks, Russia’s takeover, Best of Twitter March 5, 2014 Investment risks [Re: Memo to the City and UK industry: 2014 is the year for business investment, yesterday] Danny Alexander’s challenge to businesses for a pick-up in investment misses the fact that political factors are behind part of the recent lull. As the CBI recently pointed out, the uncertain political environment is currently one of the [...]
Why the justice system is failing bankers March 5, 2014 YESTERDAY saw the latest example of how alleged misconduct in finance is being rigorously pursued. The Bank of England suspended a staff member and launched a formal investigation into allegations that officials condoned or were aware of forex market manipulation. A few weeks ago, three Barclays bankers were charged in relation to Libor. The FCA [...]
How to boost GDP and demolish debt with one radical policy March 5, 2014 HOW DO you discombobulate a banker? Ask them whether a fully reserved banking system – in other words, ending high street banking as we know it, by forcing banks to back their liabilities 100 per cent with reserves – could significantly improve our long-term prosperity. After the financial crisis, prominent economists like Laurence Kotlikoff argued [...]
Resist temptation: A sugar tax won’t make us healthy March 5, 2014 THE RECENT suggestion by the chief medical officer Sally Davies that “we may need to introduce a sugar tax” is a tribute to the extraordinary media profile of Action on Sugar, the latest pressure group to blame a single ingredient for people being overweight. Previous targets include saturated fat and salt, but it is now [...]
Letters to the Editor – 05/03 – End of the BBC, Ukraine crisis risks, Best of Twitter March 4, 2014 End of the BBC [Re: How technology has doomed the BBC licence fee, yesterday] If we make the BBC a pay-per-view service, there will be greater scope for selling programmes outside the UK than is currently the case. There must be thousands of hours of BBC programming (both current and historic) that non UK residents [...]
How the West should best the crumbling Kremlin March 4, 2014 AN UNLIKELY source holds the key to how the West should respond to Russia’s takeover of the Crimea. While researching for my book Ethical Realism (which I co-wrote with the rightly celebrated Anatol Lieven), I came across a startling fact. Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the US’s best-known twentieth-century political thinkers, was also the author of [...]
French invasion heralds the collapse of tax and spend March 4, 2014 PIMLICO Plumbers will be a familiar brand to many readers – it has a prominent advert on the approach into Waterloo station. But the company is now calling for plumbers who are fluent in both English and French, and says applicants will be interviewed by a native French speaker. This is just the tip of [...]
Memo to the City: It’s time to invest March 4, 2014 FOLLOWING the devastating financial crisis of 2008, it’s easy to understand why there was a severe drop in business investment. From peak to trough, this vital part of economic life plummeted some 30 per cent. Since 2010, the government has been committed to helping the nation recover from the economic heart attack. By forming the [...]