Accelerating competition: How to level the playing field for challenger banks June 24, 2014 THERE is something that politicians and bankers both agree upon – we believe that greater competition improves the service and the products that customers get. We’ve heard ideas about increasing competition in banking from across the political spectrum. Today, the BBA is adding to that debate with some new ideas on promoting competition by levelling [...]
Letters to the Editor – 24/06 – Moral capitalism, Shifting borders, Best of Twitter June 23, 2014 Moral capitalism [Re: Free economies will crumble if we fail to make the moral case for capitalism, Thursday] It is vital that we argue for capitalism from both a moral perspective (respect for individual freedom and private property) and from an efficiency perspective (namely that free trade and the division of labour is the route [...]
My debate with Piketty: Beware radical policies claiming to be above ideology June 23, 2014 A LACK of authenticity among politicians is a common lament. Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston expressed this conventional wisdom recently when she said: “I think the public dislike the cardboard cut-out, the lobby fodder, the sycophantic [planted] questions [in the Commons].” There’s some truth in this. Nobody likes a lackey. And the turgid “Does my Right [...]
The devil will be in the detail of Osborne’s northern powerhouse plans June 23, 2014 IN THE months before a general election campaign gets going, politicians often look like they’re merely going through the motions. Perhaps that was why George Osborne’s surprisingly radical speech in Manchester yesterday, focused on making the “cities of the north a powerhouse for our economy”, caught many by surprise. But while the speech contained the [...]
As Obama warns of spillover from the Iraq crisis, could it destabilise the whole region? June 23, 2014 Dr Simon Mabon, a lecturer in international relations at Lancaster University, says Yes. When ISIS forces seized Mosul earlier this month, a spokesperson for the group declared that this signalled “the beginning of the end of the Sykes-Picot agreement”, the deal that shaped the modern Middle East. This claim suggests that ISIS is looking to [...]
The new machine age: Britain must not miss out on the robot revolution June 23, 2014 MORE and more people are concerned about a wave of robots stealing their jobs. But for Britain, there’s a more pressing concern: what if the robot economy doesn’t arrive here at all? For a while now, pundits have been speculating that robots, self-driving cars and clever algorithms will take many of the jobs now done [...]
City Matters: Business and innovation thrive when they’re underpinned by diverse talents June 23, 2014 IF LONDON and the UK are to remain at the cutting edge, it is vital that students today acquire the skills needed to meet the challenges of tomorrow. In a fast-moving globalised world, that increasingly means adapting to the realities of the digital revolution. Over recent decades, technology has transformed how industries ranging from financial [...]
Stop bashing offshore finance: It’s vital for a liquid financial system June 23, 2014 FOR MOST people, Jersey has traditionally conjured up images of picturesque villages and coastlines, its famous cows and Jersey Royal potatoes. More recently, however, the island has found itself cast as a villain, seeking to aid multinationals and wealthy individuals to avoid paying their “fair share” of the UK’s tax burden. Yet as a recent study [...]
Letters to the Editor – 23/06 – Alternative finance, Parties of liberty, Best of Twitter June 23, 2014 Alternative finance [Re: Santander refers rejected small business loans to Funding Circle, Thursday] It is welcome to see Santander taking a progressive attitude to lending by promoting alternative financial solutions. The greatest barrier to SME growth is a lack of education of the types of funding available. For many, alternative forms of finance offer the [...]
Letters to the Editor – 20/06 – The estuary option, Flatter the better, Best of Twitter June 19, 2014 The estuary option This week, Sir Howard Davies, chairman of the Airports Commission, was questioned by the London Assembly. Some of his answers were worrying. He seemed to refuse to acknowledge the benefits a new four-runway hub airport would bring to Britain. When hubs are being built all over the world, with upwards of four [...]