The Mints are falling apart: It’s time to reassess our view of emerging markets January 26, 2014 TO PARAPHRASE Antony in Julius Caesar, I come to bury the Mints idea, not to praise it. True, as with its Brics ancestor, former Goldman Sachs Asset Management head Jim O’Neill has hit upon something vitally important by identifying Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey as future economic giants. With the Brics, it was that the [...]
Ignore the rhetoric: Government must open up contracts to small business January 26, 2014 TO CREATE more and better-paid jobs, Britain needs more small businesses, and it needs the best of them to scale up. Government has a key role to play, by radically improving its own commercial relationship with small companies. The US and Germany – two of our strongest competitors – are far ahead of the UK [...]
City Matters: Social impact investing: The City must embrace a future of philanthropy January 26, 2014 THE CITY has always been a crucible for debate, innovation and philanthropy. All three are crucial as we strive to rise to the complex challenges posed by the “new normal” – a fast-developing globalised world where resources are increasingly scarce and in demand. I am particularly keen to draw upon the City’s energy, expertise and [...]
Letters to the Editor – 27/01 – Carney’s low rates, Bonus cap, Best of Twitter January 26, 2014 Carney’s low rates [Re: Mark Carney has been the luckiest of unlucky Bank governors, Friday] The author puts his finger right on the key point when he highlights the issue of mounting imbalances due to low rates. But by the time the pressures become serious and can no longer be ignored, we will have to [...]
No Facebook, you haven’t just debunked Princeton January 24, 2014 A recent Princeton study estimated that 80 per cent of Facebook's users will leave the site by 2017, and as the research went viral, the social network just had to respond. It's a shame, because while Facebook data scientist Mike Develin makes good points about the follies of extrapolation generally, he manages to miss the [...]
Crime’s downward path: A promising trend with no room for complacency January 23, 2014 IT’S BEEN called the riddle of peacefulness. Many think crime is a growing problem: a 2013 Ipsos Mori study found that 58 per cent didn’t believe it was falling, while 51 per cent thought violent crime was getting worse. Yet Britain, in common with much of the developed world, has enjoyed nearly 20 years of [...]
The Long View: The real way to shake up British banking: Embrace the third party future January 23, 2014 THE LACK of competition among Britain’s retail banks is under the microscope. Yet an important part of the solution is not getting enough attention. While breaking up big banks would not be as easy as Ed Miliband thinks, and the current height of the regulatory hurdles makes the field of entrants sparse at best, the [...]
Britain’s pensions crisis is worse than you think: We must save even more January 23, 2014 WHAT does a decent pension cost? The short answer is a lot; and a lot more than most people think or want to know. The government plans to prevent a pensions crisis with two main policies: first, a state pension payable from the age of 67 or 68 of about £7,000 a year; secondly, it [...]
Letters to the Editor – 24/01 – EU green targets, Compulsory saving, Best of Twitter January 23, 2014 EU green targets [Re: Industry welcomes EU green targets for 2030, yesterday] It is incorrect to suggest that all businesses welcome the new targets. While it is promising to see the EU placing climate change and competitiveness side by side, it’s clear that others in Europe have little appetite to match the UK’s binding 50 [...]
Why it will take real bank reform to rid us of our addiction to candy floss credit January 22, 2014 GROWTH is back. Unemployment is falling. Each week seems to bring a flurry of upgraded forecasts. The mood of the pundits has gone from gloom to boom. But headline growth figures do not tell the full story. They only tell us about headline growth. Any government can raise output – and all other kinds of [...]