Tighter regulations won’t restore the City’s reputation for integrity February 12, 2013 FINANCIAL regulation is often defended on the grounds that financial products are complex and consumers do not understand them properly. But that is nothing special in itself. I know little about car repair. When I take my car to the garage, the mechanics start talking Esperanto to me about their plans, followed by “OK?” We [...]
Europe needs to be more relaxed about entrepreneurs getting filthy rich February 12, 2013 PETER Mandelson famously said that he was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich”. As with many aspects of New Labour, he was working firmly in the Leninist intellectual tradition. Some 20 years earlier, the then leader of the Chinese Communist Party Deng Xiaoping stated that “to get rich is glorious”. The Chinese have certainly [...]
Press freedom has been relegated to history’s scrapheap February 12, 2013 IN THE past, Britain was frequently ripped apart by the question: “Should the press be free or regulated?” Writers squared up to censorious Kings and demanded, in the words of seventeenth century poet John Milton, “the liberty to utter”. In return, Kings threw disobedient hacks in the Tower. In 1792, Thomas Paine was sentenced to [...]
The Debate: Will North Korea’s third nuclear test lead to increased instability in the Asia-Pacific? February 12, 2013 YES Andrea Berger Following North Korea’s third nuclear test, South Korea, Japan, and China will be compelled to match their verbal condemnations with action. Several responses could further provoke Pyongyang, causing it to lash out again, and destabilise the region. Should Beijing decide to punish North Korea over its latest provocation – by supporting an [...]
Letters to the Editor February 12, 2013 EU food testing [Re: Horse row no laughing matter – but NHS scandal even worse, yesterday] On the subject of Britain’s food chain, this article completely misses the point – along with most of the media. Food testing is an EU competence as part of the Single Market. All the faults, therefore, lie with the [...]
Retail banks aren’t safe: Politicians fool themselves to think otherwise February 11, 2013 YESTERDAY, RBS’s chief executive Stephen Hester appeared before the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, just days after his bank’s £390m fine for involvement in Libor manipulation. In the face of scandals like these, the political debate about structural banking reform has intensified. Last week, George Osborne committed to forcibly breaking up banks if they do [...]
Runaway inflation makes Mark Carney’s flexible target largely redundant February 11, 2013 AT THE Treasury Select Committee last week, the incoming Bank of England governor Mark Carney re-iterated his desire for a more “flexible” inflation targeting regime for the UK. The Bank of England’s current remit is to keep consumer price index inflation at 2 per cent, within a band of 1 percentage point each way. But [...]
Pope Benedict saw why the capitalist system is virtuous February 11, 2013 THOSE who study Pope Benedict, who announced his retirement yesterday, have been impressed by his humanity and by his understanding of human nature. Statements he has made on the economy, written in his own hand, reflect that. The Pope, for example, did not see the problems that led to the financial crisis as solvable by [...]
The Debate: Has the reaction to the discovery of horse meat in beef products been proportionate? February 11, 2013 YES Mary Creagh The scandal of horse meat in beef burgers, lasagnes and other “beef” products has grown and grown. And it may not be a simple labelling error. We could be looking at criminal adulteration of food on an industrial scale. If checks cannot identify what is going into our food, we cannot be [...]
Letters to the editor February 11, 2013 Inheritance tax [Re: Stealth hike in inheritance tax not the answer to care crisis] It is hugely disappointing that the promised increase in the inheritance tax threshold to £1m seems to have been abandoned. Inheritance tax is particularly pernicious, and it destroys the country’s capital stock for use in current government consumption spending. An inheritance [...]