Finance is inevitably complex but its regulators can stop chasing their tails November 27, 2013 FINANCIAL regulation becomes ever more onerous, as it chases its own tail. More and more, regulation mandates “best advice”, codes of ethics, legal punishment for directors if businesses go bust, mandatory offering of simple products, fines for companies if financial products decline in value instead of rise, and caps on charges and interest rates. This [...]
The bank leverage ratio is sensible – but we should be wary of Balkanisation November 27, 2013 MARK Carney and George Osborne, the two most powerful men in the British economy, swapped letters on Tuesday about the tools they needed to create a stable banking sector. They agreed that the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee will consider whether the Bank should be able to set the amount of money UK banks [...]
Germany’s new coalition will make little change to Merkel’s euro policies November 27, 2013 MONTHS after elections were held, Germany’s coalition talks have finally resulted in a deal – a grand coalition between Angela Merkel’s centre-right CDU/CSU and the centre-left SPD. Already, it is clear that Merkel will remain Europe’s most important player. Following an election that saw her party win a landslide victory that left it only few [...]
Letters to the Editor – 28/11 – Scots referendum, Bank ringfence, Best of Twitter November 27, 2013 Scots referendum [Re: Financial and economic flaws in the SNP’s plan make the case for Union, yesterday] I agree with Alistair Darling. Currency union requires political union, as demonstrated by the euro experience. It would be foolish to repeat the same mistake here. Meanwhile, Scotland having its own currency would increase the cost of selling [...]
The UK can avoid turning Japanese if we stick to the right economic policies November 26, 2013 FOR MOST of the second half of the twentieth century, Japan was a model of economic success – and the envy of the West. Economic growth was around 9 to 10 per cent in the 1950s and 1960s, and 4 to 5 per cent in the 1970s and 1980s. But the wheels came off following [...]
Against the Grain: We should all be anxious about rising divisions – even if intolerance is falling November 26, 2013 BRITAIN is becoming more sharply divided on ethnic lines, according to a worrying study just published by the think tank Demos. Over the past decade, more than 600,000 white people have moved out of London to areas which are more than 90 per cent white. The effect has been strongest among white Britons with children, [...]
Financial and economic flaws in the SNP’s plan make the case for Union November 26, 2013 THE SCOTTISH government independence White Paper, released yesterday, fell flat. If length were the measure of success, it would be a winner. But despite hundreds of pages, it failed to answer the critical questions that Scots have about independence, and it certainly failed to make any case for breaking up the United Kingdom. Economic and [...]
Letters to the Editor – 27/11 – London housing, Payday loan cap, Best of Twitter November 26, 2013 London housing The mayor’s efforts to encourage more housing are to be welcomed. But unless he is given further powers over planning, developers will continue to find resistance among London’s councils, which all have their own interpretations of planning policy. Some are more forward-thinking than others. But with a rapidly-growing population and a severe lag [...]
The Iranian deal is truly historic – but not because it resolves nuclear crisis November 25, 2013 THE HISTORIC interim agreement between the Islamic Republic of Iran and (primarily) the West over the former’s nuclear ambitions is the real deal – an actual current event that lives up to the “historic” tagline far too easily given out by breathless commentators. However, on its immediate merits, the best that can be said of [...]
The new Age of Intervention risks hurting the very people it seeks to help November 25, 2013 THE DRILL is well-established. Well-meaning campaigners highlight a perceived injustice, and declare that “something must be done”. The company, industry, or the market is blamed and labelled fundamentally exploitative. Campaigners demand action, through a new regulation, tax, charge or ban to make sure it “never happens again”. The government buckles, even if there is scant [...]