Why Dodd-Frank is pushing the US towards impending financial crisis January 17, 2013 IT’S been more than two years since the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law by Barack Obama. Passed in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and involving some of the most significant changes to regulation since the Great Depression, regulators have been writing rules at an astonishing pace ever [...]
An operatic reminder of how the internet disrupts our world for the better January 17, 2013 IT HAS been a week of crushing victories for the internet. It continues to claim victims among retail firms blindsided by the web’s 24/7 stores, with their limitless inventories and weightless products. With thousands of jobs on the line, and hundreds of shops at risk of closure, it would be easy to see the change [...]
Tesco horse meat mustn’t shake our faith in cheap food January 17, 2013 TAINTED food scandals are as old as the hills. In 1858, more than 200 were poisoned when a Bradford confectioner, known as Humbug Billy, accidentally mixed arsenic into his peppermint lozenges. More recently, mad cow disease led to the slaughter of 4.4m cattle. Poor quality has also never respected rank. Back in 1135, King Henry [...]
Would leaving the European Union be a positive move for businesses in Britain? January 17, 2013 YES Robert Hiscox The EU is a slow-moving caravan, forced to move at the speed of its slowest member. It imposes job-destroying, one-size-fits-all regulations and policies, in a centralised manner. But to prosper, companies (and countries) need policy flexibility, which the EU does not offer. Unfortunately, we have little democratic capacity to overturn bad EU laws. [...]
Letters to the editor January 17, 2013 HMV revisited [Re: The rise and fall of HMV: Why great companies find it so hard to adapt, Wednesday] The demise of HMV is, of course, sad. I was its finance director between 1983 and 1987, and the growth in those days was stellar. Revenue grew fourfold, and profit growth was even higher. During that period, cassette [...]
Cameron’s Europe speech: A chance for the EU to boldly embrace the US January 16, 2013 IT’S hard to imagine expectations for David Cameron’s long-overdue Europe speech getting any lower. The smart money is already on him getting caught in the crossfire between supporters and opponents of Britain’s EU membership. But it needn’t be like that. A few months before the 2010 general election, the Conservatives published a policy paper called [...]
A modest proposal to improve professional standards in British banking January 16, 2013 LONDON can lay claim to be the world leader in many things. It has, for example, the world’s most popular music venue, in the O2 centre. It has the most visited modern art gallery on the planet, at Tate Modern. It is also the world’s legal capital. London rejoices in having many of the world’s [...]
Helicopter tragedy: Why disasters are so thankfully rare January 16, 2013 AFTER a helicopter clipped a crane and crashed into a busy Vauxhall road yesterday, killing two in tragic circumstances and injuring a further 12, it’s only right that we pause our busy lives for a moment, pay tribute to the superb work of London’s emergency services, and be thankful for the miracle that there weren’t [...]
Would other member states allow the UK to renegotiate the terms of its EU membership? January 16, 2013 YES Chris Heaton-Harris Though we should be mindful of charges of “blackmail”, the UK is in a strong position to renegotiate the terms of its EU membership. The Eurozone’s drive for more integration is changing the rules of the game, and requires changes to EU treaties, over which the UK has a veto. We are [...]
Letters to the editor January 16, 2013 The drugs debate [RE: Irrational drugs policies incentivise experimenting with the unknown, Tuesday] Julian Huppert’s suggestions are a good start to restoring sanity to the drugs debate. Perhaps we should also consider rethinking the dangerous dichotomy between our understanding of drugs suppliers and drugs users. The two are often the same. Adam Watts Continuing to fight [...]