Outward-looking reforms in Europe depend on the City’s guiding hand January 20, 2013 DESPITE being postponed at the last minute, it is clear from excerpts trailed in the media that the Prime Minister’s speech on the EU will set out a stark choice for both the UK and Europe. The vision outlined presents a Britain that remains a “committed and active” member of the European Union – albeit [...]
The protectionist beast is back in a subtly fresh form January 20, 2013 IT’S a classic: during every recession, protectionism resurfaces. After four years of economic turmoil, unemployment is critical in the US (7.7 per cent) and Europe (11.7 per cent). Obviously, governments want to protect national companies and jobs, especially if they want to be re-elected. But if protectionism is back, it’s also more subtle. Gone are [...]
Does the crisis in North Africa represent the start of a new wave of geopolitical instability? January 20, 2013 YES Riccardo Fabiani The struggle for control of Mali, which spurred the French to intervene, as well as the hostage crisis in Algeria underscores the growing instability in North Africa. In the past few years, the security environment in these areas has steadily deteriorated, as criminal networks, terrorist groups, and insurgencies exploited power vacuums. Porous [...]
Letters to the editor January 20, 2013 Outside Europe [Re: Would leaving the EU be a positive move for business in Britain?, Friday] Roland Rudd’s suggestion that we would not have access to European markets if we left the EU, if true, belies the true nature of the entity. There is no suggestion from Eurosceptics that Britain would not be willing to [...]
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 [...]