Lesson from Australia: Retirement benefits don’t have to bankrupt us November 20, 2012 WHEN The Who’s Roger Daltrey first sang “I hope I die before I get old,” he was probably not planning on receiving the winter fuel allowance. Yet 47 years later, at some stage this month a £200 cheque from the UK taxpayer will drop through his letterbox. Daltrey is one of a growing number of [...]
Cheating students hold the key to better government decision-making November 20, 2012 WHAT is the connection between executive pay, petty crime, and plagiarism by students? Economics can help us with the solution. It all links back to the concept of externalities. To illustrate the idea, economists use the example of a factory, which imposes costs on others through pollution. But Thomas Schelling, a Nobel Prize winner, extended [...]
Should the government consider lowering the level of tax relief on private pensions? November 20, 2012 YES Vidhya Alakeson Britain could raise up to £1.5bn by limiting tax relief on the very largest personal pensions – those built on lifetime savings of more than £1m. This would affect only very wealthy savers and seems necessary in these straitened times, when deep welfare cuts are underway. The money saved from pension tax [...]
Rapid responses November 20, 2012 Practical pensions [Re: The Ostrich Generation, yesterday] I imagine that one of the main reasons young people are not placing much faith in the future of their pensions is their lack of confidence and certainty about the future more generally. If someone is in their mid-20s, three or four decades is a long way ahead. [...]
Investors should expect a perfect storm of global political instability November 19, 2012 VIOLENCE in Israel and Gaza may seem to be a solely political (or geopolitical) issue. But politics has implications for all investments, and particularly sovereign debt. Governments drive policy and policy drives the bond markets. Instability used to be more of an issue for emerging markets. But we are now entering a new age of [...]
The poor are growing richer – and it’s nothing to do with redistribution November 19, 2012 IT’S fashionable to suggest that economic reform under Margaret Thatcher exposed us to a form of capitalism where “the rich have got richer and the poor have got poorer”. We’re told this has led to increasing inequality, which has damaged our economic and social fabric and that only redistributive policies – in the form of [...]
How shareholders shaped the Xstrata Glencore merger November 19, 2012 SHAREHOLDERS in Xstrata, the mining company, vote today on whether to approve its mega-merger with Glencore, the commodities group. If passed, the deal will create a £50bn mining and global commodities marketing giant. But reaching this point hasn’t been easy. At nearly every step of over ten months of negotiations, shareholders have successfully made their [...]
As the conflict in Israel and Gaza continues, can the situation be effectively contained? November 19, 2012 YES Adam Hug This crisis can be contained but it will take more than pressuring Hamas to come to ceasefire, or pressing Israel for restraint and an end to its current rules of engagement. The international community must set out a plan to securely relieve the blockade of Gaza, allowing consistent movement across the Rafah [...]
Rapid responses November 19, 2012 Easing the burden [Re: We must ditch unfair loopholes – and then cut tax overall, yesterday] You have to ask what purpose corporation tax serves. Companies are mere constructs for the purposes of providing services to the market. By taxing them, the government is penalising a justifiable and desirable activity. In the end, the consumer [...]
China’s new leaders may struggle to fulfill their immense ambitions November 18, 2012 CHINA has announced its new leadership line-up. It’s a hugely significant event for the world’s second largest economy – indeed. for the world more generally. The new (and old) faces revealed last week will run the country for the next ten years. And their programme is certainly ambitious. On his first day in office, China’s [...]