A Bank of Britain is the best way to build a Big Society May 8, 2012 HARD economic times call for bold measures. With evidence that the UK is back in a technical recession, we propose the creation of a Bank of Britain. This would be a citizen-focused bank, designed to advance the Big Society. The government has already launched Big Society Capital, with capital mostly provided by the big four [...]
How will Francois Hollande’s victory in the French presidential election affect the City? May 8, 2012 WELL Syed Kamall His greatest enemy is finance and his strategy for defeating it is taxing it to death. Francois Hollande has made quite clear how he detests bankers. He has also been shouting loudly about his plans to introduce a 75 per cent tax rate on all income above €1m and a unilateral financial [...]
RAPID RESPONSES May 8, 2012 King ducks charges [Re: Was Mervyn King powerless to stop the financial crisis?, Friday] Mervyn King is no lame duck regulator, but his arguments are certainly lame. The King-led Monetary Policy Committee set interest rates that were far too low for far too long. One key turning point was in August 2005. The housing market [...]
Folly which crippled Greece will be repeated in socialist France May 7, 2012 HOLLANDE’S victory was the most predictable election contest I can remember. No poll in recent months ever suggested that Sarkozy was in front. I have been keeping an eye on a US betting website – Sarkozy never traded above a 40 per cent chance of winning, and that was before Christmas. He was doomed. Of [...]
Shareholders are on the money in scrutinising pay May 7, 2012 AS LITTLE as a decade ago, few City-watchers would have cared all that much about the April AGM deluge, but not any more. In rising markets, short-term investors and speculators could ignore the niceties of shareholder democracy and vote with their feet. Several crashes later and investor uncertainty is manifesting itself through the ballot box, [...]
Raise our low interest rates now or this ticking time bomb will explode May 7, 2012 DESPITE the UK slipping back into “official” recession, the Bank of England should begin to start raising interest rates. The policy rate it controls has been historically low for several years, and is significantly below where it would be if it were allowed to reflect demand and supply. Almost all commentators claim to accept that [...]
As Facebook prepares to float, is its $96bn estimated market value excessively high? May 7, 2012 YES Aaron Padgham Based on 2011 earnings, an IPO at $96bn (£59.4bn) would leave Facebook trading on a price-to-earnings multiple of 96 times. A simple comparison shows that this towers above the more established technology giants of Apple (41 times) and Google (33 times), making Facebook’s shares some of the most expensive to be traded [...]
RAPID responses May 7, 2012 King looks coy [Re: Mervyn King should have hiked rates to deflate the bubble, Thursday] Mervyn King does seem self-contradictory when he describes growth before 2008 as a bust without a boom. But much of the financial bubble was “offshore,” outside the direct control of central banks. Specifically, much London banking involved transactions in dollars, [...]
Sunday’s Greek elections are being ignored – but the tragedy plays on May 3, 2012 ON 6 May, Greece, like France, is voting. So what? This may be the reaction of many people. The Greek economy is under effective international control; the country does not need to try to go back to borrowing on international financial markets for over two years, and so on. That is the official script. And [...]
Everyone is building an app – but it’s not that easy to be like Facebook May 3, 2012 YOU know there’s a stock market bubble when the shoeshine boy starts giving you stock tips. In the same way, I can’t help but think there’s plenty of froth in digital right now, because everyone I know is building an app. As Facebook heads for its IPO on 18 May, which could value the company [...]