RAPID RESPONSES January 22, 2012 Informal channels Dionysios Demetis makes a good point [Tracking Money Laundering Matters, Wednesday] – very little terrorist funding goes through the conventional banking system. Most of the cross-border financing is via the hawala or informal money transfer system, especially to and from the Indian sub-continent. The UK authorities are well aware of this but do [...]
In defence of hedge funds: Institutional investors are giving a vote of confidence January 19, 2012 THE latest hedge fund performance figures show the average fund was down nearly 5 per cent in 2011, and have prompted some to say: “The hedge fund model is broken”. It is worth noting that global shares, according to the MSCI All-Country World Index, were down 9.4 per cent in 2011, but nobody is arguing [...]
Law firms jump the fences in a quest for capital January 19, 2012 EARLIER this week, law firm Irwin Mitchell hired Glyn Barker as its chairman designate. Barker, a 30-year veteran of PwC, built the accountancy giant’s private equity practice and was its vice chairman until the end of last month. In the corporate world, cross-hiring between industries is common – take Chris Grigg’s sideways jump from Barclays [...]
Populist politicians are not markets’ saviours January 19, 2012 WE WILL know we have progressed to a higher level of civilisation when a politician praises a course of action that does not give him more power. On that measure, David Cameron remains as vulgar as the rest of his colleagues. He said yesterday, “many people are questioning not just how and when we will [...]
RAPID RESPONSES January 19, 2012 Fed up of fairness Allister Heath writes that the coalition needs to tackle unemployment while Sara Parker reports that London is now an unemployment hotspot [It’s official: London is now a hotspot of unemployment – business must help tackle it, yesterday]. I own a number of small businesses and in the past year have been [...]
It’s official: London is now a hotspot of unemployment – business must help tackle it January 18, 2012 T HE latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that unemployment continues to be a major concern in our capital. The overall unemployment rate stands at an alarming 9.9 per cent, the third highest in the UK. These figures are shocking, especially as London is such an economically active and wealthy city, where [...]
Politicians are to blame if we have crony capitalists January 18, 2012 CAPITALISM has a problem. Increasingly it is viewed as a deeply unfair system favouring a small, privileged elite at the expense of everyone else. Our politicians have been quick to join the criticism. Last week David Cameron mooted granting extra powers to shareholders to restrain executive pay. Today he will give a speech on how [...]
To destroy the enemy don’t make it personal January 18, 2012 GOVERNOR Nelson Rockefeller knew that his 1964 campaign for the Republican nomination would be finished if he lost the California primary. He would throw everything at the state to prevent senator Barry Goldwater from not just winning the nomination, but also from capturing the heart and soul of his party. Rockefeller gave his campaign a [...]
RAPID RESPONSES January 18, 2012 J Lewis oversold I agree with Allister Heath on Nick Clegg’s vision of a “John Lewis” society. [Clegg’s Contradictions, Tuesday]. There is a horrible dollop of survivor bias in the discussion about employee ownership. People talk about John Lewis, but by only analysing firms that are still in existence (ignoring all those mutuals that have [...]
Tracking money laundering matters: But don’t cast too wide the webs of suspicion January 17, 2012 I WOULD like to introduce you to Alyssa Thomas, a 6-year old girl from Ohio. She was placed on the terror watch list, causing airport havoc whenever her family would fly. How does a 6-year old end up in the terrorist watch list? When her father was asked by news reporters “What could she possibly [...]