Regime defectors are the best hope for peace in Syria July 9, 2012 THE ONGOING conflict in Syria is an acute counterweight to the optimism unleashed by the Arab Spring. Gloomy forecasts of this protracted conflict, not to mention all too frequent pictures of brutally massacred civilians, are creating an ever-growing scrapbook of the chaotic descent of the Syrian nation into endless civil war. Syria’s President Bashar al [...]
Should MPs vote in favour of the proposed reforms to the House of Lords later today? July 9, 2012 YES Peter Facey The House of Lords Reform Bill is a major step forward for democracy, but it’s clear the government needs to be more flexible if it is going to get it through the Commons. Unlock Democracy has proposed several changes. In our view the government needs to review its policy of 15-year non-renewable [...]
RAPID RESPONSES July 9, 2012 Banking on choice [Re: Why it must be made much easier to switch bank accounts, yesterday] It should certainly be made easier for customers to change bank accounts. But such a policy will only be worthwhile if it’s combined with measures that encourage banks to differentiate their offering. Transparent pricing structures would be a good [...]
MF Global’s bankruptcy highlights perilous faults in UK finance rules July 8, 2012 LESSONS have been learned” is today’s platitude of choice. It was used to account for the failings that led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers – an event that was meant to change everything. So it was with disbelief that I heard from a group of MF Global clients. MF Global was a derivatives broker [...]
Hollande is at risk of slaying France’s golden tax geese July 8, 2012 PRESIDENT François Hollande is only just settling into the Elysée, but ripples of unrest towards his tax policies are already being felt, both in France and further afield. The headline figure is the proposed 75 per cent rate of income tax, which will apply to income of over €1m (£793,000) a year. This will be [...]
Trust in the City is central to its ability to create jobs and foster growth July 8, 2012 OUR SUCCESS as a global financial centre depends on trust. Recent events have shaken that trust, and we must restore it. It is the responsibility of us all to make the case for the importance of the City to both the British economy and to other economies abroad, both now and in the future. It [...]
Have recent events shown that relationships between banks and regulators are too close? July 8, 2012 YES Steven Woolfe “Without banking Britain is bust,” a taxi driver recently told me. He is right. A competitive, free, financial market is vital to our country’s well-being. Any regulation imposed should be applied equally to all market participants. What the Libor scandal has shown is that the too big to fail principle has created [...]
RAPID responses July 8, 2012 Cheapened money [Re: Why QE is not the answer to Britain’s economic problems, Friday] Quantitative easing is a disaster. Milton Friedman wouldn’t have supported this further injection if he were still alive, and he’d be right – as he was about most things. He predicted the euro would have about a 10 year lifespan. It [...]
Questions the Treasury Committee should ask Paul Tucker on Monday July 5, 2012 IT WILL be on strictly surname-terms that Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank of England, faces his interrogators on the Treasury Committee on Monday. Tucker, unlike Bob Diamond, has plenty of experience of dealing with the Committee’s MPs and knows when to defer to them. But he cannot expect an easy ride – there [...]
The fall of Bob Diamond: How tragedy can stalk even the most powerful July 5, 2012 FOR God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground, and tell sad stories of the death of kings.” Anyone who caught the BBC’s dramatisation of William Shakespeare’s Richard II at the weekend will have seen not only one of the City’s historic buildings featuring prominently – St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield – but also [...]