A third runway at Heathrow isn’t enough. Let’s allow our regional airports to take off March 12, 2012 A WORLD-CLASS city deserves world-class aviation links. Without them, businesses and jobs will drift away. With its crowded airports, limited long-haul options and unreliable air services, London faces exactly this threat. Something needs to be done. For some, the answer is “Britain needs a bigger hub airport”. This ideology seeks to conflate concern about Britain’s [...]
Chief executives earn trust with honest answers March 12, 2012 WHEN Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF, recently gave an interview, he knew that trust in energy companies was at an all-time low. The interview was the perfect opportunity to start rebuilding it. So he mentioned “trust” – 61 times in fact – and little else. Unsurprisingly he was pilloried. EDF will wrongly blame [...]
Doing nothing is not a realistic policy option March 12, 2012 I AM a rare thing in UK academia – an Austrian school economist. Few understand what that really means. If you know the term, you may wonder why my columns aren’t shorter, since many caricature the Austrian economic position as an unbending “do nothing”. But this is misleading. For example, Austrian school economists tend to [...]
RAPID RESPONSES March 12, 2012 Wrong diagnosis [Re: Economy is being knocked off course, yesterday] Both the Treasury and the Bank of England continue to fret about the dangers of deflation. I just wish that the British economy had such a problem – the result of quantitative easing and very low interest rates has been the debasement of our currency. [...]
Should NATO negotiate with the Taliban unconditionally? March 11, 2012 YES JOHN BARON MP THE shocking loss of six of our soldiers in one incident reminds us all once again of the heavy sacrifice being made by our troops. As an ex-soldier, I know we can be proud of their service. However, the incident confirms the recently leaked NATO report which claims the Taliban insurgency [...]
China will avert crisis despite its slowing growth March 11, 2012 PREMIER Wen Jiabao’s speech to the National People’s Congress has caused a wobble in Chinese equities and reduced the optimism that was building on China. His forecast for 7.5 per cent GDP growth in 2012 is below what some international agencies were expecting. The biggest surprise about Wen’s forecast is that it is also a [...]
Resilient London stays at the top by adapting March 11, 2012 MIPIM is an acronym which I suspect not many people, outside of the property industry, have come across. It is a real estate show for professionals held every year in Cannes, France. This year over 19,000 attended over 4 days to talk about property. Although the location may suggest this is just another junket it [...]
RAPID RESPONSES March 11, 2012 Wilful ignorance [Re: Britain’s war on the aspirational classes, Tuesday] I agree with you about taxes. But I recall, in the run-up to the 2010 general election, listening to a radio show where callers claimed that the UK was a low-tax economy, thinking this was a bad thing. More recently we have seen support for [...]
Disaster stalks triumph for Greece as debt deal leaves Eurozone taxpayers at risk March 8, 2012 THE GREEK private sector involvement (PSI) plan, the process under which banks and other bondholders will take losses, last night claimed sufficient take-up for collective action clauses (CAC) to be triggered, which would force all holders of Greek law bonds into the restructuring plan. If CACs are triggered this morning, where does this leave Greece? [...]
A Parliamentary blueprint to end banking hazards March 8, 2012 STEVE Baker MP has proposed a private member’s bill, the Financial Institutions (Reform) Bill, calling for radical reforms to the banking system and an end to state involvement in banking. Baker is co-founder of the Cobden Centre, a free-market institute advocating the restoration of sound banking and honest money, and is the Conservative MP for [...]