High-frequency trading is not the devil behind every market mishap July 15, 2012 TO SAY that high-frequency trading (HFT) is blamed for every big financial mishap is to exaggerate – but only slightly. Regardless of the hard evidence from academics, exchanges and regulators about the positive impact of HFT, the critics continue to dominate headlines. It’s not hard to see why. Innovation in any industry has always attracted [...]
Shareholders can find a potent ally in activist funds July 15, 2012 THE so-called shareholder spring – in which shareholders have been revolting against the pay of chief executives of major corporations like Barclays, Aviva, and William Hill – is gaining momentum. And activist hedge funds, which pressure public companies to make changes to improve a company’s share price, will increasingly drive this phenomenon. Many regard hedge [...]
The whole City must work to rebuild the trust destroyed by a rotten few July 15, 2012 AFTER weeks of problems in the banking sector making front pages, it’s time we start taking steps to move business back to where it belongs: the business sections of our papers (though that would, of course, be hard in the case of this newspaper). Reputation matters and it’s the driving force behind any good business. [...]
After China’s growth slowed to 7.6 per cent last quarter, should we remain optimistic? July 15, 2012 YES Duncan Innes-Ker China’s economy slowed in the last six months but, in contrast to the downturn of 2008, the local jobs market has held up well. It’s hard to be that worried about a country in which the average city-dweller saw their income rise 13.3 per cent between the first half of this year [...]
RAPID responses July 15, 2012 Health solutions [Re: Demographic timebomb will force government to downsize, Friday] There are plenty of other healthcare models to explore to avoid the incipient funding crisis. One is the Singapore model of health savings accounts, which provides direct subsidies to the less well-off and catastrophe insurance to pay for huge one-off costs. Another is the [...]
You won’t get better banks if you split one bad regulator into three July 12, 2012 GOOD riddance to the Financial Services Authority (FSA). This inflated docklands quango was supposed to regulate the City, but its 4,000 staff were too busy ticking boxes to see the ticking time-bomb of the banking collapse. Likewise, the FSA failed to take any interest in Libor rigging, despite warnings from City journalists and the Bank [...]
Philanthropy only works when big donors treat charity like investment July 12, 2012 THIS week’s announcement that British venture capitalist Michael Moritz has given £75m to Oxford University is a welcome reminder of the great contribution that many in the financial services industry continue to make to worthy causes, either in public or behind the scenes. Moritz’s gift will support scholarships for the poorest students. In so doing, [...]
Coalition can learn from Lords reform failures of Wilson July 12, 2012 THIS week’s massive backbench rebellion by 91 Conservative MPs was the largest Commons rebellion to have hit the coalition since 2010, the largest rebellion on Lords reform in the post-war era, and the largest rebellion at the second reading of a bill on any issue since 1945. But the most important vote was the one [...]
Is a third runway at Heathrow essential for ensuring the UK’s future economic growth? July 12, 2012 YES Simon Walker Day by day, the clamour for airport expansion in the UK is growing. Recent interventions by the likes of Sir Richard Branson, urging the Government to ditch their “farcical” outright refusal to consider a third runway at Heathrow, are just the latest in a long line of prominent and expert voices to [...]
RAPID RESPONSES July 12, 2012 Firm interference [Re: Supporters of capitalism must help expose blundering firms, yesterday] When you compare corporate wrong-doing with the malfeasance committed by governments, corporate culpability is much smaller than the government’s. Would banks or other financial institutions offer fraudulent schemes if governments did not encourage them to? The problem can be traced to a fundamental [...]