America’s solar scandal is a warning: Bankrupt climate policies boost tax, not jobs October 11, 2011 IN SEPTEMBER 2009, the United States Department of Energy gave a $530m (£339m) loan guarantee to the solar company Solyndra. President Barack Obama said at the plant: “It’s here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way, towards a brighter and more prosperous future.” In September 2011, the company collapsed, the jobs which the Vice [...]
Cameron’s own cabinet doesn’t meet his target October 11, 2011 DAVID Cameron has written personally to the chairmen of many of our largest companies, admonishing those who have failed to set out plans for how they will appoint female directors to a quarter of all board seats by 2015. He will be hosting a meeting in Downing Street this evening with Lord Davies to trumpet [...]
Subsidising the fat is no way to slim the UK October 11, 2011 DAVID Cameron is worried about how much fat people are costing his government. “Look at America, how bad things have got there” he implored a Five News reporter only last week. “What happens if we don’t do anything? Yes, that should be a wake-up call.” What he thinks we should do – or, at least, [...]
RAPID RESPONSES October 11, 2011 Losses for lenders Andrew Lilico’s plan for passing bank losses to lenders, as laid out in The Forum yesterday [This economist believes we shouldn’t bail out the banks: Let their lenders pay instead], makes complete sense and lots of people would agree. But where can we vote for this, where can we demonstrate, where can [...]
This economist believes we shouldn’t bail out the banks: Let their lenders pay instead October 10, 2011 OVER the weekend, the nationalisation of Dexia Belgium was announced, with other parts of Dexia being broken up. On Monday, the nationalisations of a Greek bank (Proton) and a Danish bank (Max) followed. Full-blown Greek default is now imminent, the US and Eurozone economies appear to be in a soft patch, if not yet a [...]
Hong Kong has a budget surplus – the UK could too October 10, 2011 WHEN Vince Cable arrived too late to hear Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang speak at a special dinner in London three weeks ago, some suggested he was saving face. Indeed, where would Cable have looked while Tsang was expounding on Hong Kong’s HK$71.3bn (£5.84bn) budget surplus? How does it feel to be the representative [...]
Watch what you wish for from the QE genie October 10, 2011 I CRITICISED quantitative easing (QE) early last year on the grounds that “the conditions under which QE would be rehabilitated aren’t clear”. With the start of another round of QE in the UK this week, my fears are being realised. I can understand the objectives behind QE – that central banks have a responsibility to [...]
RAPID RESPONSES October 10, 2011 How to cut the EU The EU has an opportunity to wrong foot its detractors with its next seven-year budget, which is starting to be negotiated. The signs, however, are not good. The European Commission and Parliament have proposed increases for 2012, of 4.9 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively. The debate needs to [...]
All three parties are failing UK business: Digby Jones lays out his policy challenge October 9, 2011 NOW that all the nonsense of party conference season is over, as Westminster heads back to work and the rest of us continue to try and earn an honest living, what did we hear from the mouths of our political masters? Did any of the three main parties show the UK business community that they [...]
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you… October 9, 2011 WHAT constitutes a tough call? It’s got nothing to do with the scale of a decision – it can be easy enough to decide to buy or sell a company. Nor has it much to do with immediate circumstances – tough calls can crop up in good times as well as bad. No. In my [...]