Publishing’s future hangs in the balance: This is no time to pick winners April 12, 2012 IN THE tradition of digital success leading to massive antitrust lawsuits, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) this week filed a suit against Apple and five publishers for allegedly conspiring to keep ebook prices artificially high. Apple’s epublishing rival Amazon rubbed salt on the wound by promptly cutting its Kindle ebook prices even further. But [...]
The pain in Spain has put its banks back on the rack April 12, 2012 WITH a sense of inevitability the spotlight has landed on Spain. Though the headlines proclaimed that the Eurozone crisis has returned with a vengeance, the truth is it never left. Spain is not Greece, but, many of the market fears surrounding the economy are still both well-founded and expected. There are three major causes of [...]
Should George Osborne reverse the cap on income tax relief for charitable donations? April 12, 2012 YES Sir Stuart Etherington This proposal needs an urgent rethink before it does irreversible damage. Major donors face at least six months of confusion and charities are already losing gifts as a result. High-level donations form a significant proportion of voluntary income, and framing tax relief on donations to charity as a tax avoidance measure [...]
RAPID RESPONSES April 12, 2012 Kamall on Barnier [Re: I value the City: EU commissioner responds to criticisms, yesterday] Michel Barnier’s reply falls short on specifics and won’t reassure London hedge funds and private equity houses. Barnier holds hundreds of meetings with the industry, but listening to what is said at them is another matter. The industry doesn’t have faith [...]
I value the City: EU commissioner responds to criticisms by City A.M. April 11, 2012 I WOULD like to respond to Syed Kamall’s article in City A.M. last Tuesday on the European Commission’s draft measures to implement the EU directive on alternative investment fund managers (AIFMD) [The EC is now run by City-sceptics: An insider’s view]. The issue at stake is a European directive on alternative investment funds, adopted by [...]
Republican nominee seeks running mate: Should be loyal and able to swing April 11, 2012 LYNDON Johnson claimed it “was the worst thing that ever happened to me.” John Nance Garner said it wasn’t “worth a bucket of warm spit.” John Adams lamented it to be the “most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” The vice presidency has not always endeared itself to [...]
Have sentences for rioters been proportionate? April 11, 2012 YES Richard Harrington Last summer’s riots were unprecedented in scale, disorder and violence. The cause was mindless, reckless vandalism and the effect must be serious, effective sentencing. Gordon Thompson, sentenced yesterday, committed a crime that destroyed the livelihood of a longstanding company and endangered lives. As a standalone crime this merits a long custodial sentence [...]
RAPID RESPONSES April 11, 2012 Flight risk [Re: The economics of the airline industry are sheer hell, yesterday] I’m surprised David Crow has chosen to lump me in with Vijay Malya (the Indian entrepreneur behind Kingfisher Airlines) in his otherwise well observed critique of the modern airline industry. As the largest shareholder in easyJet I have, since 2008, been vocal [...]
Look behind the headlines for the real story on UK trade diplomacy April 10, 2012 ALMOST two years ago, David Cameron used his first tour of the United States to announce a major change in foreign policy. He outlined plans to refocus British diplomacy on promoting UK businesses abroad – with diplomats told to use “every opportunity” to win orders for domestic firms. Many commentators may view the Prime Minister’s [...]
Maximising tax revenue is good for politicians – but not the rest of us April 10, 2012 HIGH taxes encourage black markets. For example, ever increasing “sin taxes” mean that a large portion of the cigarettes and alcohol consumed in Britain is now bought in the black market, where these taxes need not be paid. The Taxpayers’ Alliance complains that this costs the government £7bn a year in lost tax revenues. Implicit [...]