After City A.M. exposed Ken Livingstone for using private healthcare, is he a hypocrite? April 19, 2012 YES Priti Patel Using private healthcare is just another example of how Ken Livingstone says one thing and does another. We already know that he dubbed tax avoiders as “rich bastards”, only for it to emerge that he had been funnelling his income through a company to avoid paying income tax. And while in City [...]
RAPID RESPONSES April 19, 2012 Gas warning [Re: There’s a real danger that fracking will cause a major boom, Wednesday] This article makes some assertions on the implications of shale gas extraction in the UK – first the conclusion that shale gas would be a blow to the renewable energy industry and second that shale is cheap and abundant. In [...]
Five reasons inflation needs to be stopped before the bubble bursts April 18, 2012 THE Treasury Select Committee hit the nail on the head yesterday, when it pointed out that savers and pensioners are suffering as a result of the Bank of England’s low interest rates and quantitative easing. Disappointingly, the Committee urged the government to compensate pensioners for their losses, rather than to attack the root cause: the [...]
Who is Mitt Romney? Obama’s bid to define his opponent risks backfiring April 18, 2012 AND so it begins – the presidential election in earnest. Welcome to the next seven months of frivolous finger pointing, robo-calls, and daily polls. “Even now we have pundits on cable news telling us about the importance of the polls,” remarked one Republican strategist. “They’re lying.” For President Barack Obama and former governor Mitt Romney, [...]
One small step for a business means a leap for growth April 18, 2012 IT IS encouraging that UK unemployment has registered its first fall since last spring. However, it is still at alarming levels, with long-term unemployment at its worst for 16 years, according to the Office for National Statistics. In these difficult times, it’s vital not to underestimate the power of small business. If a quarter of [...]
After President Kirchner’s nationalisation of part of YPF – is it safe to invest in Argentina? April 18, 2012 YES Sven Richter Argentina’s part-nationalisation of oil firm YPF has concerned investors, but the government only took shares from where it could make a case – a huge import bill for fuel and dividends leaving the country. The nationalisation has little to do with economics and everything to do with politics – to remain in [...]
RAPID RESPONSES April 18, 2012 Freedom in dispute [Re: UK is wrong to have turned its back on individual freedom, Tuesday] Individuals have rights, but those rights come with consequences. You have a right to smoke and drive booze and live off fast food. But if you then demand free treatment on the NHS, then the rest of us have [...]
It’s true: There’s a real danger that fracking will cause a major boom April 17, 2012 A REPORT commissioned by the government and released yesterday has given the green light to the extraction of shale gas. The report concludes that hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a technology that pumps water and chemicals underground to fracture shale formations in order to release trapped gas, is safe but requires tight regulation and seismic monitoring. The [...]
Luck-based pay makes decision making a lottery – it doesn’t improve it April 17, 2012 MY NEIGHBOUR Debbie buys Lotto tickets. At least, she pays for them. She deputises the job of going to the corner store and selecting the numbers to her ten-year-old son Wayne. Wayne receives a base wage of 50p for putting in the time and he can also earn a performance-related bonus. If he successfully returns [...]
New property tax rules will stamp on UK developers April 17, 2012 FEW readers of City A.M. may have lost sleep over the chancellor’s decision in the recent Budget to impose a 15 per cent stamp duty land tax (SDLT) on acquisitions of homes costing over £2m by “non-natural persons”. After all, why shouldn’t we clamp down on the purchase of residential properties through companies, collective investment [...]