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 [...]
A European Tobin tax won’t just hit London October 9, 2011 FOLLOWING the events of the past few months, there has never been a more important time for London’s financial services industry to build close links with Brussels. That is why I will be travelling to the City of London Brussels Office’s annual reception tomorrow and why, once there, I – along with the executive director [...]
RAPID RESPONSES October 9, 2011 Missing numbers I am sure the MPC appreciates the theory of the velocity of money and the effect increasing the money supply will have. If I can, then I am sure Mervyn King does. Which begs the question, why did they launch more QE, even sooner than expected? I work in the property sector and [...]
In a chaotic world, business needs competent generals. A military expert weighs in October 6, 2011 VINCE Cable is not known for his military commentary. So when he recently declared that the economy more closely resembled warfare than any other human condition, he caught the headlines; I believe he also got it dead right. Why are we surprised by the analogy? Business and warfare are fundamentally forms of adversarial engagement, where [...]
The great green roadblock in the path of recovery October 6, 2011 DAVID Cameron wants the coalition to be the “greenest government ever”. But it is doubtful this aim is compatible with strong growth and economic recovery. New Labour’s climate change targets were very ambitious but the coalition has now gone even further. The government has committed to targets that imply in just twenty years’ time nearly [...]
Decoding the protests occupying Wall Street October 6, 2011 AMERICA’S left may finally have found its answer to the Tea Party. Over the last four weeks, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement has gone from a local curiosity to a national phenomenon, with copycat protests in several cities across the US, including Washington DC. In a sure sign that it is being taken more [...]
RAPID RESPONSES October 6, 2011 Inflexible traders As your Q&A on Monday said, the London transport system is going to struggle to cope during the Olympics and most businesses are going to look at ways for employees to work remotely. But City traders are one of those increasingly rare professional groups whose remote working practices are restricted. One of the [...]
Estonia’s lesson for Britain: Cut now and cut hard if you don’t want worse pain later October 5, 2011 WOULD you like to live in a country with a budget surplus, a 21 per cent flat tax rate, that grew at an annual rate of 8.4 per cent in the last quarter led by manufacturing, has almost no government debt and is planning to spend 20 per cent of its budget on capital spending? [...]
A Prime Minister on auto-cue blind to the big picture October 5, 2011 THE joke doing the rounds in the Manchester conference hall yesterday was this: is David Cameron following Plan C or Plan D? The wags weren’t referring to the government’s deficit reduction strategy, but rather the fact that the Prime Minister was forced to rewrite his speech after early extracts, released to the press on Tuesday [...]