No recessions for 80 years: The fanciful world of High Speed Rail 2’s business case January 9, 2012 AFTER the well-flagged decision this afternoon to press ahead with the first stage of the High Speed 2 rail project (HS2), the City and business will be pressed to “contribute” to the strong business case. An aspect that MPs are singularly ill-equipped to consider, but that the City will focus on, is the way the [...]
MPs say we need less drink – they must be wasted January 9, 2012 BRITAIN’S middle classes have long been obsessed with what the other, poorer, half eats and drinks. Yesterday, MPs on the science committee called on the government to issue new guidance on alcohol consumption, recommending that people have at least two alcohol-free days a week. It’s a bit rich for politicians, who are often found worse-for-wear [...]
We’re the 100 per cent because we all pay tax January 9, 2012 DEBATES about tax can be pretty taxing – as two recent examples of both sides of the debate embellishing the facts to create outrage out of nothing clearly show. In a recent report, Action Aid found that 98 per cent of FTSE 100 companies had subsidiaries that operated within a tax haven. There are problems [...]
RAPID RESPONSES January 9, 2012 Crippled by costs I’m glad to see that Ernst and Young has now revealed the true cost that an EU financial transaction tax (FTT) would impose on the whole of the European Union and, in particular, the City of London [Tobin Tax could cost EU billions, Monday]. David Cameron would certainly be right to veto [...]
To revive a weak economy small firms must be able to become tomorrow’s giants January 8, 2012 AT THE dawn of a New Year, one bright spot across the gloom of the economic horizon remains Britain’s army of entrepreneurs – those remarkable men and women who have the drive and passion to launch and run their own business. For it is these often family-owned ventures – the small and medium enterprises (SME) [...]
Chinese dragons fly into the UK’s mobile warzone January 8, 2012 ASK someone to name the first smartphone that comes into their head and most people will say “iPhone”. Some might name a Samsung or even an HTC. Not many will mention Huawei or ZTE. But 2012 could be the year of the dragon, with the Chinese giants preparing to blitz the UK with a massive [...]
Enjoy 2012’s fireworks: It is London’s big year January 8, 2012 THE prevailing mood across the City and the UK as we enter 2012 seems to be one of caution rather than celebration. This is understandable given the current economic environment. If recent forecasts are anything to go by we are faced with a year of slow growth combined with relatively high unemployment and inflation. And [...]
RAPID RESPONSES January 8, 2012 J.K., not Rowling Chris Hulme should read J.K. Galbraith [True owners bear risks and rewards, last Thursday]. For over thirty years he argued that corporations are run by senior executives mainly for their own benefit and not for that of shareholders. Like Hulme, I hope the Kay report reveals how unnecessary share trading is destroying [...]
Margaret Thatcher’s legacy is that no-one tries to scrap what the Iron Lady achieved January 5, 2012 THIS isn’t a review of The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher and on general release in cinemas this week [For this, see p. 18]. I’m sure it’s a fine film and I’ll see it once I can scrape together the money from my dwindling pension for a pair of tickets and some [...]
Regulation can’t wipe out the risk of another Enron January 5, 2012 MOST of us don’t need reminding about the 2001 accounting fraud that became known as the Enron scandal – $11bn of value wiped out in what was at the time the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy ever – and which also brought down Arthur Andersen. On 17 December last year, Enron’s chief financial officer Andrew Fastow [...]