Letters to the Editor – 04/04 – Royal Mail IPO, Soccer geography, Best of Twitter
Royal Mail IPO
[Re: Pricing Royal Mail: Welcome to the free market, Wednesday]
Simon Walker is entitled to his view that the Royal Mail pricing needed to be cautious, although there could have been few who looked at the valuation at the time and did not spot that money was being given away. In such circumstances, therefore, it was important that shares were allocated fairly. For the retail offer, that seems to have been achieved. For the institutional offer, however, it was a manifest failure; over-distributing to a few favourites, who (surprise, surprise) seem to have taken their profits and moved on.
Richard Peirson
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Soccer geography
[Re: What economics tells us about the next Premier League champion, Wednesday]
Paul Ormerod’s article about the dominance of football teams from London and Lancashire might have mentioned another trend – the shift of football from the North of England to the South in the past 30 years. Many Northern clubs have lost their league places, including Gateshead, Grimsby Town, Lincoln City, and Southport, replaced almost exclusively by Southern clubs like Crawley Town, Gillingham, Wycombe Wanderers and Yeovil Town. There must be some message concerning the UK economy which Ormerod can clarify.
David B Rippon
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BEST OF TWITTER
Very bearish from Draghi on Eurozone economy. Says cyclical downturn may become structural.
@minefornothing
MEPs “granted discharge” to EU 2012 Budget despite €6.2bn hole and no clean bill of health in 19 years.
@pietercleppe
ECB focus on core inflation is policy goalposts being shifted. Just ike every other forward guidance plan.
@World_First
Some Russians think that within months it’ll be back to business-as-usual with the West. Don’t bet on it.
@DmitriTrenin