REVOLUTIONISING the runabout March 16, 2010 OFTEN it’s the least exciting cars that are the most surprising. Testing an eco model from the most traditionally conservative car segment – the Supermini or B segment – promises to be, if not dull, then certainly a pedestrian experience. Yet, in a difficult car market, the Supermini segment is where all of the action [...]
Don’t expect a return to the boom years November 11, 2009 OPTIMISM is back in fashion at the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street. It is always tricky to work out what the Bank of England is talking about in its Inflation Reports so I’m grateful to George Buckley, chief UK economist at Deutsche Bank, for his help in trying to decipher the relevant graphs. The Bank’s [...]
Firms still don’t have much spare cash September 9, 2009 MUCH nonsense will be written on quantitative easing (QE) over the next few days, regardless of what the Bank of England decides to do today. So it is worth taking a look at what Mervyn King’s massive purchases of gilts have actually achieved, apart from merely bailing out Gordon Brown. By the end of last [...]
UK set for square root-shaped recovery September 6, 2009 IT is almost official: we are out of recession. The economy is growing again, albeit at a snail’s pace, the equity and debt markets have bounced back, some firms are posting higher profits and there has been a mini-renaissance in City deal-making. All of which is great news but certainly not enough to uncork the [...]
Lessons for Britain from California’s crisis June 14, 2009 IT was not that long ago that David Cameron, the Tory leader, was holding up California as the economic model he most wanted to emulate. One of his closest aides, Steve Hilton, is based in Silicon Valley, where his wife works for Google; and the more radical Cameroons thought they had discovered the perfect cocktail [...]