Deficit spending didn’t end the Great Depression and it won’t save us now June 26, 2012 JOHN Maynard Keynes is on many minds at the moment. Lots of talking heads are prescribing a dose of Keynesian medicine: more spending and borrowing. However, Keynes didn’t get us out of the Great Depression and he should be ignored today. The 1930s and the Great Depression are often cited as an exemplar. Some assert [...]
Get ready for an Olympic summer of cyber attacks June 26, 2012 THE headline-grabbing words of warning from MI5 chief, Jonathan Evans, on Monday night dished up a timely reminder that the City could be in for a nervous summer. The comments, detailing the levels of cyber attacks on UK industry, have raised many eyebrows. It was the first speech from Evans in more than two years [...]
Is Lord Oakeshott right that RBS should be split up into a retail and investment bank? June 26, 2012 YES Richard Lloyd The RBS failure has highlighted just how critical basic banking services are to consumers and small businesses. It is crucial that high street banking is protected from instability. Our Future of Banking campaign recommended that essential retail banking services should be ring-fenced to help protect depositors from risk-taking elsewhere within the bank. [...]
RAPID responses June 26, 2012 UK tennis failures [Re: Tennis is booming financially – but the cash is wasted, yesterday] It’s good to read someone is tracking the failures of British tennis. My eight year old son has been playing for three years and support for young players is shockingly inadequate. Most of those parading as coaches add little to [...]
Extreme tech: Atos sees Olympics exposure as a real-time showcase June 26, 2012 COUNTDOWN TO THE LONDON2012 OLYMPIC GAMES 30 DAYS TO GO Q What’s your brand’s primary reason for being involved with the Games? A We’ve been involved since Barcelona in 1992. We became a worldwide IT partner in 2001, and we’re committed through to Rio in 2016. There’s two reasons why it works. I think the [...]
The surprising power of the slow June 26, 2012 Fuel-efficient, inexpensive, able to seat four and easy to park was British Motor Corporation’s original brief to designer Alec Issigonis for its Austin Design Office Project 15 back in 1957. Out of the Suez Crisis, ADO 15 became the original BMC Mini and carmakers have rarely managed to produce a car that’s as well-packaged since. [...]
CAR TALK June 26, 2012 Aston’s new Vanquish Aston Martin has revealed its new Vanquish model, which will replace the DBS. Available as a 2+2 or 2+0, the super GT has an upgraded 565bhp 6.0-litre V12 engine and is capable of 0-62mph in 4.1 seconds and 183mph. Styling cues including its elegant waist, elongated side strakes and LED rear lights [...]
RBS computer woes could last weeks June 26, 2012 RBS could be dealing with the effects of the latest backlog of customers’ transactions for several weeks, the Financial Ombudsman Service said after it received around 500 calls from irate RBS customers. Customers’ transactions from RBS, NatWest and Ireland’s Ulster Bank have been delayed because of a software update failure last week. According to RBS, [...]
Government scraps fuel duty rise June 26, 2012 Chancellor George Osborne sai he would freeze a planned rise in fuel duty this year to help reduce costs for businesses and families. “We will now stop any rise in fuel duty this August and freeze it for the rest of the year,” Osborne told parliament. Fuel duty was due to rise by three pence [...]
King says UK outlook weaker June 26, 2012 The outlook for Britain’s economy has worsened over the past few weeks due to turmoil in the euro zone, Bank of England governor Mervyn King said. “In the last six weeks… I am very struck by how much has changed since we produced our May Inflation Report,” King told parliament’s Treasury Committee. “I am pessimistic [...]
