There are still many lessons to learn from the financial crisis April 13, 2013 MANY of us still remember vividly the events of 19 March 2008, when HBOS’s share price suddenly collapsed early in the morning, triggering intense interest in newsrooms and trading floors, and prompting the bank and the authorities to issue almost unprecedented denials. Laughably, HBOS claimed that it had “an exceptionally strong balance sheet.” The episode [...]
Thatcher saved UK from slow decline April 12, 2013 When Margaret Thatcher won the 1979 election, Britain was a country on its knees, a discredited, impoverished post-imperial nation in seemingly terminal decline, with ruthless union bosses imposing their will on a gutless establishment, cripplingly high inflation, a tax regime that forbade entrepreneurship and ambition, and an antiquated class system still in full sway. Dozens [...]
Facts are vital to the debate on welfare and banking reforms April 9, 2013 HYSTERIA never makes for good law, in financial services, welfare or any other area. But while there have been many voices rightly pointing this out in recent days, as the government introduces a series of changes to the welfare state, it is a shame that so few appealed for calm during the height of banker-bashing. [...]
Britain isn’t classless but it’s time we all stopped worrying about it April 9, 2013 WHAT does a classless society look like? Is George Osborne its emblem – heir to a seventeenth baronetcy, but willing to drop his crystalline intonation to find common ground with a bunch of Morrison’s shelf stackers? Or is it only found in particular places? Perhaps class first died in London’s Docklands, gutted by war and [...]
Political meddling into RBS will hurt the taxpayer April 8, 2013 82 per cent state owned RBS is coming under continued assault from chancellor George Osborne. Our banking reporter Tim Wallace: Good performance in RBS’ markets unit ( investment bank) boosted operating profits. Yet it is cutting the unit under pressure from Osborne. — Tim Wallace (@Tim_Wallace) February 28, 2013 Osborne’s political ambitions are clashing with [...]
Bitcoin frenzy sends prices to all time highs April 7, 2013 BITCOIN, the virtual currency with no bank or government backing it, yesterday reached a record value, peaking at a price of $147 (£97) before falling back on security fears. This put the total value of the Bitcoins in circulation at more than $1.6bn, as people looked to put their money into a perceived haven free [...]
Corporate cash piles won’t be spent in Britain any time soon April 7, 2013 WE all know that companies are hoarding cash. But contrary to the received wisdom on the matter, that doesn’t mean that they will start to spend the money as soon as their animal spirits recover. The cash is being stashed for a variety of reasons, many of them structural. There are ways of getting companies [...]
Monkeys trump fund managers April 6, 2013 EVEN a monkey picking investments at random could beat funds tracking the US stock market, according to research published yesterday. Academics at Cass Business School used a computer to simulate the stock-picking abilities of a monkey and pitted these random choices against a traditional market capitalisation weighted index to discover that the chimp won every [...]
We need new digital currencies to shake up the status quo April 6, 2013 THERE is much to like about what Bitcoin stands for: free-market money, safe from the grabbing hands of a state that cannot wait to debase, devalue and decimate whatever currency it gets its hands on, destroying hard-working savers. For years now, techies of a libertarian bent have been doing their best to devise a workable [...]
Permira nets a €250m Norwegian fish vaccine deal April 5, 2013 PERMIRA, the London-based owner of Birds Eye Fish Fingers, has snapped up Norwegian fish vaccine maker Pharmaq for €250m (£210.9m). Permira will buy the 28-year-old company, which makes aquatic vaccines for fisheries in Norway, Chile and the UK, from Nordic fund managers Orkla and Kverva, who acquired a majority stake in the firm in 2008. [...]
