The EU’s unstoppable ambition is stirring up trouble for the future October 9, 2012 IN EUROPEAN cinemas a short video called Hidden Treasures of Europe was broadcast last year. Produced by the European Commission, it starts with synthesizer chords reminiscent of Bach. We see a mountain lake and hear church bells. The question “Sweden?” appears, followed by the answer “Montenegro”. Two girls watch their mobile phones. The question “France?” [...]
Rapid Responses October 8, 2012 Public services [Re: Lessons to be learnt from government’s rail franchise fiasco, Thursday] Only the free market provides the incentives necessary to create an efficient operation. It is a public servant’s incentive to create complex organisations that voters can’t always understand and thus the argument will remain better management rather than better incentives. Tobias Wahl There [...]
Generation E September 10, 2012 A NEW generation of entrepreneurs will lift the UK out of its devastating economic recession, according to a report out this morning by a leading educational society. The proportion of surveyed twenty-somethings who want to start their own business rocketed from 17 per cent in 1998 to 29 per cent in 2010, the research shows. [...]
To nest or invest is the crucial decision buyers must make September 9, 2012 FOR most, buying a property is likely to be the most expensive purchase that they will ever make. As such, one of the key decisions that buyers face is where to buy their property. The average price of a London property currently stands at £302,000, according to Nationwide. But the performance of house prices have [...]
ECB action prospects underpin Italian bond auction August 30, 2012 A successful Italian bond auction on Thursday pointed to growing confidence among investors that the European Central Bank (ECB) will live up to its words and take measures to change the course of the currency bloc’s debt crisis. In Beijing, German Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared to temper China’s fears about the damage the crisis could [...]
Commuters face fare hike as taxpayer subsidy is cut August 14, 2012 COMMUTERS are set to come in for a hammering from January next year, when rail companies are next allowed to raise fares. Individual fares will be lifted by up to 11.2 per cent, as part of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) plan to shift costs from the Exchequer to the passenger. The cap on regulated [...]
FTSE retreats from 3-month high as ECB’s failure to act disappoints August 2, 2012 BRITAIN’S leading FTSE share index fell yesterday, retreating from a three-month high after the European Central Bank (ECB) failed to deliver widely expected stimulus measures to help tackle the Eurozone debt crisis. ECB president Mario Draghi said the bank would draw up a mechanism in coming weeks to make outright debt purchases to stabilise peripheral [...]
Our decisive central bank has been neutered by regulatory confusion July 30, 2012 THE TREASURY Select Committee has rightly questioned the arbitrary powers of regulators, particularly the Bank of England, over the boards and senior executives of private firms in the financial sector. Despite the mistakes of our cartelised banks, it’s unwise to assume that regulators can run businesses better than boards. Moreover, trends over the last 12 [...]
RAPID RESPONSES July 25, 2012 Green fiasco [Re: UK energy policies are sabotaging industry’s global competitiveness, Tuesday] Tony Lodge gets right to the core of why we can’t climb out of recession. The Climate Change Act, passed as the economy tipped off a cliff, stands as one of the greatest acts of stupidity in living memory. Britain won’t grow if it’s [...]
RAPID responses July 15, 2012 Health solutions [Re: Demographic timebomb will force government to downsize, Friday] There are plenty of other healthcare models to explore to avoid the incipient funding crisis. One is the Singapore model of health savings accounts, which provides direct subsidies to the less well-off and catastrophe insurance to pay for huge one-off costs. Another is the [...]