Customers have no incentive to punish mis-selling banks January 31, 2013 BANKS are embroiled in another “mis-selling” scandal, but we can be sure that customer behaviour won’t be affected. Few people will switch bank as a result. Regulation means we are indifferent to how our banks behave. Why? Because we know banks will always be fined for their faults, and we know we’ll always be compensated. [...]
OFT blames tax for high petrol prices in the UK January 30, 2013 HIGH fuel prices in the UK are due to high duty and VAT, not a lack of competition, competition authorities concluded yesterday. There is no need for a full inquiry into UK petrol pricing, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said yesterday, because there is no persuasive evidence of anti-competitive behaviour in fuel markets. In [...]
Airport owners can’t control the weather… or airlines January 20, 2013 IT WAS a terrible week to announce the sale of an airport. Snow has sent air travel into meltdown, in spite of airports’ best efforts to stock up on pricey new ploughs and grit, while safety fears over Boeing’s new Dreamliner planes are playing havoc with the industry’s public image. For Stansted, however, any buyer [...]
The protectionist beast is back in a subtly fresh form January 20, 2013 IT’S a classic: during every recession, protectionism resurfaces. After four years of economic turmoil, unemployment is critical in the US (7.7 per cent) and Europe (11.7 per cent). Obviously, governments want to protect national companies and jobs, especially if they want to be re-elected. But if protectionism is back, it’s also more subtle. Gone are [...]
Tesco horse meat mustn’t shake our faith in cheap food January 17, 2013 TAINTED food scandals are as old as the hills. In 1858, more than 200 were poisoned when a Bradford confectioner, known as Humbug Billy, accidentally mixed arsenic into his peppermint lozenges. More recently, mad cow disease led to the slaughter of 4.4m cattle. Poor quality has also never respected rank. Back in 1135, King Henry [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 15, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Spain asks Germany to boost growth Mariano Rajoy has called on Germany and other creditor countries in the Eurozone to do more to stimulate growth, arguing that a switch to a more expansionary policy would boost economic recovery across the single currency area. “I think that in this moment, when there is a [...]
The future of oil: It’s change or be changed for the largest corporates January 13, 2013 PRESSURES are building on the world’s largest quoted oil firms. Environmental disasters and the economic downturn have taken their toll, but more profound trends are undermining traditional business models in the industry. And it won’t be enough to tinker around the edges. The response must be as radical as that that followed the oil company [...]
Rank hopes to cut its losses on Blue Square January 10, 2013 THE LOSSMAKING online sports bookie, Blue Square, has been put on the market by its owner, casino operator Rank. Rank, which bought Blue Square in 2003, said yesterday it would “undertake a review” of the business. Blue Square survived a similar review in 2009 but Rank is understood to be pursuing a sale this time, [...]
Rapid responses January 8, 2013 Planning inflation [Re: Daft planning rules are pushing up the price of food in shops, yesterday] While it is always good for an article about planning policy to focus on commercial property rather than housing, and while the academics cited may have delivered interesting papers, let’s not use this work to justify more fiddling with [...]
Daft planning rules are pushing up the price of food in shops January 8, 2013 IF you travelled abroad over Christmas, you will have noticed that goods in shops are often cheaper than in the UK. A uSwitch survey cited by the Institute of Economic Affairs shows that a food basket costs roughly a fifth more in the UK than it does in Germany, France and the Netherlands. Once again, [...]